CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Sound financial management does not exist in Chicago Public Schools, and apparently has not for some time, at least when it comes to contract negotiations.

They were warned that new labor expenses might result in a credit downgrade for the financially-strapped school district, and they chose to ignore it.

WELL GUESS WHAT.  The credit rating agency Moody’s has downgraded the school district for the second time in one quarter.

Chalk one up for the Chicago Teachers Union. It’s insistence on pressing for higher wages at a time when the district could not afford it has pushed CPS even closer to financial collapse. And Mayor Rahm Emanuel doesn’t deserve a pass. He didn’t have the guts to stand up to the union, and now schoolchildren and taxpayers will pay.

The strike was illegal and he should have given them 24 hours to return to work or be fired.

The downgrade will, of course, make it more expensive for the school district to borrow money, complicating an already messy financial situation.

You taxpaying citizens Illinois, and particularly Chicago, take a tip from your neighbors to the north in Wisconsin. They solved the collective bargaining problem, and their schools are getting by just fine.