“The city of Chicago, which has the worst rated credit of any major city in the country, and the Chicago Public Schools, which has one of the lowest credit ratings, they’re vulnerable to further financial downgrade,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a government budget watchdog group. “If the goal here is to treat CPS and the city of Chicago like all other cities in the state of Illinois and all other school districts, you’ll have to find a way to make up that approximately half a billion dollars the city gives to the district.”