Now We're Talkin'

Is it a cascade of layoffs inbound?

• Chicago Public Schools officials on Wednesday announced plans to lay off hundreds of teachers and other staff and impose five furlough days to help close a $732 million deficit for next school year.

  The district's budget plan calls for laying off 760 teachers, 801 teachers' aides, and 162 central office employees. The district also plans to furlough staff for five days when students are not required to be in school – such as report card pickup days and teacher training or planning days – during the second semester.

  CPS also plans a midyear spending freeze starting in the second semester.

  CPS said its proposal does not add to the district's roughly $9 billion debt. Instead, district leaders said they're looking to reduce administrative spending, tighten operations, and rely on additional state money to help balance the books.

What state money? Illinois is billions and billions in debt. That's a dry well.

But back to the layoffs - the fact that they can lay off more teachers' aides than teachers tells you that CPS has a manpower allocation problem. And the 162 central office employees is just the usual bureaucracy middle management overstaffing problem that affect every large organization.

If you fire everyone who has the word "assistant" in their job title, you'd save billions over the years....and yes, that includes every CPD employee as well, though in the CPD case, the title "deputy" can also be grounds for being launched.