The leader of the Chicago Teachers Union wants the city’s board of education to freeze all new hires. The demand comes as Chicago Public Schools searches for ways to close an estimated $370 million budget gap.

Teachers union president Karen Lewis asked the district to cancel a contract with the nonprofit education group Teach For America.

In it, CPS plans to hire 200 teacher interns for the upcoming school year.

LEWIS: Those 200 people should not have a position as long as we have other highly qualified teachers not working. The 200 from Teach For America need to go back to graduate school or where ever else they’re going anyway right now.

Lewis says she’s meeting with CPS officials later this week to negotiate ways to close the district’s budget deficit. A CPS spokeswoman says it’s unclear whether the contract with Teach For America will go forward because the district doesn’t have a budget yet.