Mayoral candidates address schools, voting rights, CPD contract in latest forum

The theme of equity in public schools, elections and law enforcement was front and center at a forum featuring seven candidates for mayor Monday evening.

The forum — dubbed a “debate-style” discussion by moderator Alden Loury of WBEZ radio — focused largely on how to improve accessibility to the polls, reforming the contract with the Chicago Police union and changing the “community engagement process” in Chicago Public Schools.

Activist Amara Enyia, former Ald. Bob Fioretti, Attorney John Kozlar, former Chicago Police Board President Lori Lightfoot, former CPD Supt. Garry McCarthy, former CPS CEO Paul Vallas and businessman Willie Wilson took part in the forum put on by the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law.

McCarthy, asked how to make polls more accessible, said the very idea of having an election in February was in itself an act of voter suppression and decried the process by which ward boundaries are drawn.

“We have a February election here,” he said. “It’s the only general election in the country that is held in February. And we all know why that is. Because you get low voter turnout and this way you can swing the election.”

Loury asked what steps the candidates would take “to reform police union contracts,” specifically with provisions that “make it difficult to file complaints” against officers.

“What’s necessary is to have leadership that’s interested in advocating for the moral and financial responsibility of the city” and “not just acquiescing to the whatever the needs of the union are,” Enyia said.

The Fraternal Order of Police represents all rank-and-file officers and their contract expired 18 months ago.

Citing CPS’ initial plan to close the National Teachers Academy in the South Loop and turn it into a neighborhood high school, Loury asked the candidates how they would “transform the community engagement process in CPS so that students, family members and educators have a meaningful say” in the district’s decisions.

“We need to stop treating parents, teachers and other stakeholders as unwanted guests,” Lightfoot said. “They have to be a part of the partnership. That’s why I support a fully elected school board.”

Vallas, who said he was “appalled” by CPS’ efforts to change NTA to a high school, recommended recruiting members of local school councils to serve on the CPS board.

State Rep. La Shawn K. Ford was also billed to attend Monday evening’s forum but did not show up.

And while the candidates in attendance largely agreed and refrained from criticizing each other, some were quick to condemn those who didn’t take part — specifically Gery Chico, Toni Preckwinkle, Susana Mendoza and Bill Daley.

“There’s a number of people who aren’t here tonight, and it’s easy to be annoyed at them for not being here,” McCarthy said. “They don’t have to come down here with intelligent policies, to have discussions about what’s right and what’s wrong and how they want to fix things. All you’ve got to do is raise the money and get on TV and say ‘I’m going to have a plan on Day 1.’”