Support Dr. King. Choose our Children, Not Politics.

I am a proud parent of a CPS student. I see firsthand what our schools can do when they’re supported — and how quickly that support can be taken away when politics get in the way.

Now, the City of Chicago wants CPS to hand over $175 million to cover a pension payment the school district isn’t even legally responsible for. All I can think is: How many kids will pay the price for this decision? Not just this year, but for years — even decades — to come.

This is not just about numbers in a budget. This is about real children. It’s about classrooms that are already stretched too thin. It’s about the social worker who’s shared between three schools, the special education teacher juggling too many students, and the after-school programs that disappear because “there’s no money this year.”

If CPS gives this money to the City, it won’t come from some magic pot. It will come from kids.

We’re told this payment is “the responsible thing to do.” But what’s responsible about taking millions from schools that are still trying to recover from the pandemic? From children who are still catching up emotionally, academically, and socially — and who need more, not less?

I don’t need to sit through another budget hearing to understand what’s at stake. I already see it in my child’s school when classroom supplies run out by October, when beloved teachers leave midyear because they’re burned out, when enrichment programs are promised but never funded. I see what happens when schools are told to do more with less. And now we’re being told they should do even more with even less — just so City Hall can balance its books?

We are raising the next generation in this city. And we’re already asking them to grow up in under-resourced schools, surrounded by instability. What message does it send when we choose pensions over pupils? When we prioritize politics over our own children?

Our kids are watching. They see what we value. And right now, I fear we’re showing them that they come second.

It’s not just the $175 million payment that worries me. Some leaders are pushing CPS to borrow money to cover it. That would be even worse. Borrowing means CPS would take out a $200 million loan, send nearly all of it — $175 million — straight to the City for this pension bill, and keep only $25 million. But that loan wouldn’t stop there. With interest, CPS would end up paying almost $400 million back over the years. For what? To hand the City money it should be paying itself.

This isn’t a smart backup plan. It’s a trap. Every dollar that goes to paying debt is a dollar that can’t go to teachers, social workers, libraries, and arts programs. Borrowing would not only rob kids today — it would lock in losses for a whole generation.

This decision will echo for years. It will shape the quality of our children’s education, the services they receive, and the opportunities they’re given or denied. And for what? A payment that CPS doesn’t even owe?

I’m tired of hearing that there’s no money for the things our students actually need, only to see that money get quietly handed over for obligations that were never theirs.

This money belongs in our schools. It belongs in smaller class sizes, in more counselors and social workers, in functioning heating systems, and in up-to-date textbooks. It belongs to the children of Chicago — today’s students and tomorrow’s leaders.

If we take this away from them now, we can’t pretend we didn’t know what we were doing. We will have chosen it. And they will be the ones who live with the consequences.

To every decision-maker reading this, and especially the CPS school board: Choose our kids by choosing to support Superintendent King’s budget. Choose their futures by not borrowing against those futures. Don’t choose politics over children by giving away what little our kids have to balance the City’s budget. Don’t take what little they have left.

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Minijoie Wilker is the parent of a second-grade student in Chicago Public Schools and lives in Chicago’s Roseland community.