Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Spent $640M on Migrants as Schools Face Deficit

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration allocated nearly $640 million in taxpayer funds to support illegal migrants over a two-year period, according to city records, even as the city’s public school system faces a massive budget shortfall and widespread layoffs.

The city’s inspector general’s office found that Johnson dedicated the funds—about $639.6 million—to care for noncitizens between August 2022 and the end of 2024. The figure was highlighted in a Fox News op-ed by Chicago activist Corey Brooks, who used it to question why schools were left underfunded while migrant services received such a large investment.

“I am a pastor. I believe in compassion. But it is morally wrong to assign so many of our taxpayer dollars to noncitizens who came to the United States and are now receiving taxpayer-funded services in Chicago,” Brooks wrote.

The juxtaposition drew sharp criticism from other prominent figures as well. Steve Forbes, publisher of Forbes Magazine, expressed astonishment at the spending priorities, writing, “Chicago politicians found $640 million for migrant services while their own public schools face a $732 million budget deficit. Kids are struggling to read and do basic math, teachers are being laid off, and special-needs students are losing support. There is always money for what politicians consider a priority. Apparently, educating Chicago’s children isn’t one of them.”

School funding woes persist despite multibillion-dollar budgets

While the optics of funneling hundreds of millions toward migrant services while schools face budget cuts are certainly alarming, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are not without their own fiscal challenges. Even as enrollment has dropped, costs have continued to spiral.

In 2025, CPS had about 325,000 students enrolled—a decline of more than 70,000 from a decade earlier, according to ProPublica. Officials expect enrollment could dip further to around 300,000 in the coming years.

Despite the shrinking student population, CPS requested a record $10.11 billion budget for 2026, as reported by the Illinois Policy Institute. The requests have not translated into better outcomes for students, though. State data from the Illinois Report Card show that only 43 percent of students in grades three through eight were proficient in reading, and just 27 percent were at grade level in math.

Attendance is another issue: In 2025, nearly 40.1 percent of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least ten percent of the school year.

Broader immigration pressures on schools

The financial strain on Chicago’s schools is part of a broader national pattern. Schools across the country have faced pressure from immigration, with classrooms seeing an influx of non-English-speaking students, while some districts have turned to the H-1B visa program to import teachers to fill roles.

Daron Acemoglu, a prominent economist at MIT, argues that the H-1B program has dampened incentives for politicians to fix the broken K-12 system. The educated elite, he said, have “given up on the education of Americans because they think that they can fill any skill gap with importing those skills—whether they are nurses, whether they’re doctors, whether they’re programmers. That’s the problem.” Acemoglu made these remarks during a conversation with Tyler Cowen, an economist at George Mason University who has been a strong advocate for pro-migration policies.

For critics like Brooks and Forbes, the takeaway is clear: Chicago’s priorities are skewed, and the city’s own children are paying the price.

Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2026/08/21/chicago-threw-640m-in-tax-dollars-at-illegal-migrants-over-two-years/