Chicago City Wire

Records obtained by Chicago City Wire show that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) spent nearly $100,000 for student and teacher trips to the United Kingdom, Italy, South Africa and Costa Rica last year, as district leaders were asking Illinoisans to pay more in taxes to bail out the insolvent, debt-ridden district.

The payments, totaling $95,224 to Chicago-based travel agency Exotic Journeys Group, covered the travel expenses of teachers and students at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School, 1034 N. Wells St.

Chicago City Wire reviewed invoices from Exotic Journeys and "Request to Approve Pay" forms submitted by Walter Payton teachers, detailing separate trips taken in 2017 and, still to come, in 2018.

One invoice shows taxpayers paid $24,772 for 21 Walter Payton students to fly on KLM to Amsterdam, connecting on South African Airways to Johannesburg and then Capetown, South Africa, part of a 12-day tour (Feb. 1-13, 2017).

The following month, taxpayers paid $27,856 for 28 Walter Payton students and teachers to fly on Aer Lingus -- from Chicago to London, London to Edinburgh, Scotland, Edinburgh to Shannon, Ireland and Shannon back to Chicago-- as part of a 10-day "UK Hiking" tour of the United Kingdom (March 28-April 8, 2017).

Simultaneously last spring, 28 Walter Payton students and teachers took a 10-day trip to Rome. Taxpayers paid Exotic Journeys $21,298 for their airfare, on American Airlines, invoices show, leaving on March 31 and returning on April 9.

Next month, 35 Payton students and teachers will depart on a nine-day trip to Costa Rica.

An invoice obtained by Chicago City Wire shows airfare between Chicago and San Jose for the group costs $27,720.

The quote from Exotic Journeys was addressed to Valentin Torres, identified on the Walter Payton website as an advanced placement biology teacher. Torres did not respond to a request for comment, including whether students had paid for the trips themselves. 

Last August, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed legislation that altered the state system for distributing funding to school districts, eliminating the longtime "per-pupil" formula for one that favored CPS, which has steadily lost students.

The net was CPS received $450 million more in state funding than the previous year, money shifted from downstate and suburban districts.

The legislation also put state taxpayers on the hook for CPS' insolvent teachers' pension fund and more than $17 billion in debt, much of it borrowed to fund operational deficits.

State taxpayers have historically subsidized CPS heavily, more than all but the poorest south and west suburban school districts.