At 10:30 a.m. today, Chicago Board of Education President Rufus Williams normally would have been opening the board's monthly meeting with a rap of a gavel at the board's downtown chamber.

Instead, the meeting was canceled, the chamber room was empty, and Williams and Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan were on an emergency money mission to Springfield, the state capitol.

They planned to meet with state legislators about a proposed 2009 state budget that contains education funding Williams says is "much, much lower" than what the city needs.

CPS asked for $180 million in additional funding next year to help cover increased teacher salaries, capital expenditures and new program funding, Williams says. The state proposals range from giving CPS $60 million in increased funding to zero. A version of the budget passed last Friday by the state senate would give CPS $40 million in additional funding.

This year, CPS is operating on a $5 billion budget.

When the state senate approved a budget that left CPS $140 million under its requested amount, word rattled quickly around CPS circles. The house may pass the budget by the end of the week, with an additional $300 million in education for the entire state, funded by taxes on riverboat casinos. Late yesterday, Williams chose to take an unprecedented move: Postpone the board meeting until Monday.

"This is the position we find ourselves in," Williams says. "We can't wait."

"We had to take this step to prevent the last six years of progress being erased over the next four days of the legislative session," says Duncan in a statement released today.

Celeste Garrett, director of CPS communications, says she can't ever remember a board meeting being canceled. Neither can any of the secretaries or other office staffers who have been with CPS for decades.

Williams and Duncan were partnering with other education administrators today in Springfield, and pleading their case to legislators. He points to improvement in Chicago's schools since Mayor Richard M. Daley took control of the schools in 1995, and increases in ACT testing that ranks among the best in the state.

Williams calls for parents and other city residents to send a "priortize education" message to their state representatives.

Twenty-one new schools, six turnaround school projects and additional after-school and Saturday programs are driving up costs for CPS. But the biggest bill will be 4 percent teacher raises, a part of a new Chicago Teachers Union contract. Williams says that will cost $100 million in itself.

Capital expenditures cost $400 million this year, and Williams says the state hasn't paid for any capital improvements in four years. Those improvements are paid by city taxes, Williams says, and bank loans.

According to CPS officials, if the city can't get the funding it needs from the state, new school construction, after-school programs, high school reform projects and long-term teacher contracts would be at risk.

Williams says CPS will draw $50 million from its reserves to help cover the 2009 budget.