Lightfoot’s proposed ‘elected school board’ is no such thing. Thankfully.
In the 2019 mayoral campaign scrum, two main camps emerged among the candidates regarding the issue of replacing Chicago’s appointed school board with members elected by voters.
One was the hybrid camp: Bill Daley, Paul Vallas, Gery Chico, Susana Mendoza and Garry McCarthy were among those backing a blended board in which mayoral appointees served alongside elected members.
The other was the all-elected camp: That group of candidates included Amara Enyia, Bob Fioretti, Willie Wilson, Jerry Joyce, Toni Preckwinkle and eventual winner Lori Lightfoot.
Lightfoot has since come to her senses — as I see it — and changed camps, evidently realizing that subjecting the administration of public schools to the grubby shake-and-howdy of big-city politics is not the best way to go. Though it allows a mayor to wash her hands of bad student outcomes and toxic labor negotiations, it opens the door to ideological proxy battles waged by high-dollar donors from all over the country.
As I noted in a recent column, a national record $17.7 million was spent in Los Angeles school elections last year as various factions tried to gain the upper hand in the national battle between teachers unions and charter school advocates. And as a Chicago voter I’d prefer to hold the mayor accountable for school performance than a panel of somewhat obscure officeholders.
I realize my position (and Lightfoot’s) is unpopular. In nonbinding local referendums, voters have registered approval for elected school board by about 9-to-1 margins.
Lightfoot branded as “unwieldy” the legislative proposal that advanced in Springfield several days ago for a 21-member elected board in Chicago. Her proposal, introduced Thursday by Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, calls for two elected members on a seven-seat board starting in 2026, expanding to three elected members on an 11-seat board in 2028. Note that the mayor would retain control of more than 70% of the board under both scenarios.
The proposal allows for noncitizens to cast votes — important given the number of public school students in Chicago whose parents are not eligible to vote in conventional elections — and requires that candidates for such seats have demonstrated their sincere interest in educational issues by having served at least two years “on a local school council,
the governing board of a charter school or contract school, or the board of governors of a military academy.”
Hopefuls would have to gather 500 signatures to get on the ballot, and elections would take place in defined city districts using a ranked-choice, instant runoff format. Winners would have a job that pays $40,000 a year.
Big donors and attack-ad peddlers aren’t likely to get excited by the prospect of electing a somewhat symbolic minority of elected school board members, and it’s always possible that having such voices on the board will contribute constructively to the debate.
If Lightfoot’s new proposal ends up with the muscle to derail the all-elected board proposal in line with the idea she once championed, we’ll end up with a mix of ideas and the opportunity to hold our mayors accountable for the schools when they run for reelection.
Unlikely ally
A group of students, alumni and faculty at the University of Chicago have mounted a protest campaign over the renaming of the university’s School of Service Administration.In January, UChicago christened the program the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy and Practice in light of a $75 million donation by philanthropist James Crown, grandson of Chicago industrialist Henry Crown, and his wife Paula.
James Crown is on the board of General Dynamics, a large U.S. defense contractor, and the family is a major stockholder in that company.
“The Crown family’s investments in mass weaponry and war run counter to the National Association of Social Workers values of social justice, dignity, and worth of the person,” says a petition circulated by the group. “By accepting a donation from the Crown family, (the School of Service Administration) is complicit in the family’s efforts to promote continuous, violent, global conflict. As the School shifts its operations to this new capital source, its celebrated programming, scholarship opportunities, and faculty appointments — marketed as advancement toward social change — will be funded by the military-industrial complex. This is a startling hypocrisy.”
But since the school has accepted the donation, the objectors, organized on Facebook as Not Down for Crown, are asking that the name not be used and are suggesting various uses for the money that would help the social work program “depart from the profession’s history of white supremacist values and reorient itself toward social work values by prioritizing student and community voice(s).”
Lending support to their cause is Chicago attorney Leonard Goodman, a grandson of Henry Crown’s brother Irving.
“I’m proud of my family,” Goodman told me. “They’re ethical and moral people. But I don’t think we should be involved in war profiteering. My views are well known within the family but have not yet carried the day.”
The university doesn’t appear willing to budge on the name change, however. In a statement, officials expressed a desire to recognize “the Crown family’s generous support ... over several generations” and noted that the enormous donation will greatly strengthen the social work program’s ability “to carry out their interdisciplinary work with far-reaching impact, and to engage with communities to address disparities, repair systemic inequalities, and develop innovative responses during a critical time in the country’s history.”
Re: Tweets
The winner of this week’s reader poll to select the funniest tweet was, “Republicans want corporations to be considered people for the purposes of free speech when speech is narrowly defined as writing checks to Republicans,” by @GianDoh.
The poll appears at chicago tribune.com/zorn where you can read all the finalists. For an early alert when each new poll is posted, sign up for the Change of Subject email newsletter at chicagotribune.com/newsletters.
Join me and the other regular panelists every week on The Mincing Rascals, a news-review podcast from WGN-plus that posts Thursday afternoons.