Mayor Brandon Johnson directed nearly $640 million toward migrant services from 2022 through 2024. This expenditure comes as Chicago Public Schools grapple with a $732 million budget deficit.
The $640 Million Migrant Allocation vs. a $732 Million School Deficit
Mayor Brandon Johnson allocated approximately $639.6 million in tax dollars to support illegal migrants over a two-year period, according to the report. this financial decision has sparked intense criticism from local figures, including pastor and activist Corey Brooks , who questioned why these funds were not redirected to stabilize the city's educational infrastructure. Brooks argued that prioritizing noncitizens over the city's own children is "morally wrong," particularly as the school systm faces severe budget shortfalls.
Publisher Steve Forbes echoed these concerns, suggesting that the spending reflects a choice of priorities by Chicago politicians.. Forbes noted that while the city found hundreds of millions for migrant aid, the public school system is seeing teachers laid off and special-needs students losing critical support. The dichotomy suggests a governance model where immediate humanitarian crises are funded at the expense of long-term civic stability.
A $10.11 Billion Budget Amidst 40.1% Chronic Absenteeism
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are struggling with systemic inefficiency even as they receive massive funding. As reported, the district approved a record $10.11 billion budget for 2026, despite a significant decline in the student population. Enrollment in Chicago Public Schools dropped to 325,000 in 2025, a decrease of more than 70,000 students over the last decade,with projections suggesting a further dip to 300,000 in the coming years.
The financial investment has not translated into academic success for Chicago's youth.. National Assessment of Educational Progress data shows that only 43 percent of students in third through eighth grade are proficient in reading, and a mere 27 percent are at grade level in math. Furthermore, the report highlights a crisis of engagement, noting that 40.1 percent of students were chronically absent in 2025, missing at least ten percent of the school year.
Daron Acemoglu and the H-1B Teacher Pipeline
The struggle within Chicago Public Schools is part of a wider national trend where immigration pressures intersect with educational decline. Many school districts across the United States have turned to H-1B visas to import teachers to fill gaps in the workforce. This reliance on foreign labor is viewed by some as a temporary fix for a deeper structural failure in the American K-12 system.
MIT economist Daron Acemoglu warns that the H-1B program removes the incentive for politicians to actually fix domestic education . According to the report, Acemoglu argues that the "educated elite" have essentially given up on educating Americans, believing they can simply import necessary skills—whether in nursing, medicine, or programming—rather than investing in the local pipeline.
What Specific Services Did the $639.6 Million Fund?
While the report cites the Chicago inspector general's office as the source for the $639.6 million figure , there remains a lack of granular detail regarding how these funds were distributed. It is unclear what percentage of the spending went toward temporary housing, legal services, or direct healthcare, and whether any of these funds were intended to be temporary emergency allocations rather than permanent budget shifts.
Additionally, the source relies heavily on the claims of activist Corey Brooks and the perspectives of critics like Steve Forbes. There is no recorded response from Mayor Brandon Johnson or the Chicago Public Schools administration to explain the specific logic behind the funding gap or to defend the $10.11 billion budget in the face of cratering enrollment and proficiency rates.
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