Chicago Public Schools (CPS) spent millions on lavish trips for employees and students while failing to educate pupils, according to a report from CPS’ Office of Inspector General (OIG). The report revealed that travel expenditures “more than doubled” between Fiscal Year 2019 and Fiscal Year 2024, with combined spending reaching $14.5 million in fiscal years 2023 and 2024 for out-of-town employee professional development seminars and overnight student outings.
The OIG found that CPS employees booked trips without required pre-approvals, exceeded spending limits on hotel rooms and airfare, and engaged in activities of dubious necessity or value to students as the district approached a budget crisis. During this period, only 30.5 percent of students in grades three through eight were proficient in reading, and 18.3 percent in math, with SAT scores showing 11th graders equally poor at math and worse at reading.
Corey Brooks, senior pastor of New Beginnings Church of Chicago, described the reading-proficiency rate in his neighborhood as a “paltry six percent,” stating, “These individuals believe that spending money on themselves benefits our educational system more so than spending it on the children who so rightfully deserve it.”
The OIG report detailed eight CPS schools spending over $142,000 on 15 staff trips to Finland, Estonia, Egypt, and South Africa for professional development and school visits, including a visit to a South African game park, hot air balloon rides, camel rides, and a bazaar. Thirteen of the 15 trips were never pre-approved, as required.
A CPS principal made multiple taxpayer-funded jaunts to Las Vegas for professional-development conferences, booking an unapproved suite at a Las Vegas hotel for himself and his wife that cost CPS over $400 a night despite the conference being at a different hotel, starting two days after their arrival date, and ending after their six-day visit.
The OIG noted that “questionable, excessive and even exorbitant” spending was enabled by lax, vague, and unenforced travel rules, with CPS compliance staff focusing on small reimbursement receipts while ignoring larger costs like airfare and hotel rooms. One sample analyzed by the OIG showed travel expenses for airfare and hotel rooms were nearly 29 times more than meals and Ubers.
In fiscal year 2024, nine of the 10 most expensive travel purchase orders involved student travel, including a trip to South Africa for 20 students that cost an average of $5,274 per person. The OIG pointed out that “for that amount of money, this school could have funded the salary and benefit of two teachers with four years[’] teaching experience each for a year.”
CPS has instituted a temporary freeze on “nearly all employee travel” and made procedural changes to address problems, while convening a committee to consider OIG’s recommendations. However, the district’s handling of taxpayer funds remains under scrutiny.
Corey DeAngelis, executive director of the Educational Freedom Institute, stated, “Chicago Public Schools spend about $30,000 per student and most of the kids still can’t read on grade level.” The government school system is a “bottomless pit, lighting taxpayer money on fire,” he added.
