The Republican leaders of the Illinois House and Senate are stepping into the financial crisis at Chicago Public Schools, and it sounds like they're proposing a solution that City Hall will not like.

In a press conference scheduled for Wednesday morning, Senate GOP leader Christine Radogno and her House counterpart, Jim Durkin, will propose legislation that would allow the state to take control of CPS and potentially push it into bankruptcy, according to knowledgeable sources.

The latter move—forcing the school system to reorganize and in the process dumping its union contracts—has been strongly pushed by Gov. Bruce Rauner but resisted by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. But the Radogno-Durkin proposal comes at a very sensitive time for Emanuel. CPS has been pleading for state help to fill a $480 million budget hole even as Emanuel's power has been restricted by fallout from the Laquan McDonald police shooting.

I've also confirmed that the bankruptcy clause would apply to the city itself, which has its own financial problems, and result in electing members of the Board of Education, who now are selected by the mayor. That measure could appeal to some, even some Springfield Democrats, who have grown disaffected with Emanuel's leadership and handling of the school board.

Specifically, I'm told, the package offered by the two top Republicans would extend to Chicago a measure authored by Sen. Heather Steans, D-Chicago, that allows the state to intervene in and effectively run troubled downstate and suburban districts. Such a move would be initiated by an independent review panel appointed by the State Board of Education.

The bankruptcy measure likely would be in separate legislation. Local units of government are not allowed to file for bankruptcy under current state law, but a pending GOP bill in the House would allow cities and villages to file.

Steans, in a phone call, confirmed that her takeover bill last year excluded CPS, which has been treated differently from other districts since lawmakers turned control over to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley a generation ago.

Steans said her view of a state takeover of CPS might depend on whether it came with additional state aid but said bankruptcy would be "insane," potentially undoing gains in CPS performance in recent years. "You'd have a much harder time fixing the schools" under a bankruptcy filing, she contended.

The package comes as CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union continue with what have been contentious negotiations on a new contract—talks that some sources say have begun to make a bit of progress.

It also comes as Emanuel and CPS officials loudly charge that the state shortchanges CPS by not picking up pension costs that amount to hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The state pays pension costs for other districts, but suburban officials say Chicago gets a disproportionate share of anti-poverty money.

City officials have been expected to push that argument pretty hard in coming weeks, and the Radogno/Durkin move could be viewed as pushback.

Rauner's office declined immediate comment, but it's unlikely GOP leaders would act without his full support or without his direction.

8 p.m. update:

In a statement, CPS chief Forrest Claypool had this to say: “The governor is defending a school funding system that is separate but unequal. Our children are facing systematic discrimination. CPS represents 20 percent of state enrollment but gets just 15 percent of state funding, even though 86 percent of our children live in poverty. The missing 5 percent represents nearly $500 million, the exact amount of our budget gap. Our children's futures are just as important as those in the suburbs and downstate. But the state does not value them equally."

8:45 p.m. update:

Says Emanuel spokeswoman Kelley Quinn via email: "The mayor is 100 percent opposed to Gov. Rauner's 'plan' to drive CPS bankrupt. If the governor was serious about helping Chicago students, he should start by proposing—and passing—a budget that fully funds education and treats CPS students like every other child in the state."

11 a.m. Wednesday update: At their presser, Leaders Radogno and Durkin strongly asserted that their proposal, to be introduced in pieces in coming days, is needed because CPS is broken and ruling Democrats have failed to fix it.

“What have they done over the past 12 years, when they had (legislative) supermajorities” and/or control of the governor's mansion, Durkin asked. “The status quo is not working. We're throwing them a lifeline.”

But the two conceded that the plan was introduced as part of a “mutual” decision with Rauner, who's never met a public-sector union he didn't want to defang. They conceded that the plan wouldn't offer CPS any immediate new financial relief—unless the new Independent Authority that would run CPS finds some efficiencies or others eventually emerge in bankruptcy. And those ruling Democrats made it clear the plan is dead on arrival.

“This is not going to happen. It's mean spirited and evidence of their total lack of knowledge of the real problems facing CPS,” Senate President John Cullerton said in a statement. “The unfair treatment of pension systems by the state is the immediate cause of CPS' financial problem.”

Which means we're back at impasse.

Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings became the latest watchdog to downgrade CPS debt, assigning a definitely jury B+ rating to nearly $900 million in securities that are due to be sold next week. The agency cites “limited progress” in rationalizing the system 's budget.

And Emanuel is out of town, He's in Washington, meeting with federal officials and attending the winter session of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

12:15 p.m. update: Speaker Madigan is out with a statement, and it ain’t subtle.

“Seven months into a new fiscal year, the state still has no budget under Republican Bruce Rauner, and it’s because he’s more interested in driving down the wages and standard of living of middle-class families than working together,” the statement says. It goes on to charge that the new plan “could also help (Rauner) achieve his goal of taking more money away from public schools in order to establish more charter schools” and put Chicago on the same path as Detroit, where “retirement security was slashed for employees and retirees.”

And, it references Flint with a bang saying, “A crisis created by a Republican takeover could have been avoided by a mere fraction of the state’s budget. That is not the path we want to take in Illinois."