As legislators in Springfield put the final touches on legislation for Chicago’s first-ever elected school board, there’s one thing for them to keep top of mind:
Do what’s best for Chicago, not politicians.
We say that because of the last-minute push by Mayor Brandon Johnson — and let’s be real, the Chicago Teachers Union — to have Senate President Don Harmon back a hybrid school board with 10 members, plus the board president, hand-picked by the mayor, as the Sun-Times’ Nader Issa reported.
The back-and-forth on this could make your head swim, and it’s important to read between the lines.
Lawmakers initially passed a bill for a hybrid 21-member board, with 11 members appointed by the mayor and 10 elected members. But activists, including the CTU, balked at that idea and pushed for a fully elected board right away. The CTU even warned last November of a potential lawsuit if lawmakers didn’t come through.
Harmon filed an amendment for a fully elected board, citing public hearings where community members spoke strongly in favor of that structure. His amendment also included tougher provisions on ethics for board members, which certainly ought to be a no-brainer no matter how the board is structured.
“We will not accept watered-down ethical provisions, and we believe the parents, families, students and taxpayers of Chicago deserve immediate representation,” Harmon said in a statement on Nov. 8, 2023.
Advocates and the CTU got what they wanted, despite the obvious drawbacks of a board with 21 people — far more than other big-city school districts, and an open invitation to infighting and factionalism among special interests.
So why now would lawmakers ignore such a crucial detail, especially when the voting map has already been drawn with 20 districts?
Johnson’s letter to Harmon seems like little more than an effort to, along with the CTU, seize the upper hand and ensure the board’s makeup is to their ideological liking. A fully elected board in November requires the CTU — and to be fair, other groups too — to find and field 20 candidates with a good shot at winning. The CTU has denied that, but the public can judge the about-face, and the mayor’s ties to the union, for themselves.
Lawmakers should stick with the amendment for legislation with strong ethics safeguards and provisions for electing all 20 board members this year.
Consider the confusion that a hybrid board could cause at this late date. How would legislators decide which of 20 voting districts would actually vote for candidates, and which districts would have that choice taken away with appointed members? Or, how to combine 20 districts into 10, each with two members, one elected and one appointed?
As for ethics and accountability, the final legislation certainly ought to bar employees of CPS vendors and contractors, and members of CTU, from serving on the elected board. Both are an invitation to corruption.
Lawmakers have reportedly resolved other key details. New board members will probably not be paid, since Illinois law bars pay for school board members in other districts. Noncitizens will likely not be allowed to vote, and that’s the right move, in our view.
A fully elected, 21-member board is not ideal, but it’s what many Chicagoans have pushed for. It’s important for voters, whether they have children in CPS or not, to remember that the stakes are incredibly high. Student achievement still hasn’t recovered from the negative impact of virtual learning during the pandemic. Enrollment is on the decline as families flee the district, replaced by the children of migrants who will need extra support. School choice could also be in the crosshairs, wrongly and unfairly taking the hit for the district’s past failures to invest in traditional neighborhood schools.
It will be tough to hold 21 people accountable for doing right by kids. Chicago will have to find a way to do so, for the sake of the city’s future.
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