Just one day after the Chicago Public Schools passed their record budget, Board member Rod Sierra joins the panel to discuss the $150 million dollar property tax increase (“only $1.61 a week”, he explains) and the massive deficits looming in the next few years as pension payments and increased health care bills come due.

Sarah Karp (Catalyst Chicago) and Nora Ferrell (Community Media Workshop) are also on this week’s panel. There’s plenty of substantive conversation about class size, students with special needs, underutilized classrooms and the like, but things get most frisky when attention turns to media strategy.

Appearing on Chicago Tonight, J.C. Brizard proposed a 2% salary bump to some teachers if they’d agree to start the extended school calendar 6 months early. CPS would have you believe it was just a spontaneous offer, but our panel’s not buying it. Media strategy is very important in the Emanuel administration, and Sarah Karp reveals that reporters were given a heads-up to watch the show.

Nora Ferrell, who’s been involved with the Burge torture cases for years, was asked – will Rahm Emanuel seek to settle the cases to get this episode off the table, and will Former Mayor Daley be called in for deposition? “Yes, and Yes”, was her reply.