Your school supply tax holiday ends Sunday, August 16!! Make sure you get out and get all your back-to-school items with a 5% savings!! School starts August 24 for K-12, and August 25 for Pre-K.

Early childhood education is one of the best ways to get your child ready for school. Besides learning routines and understanding expectations, access to early intervention and coming into Kindergarten with foundational skills sets them up for a successful future.

Today we voted a referendum that is nothing more than political theater. We all agree that more needs to be done to fund our schools, but this is a window dressing, not action. Our children deserve action, and strategic steps to fund our classrooms.

We know @biggs4chicago has her issues with attendance, but leadership isn’t coulda, woulda, shoulda. Leadership is showing up and making your vote count. This was another attempt by @ctulocal1 to play political theater. If it matters enough, you find a way. I showed up less than a month postpartum to fight a budget amendment in 2025. I have shown ip since then time after time. I continue to do the work. I will use my vote to fight for what is best for kids.

Families: don’t forget school starts August 24 for all students K-12, and August 25 for Pre-K students. School supply tax holiday is on from August 7-16, so go get your school supplies now! Getting excited for the start of the school year!!

Teachers, you should be furious!!

Today, a majority of the Board chose political fiction over financial responsibility. By adding state revenue that has not been appropriated, committed or guaranteed, CTU-aligned board members did not create a single new dollar for our classrooms. They simply wrote an imaginary number into a spreadsheet and called it a solution. That is not progressive budgeting. It is fiscal malpractice. CTU’s political leadership knows Springfield has not approved this money. They know CPS cannot spend campaign rhetoric. They also know exactly what happens when the promised money fails to arrive: drastic midyear cuts, disrupted classrooms, layoffs, emergency borrowing and further damage to the district’s credit. Instead of confronting the district’s financial reality, CTU and its allies are trying to conceal it with invented revenue. The education of the children of the city of Chicago is not a game.  I will not participate in that deception. Our families deserve honesty, not fantasy accounting. Our employees deserve a budget capable of actually paying them. Our students deserve better than discovering halfway through the school year that the money they were promised never existed. Those who voted for this amendment will own every cut, every downgrade and every disruption that follows.

This the brinkmanship I warned about weeks ago. @CTULocal1 has made it abundantly clear that kids are not their first priority. Playing games with the budget when the consequences of their reckless actions will lead to-at best-cuts mid-year, or worse, not being able to start the year if we altogether fail to pass the budget. Stop playing games and give our students and families the trust and assurances we owe them.

America has always been a land of opportunity and provided the ability to live the American Dream. But the Trump administration is destroying that dream for so many. At CPS we value every single person who makes this district thrive. And those who do the hard and often thankless jobs-keeping our buildings clean for our students every day-should be afforded more dignity and respect than they are being shown by this despicable Trump Administration. We stand in support of the Hildago family, and demand his return.

I am the only candidate for President that went unchallenged in this race. I am honored to be on the ballot to represent CPS students, families and communities! Be sure to cast your vote in November for Jennifer Custer for President-someone prepared represent you.