The public schools of Chicago have had an appointed school board for more than 150 years. In 1995, the law was changed to give the Mayor full control of the schools. He named the members of the school board, and they followed his wishes. Mayoral control of the schools, I have come to believe, is a terrible idea. Theoretically, the Mayor is accountable, but in reality, he or she never is. There are too many issues, and education gets low priority. However, we have seen Mayors using the schools as political props, heralding any progress as the fruits of their labor. We have even seen examples where Mayors distort the data to claim credit.
An elected board is not perfect. No system of governance is. But it gives parents and community activists the opportunity to be heard, even to run for election. With an elected board, there are checks and balances. Democracy is better than authoritarianism. That is why it is so outrageous to see billionaire faux-reformers creating stealth organizations to funnel money to their candidates. True grassroots candidates can ever compete with big money from out of state financiers.
The Chicago Teachers Union issued this statement yesterday.
Elected school board is an historic achievement for Chicago’s students, families and school communities
After more than 150 years of appointed boards of education in Chicago, the road to the city’s first fully elected representative leadership has come to an end.
CHICAGO, July 29, 2021 — The Chicago Teachers Union issued the following statement in response to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature of House Bill 2908, creating an elected representative school board for Chicago Public Schools:
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature today of HB2908, the historic bill to create an elected representative school board for Chicago, caps a decades-long fight by parents, rank-and-file educators and community activists to provide our school district the same democratic rights afforded to every other district in the state of Illinois.
Students, families and educators will now have the voice they have long been denied for a quarter of a century by failed mayoral control of our schools. Chicago will finally have an elected board accountable to the people our schools serve, as it should be.
Our union is grateful to the grassroots movement that led with us in this fight. We owe special thanks to state representatives Kam Buckner and bill sponsor Delia Ramirez, Sen. Rob Martwick, Illinois Speaker Chris Welch and Senate President Don Harmon. All were instrumental in getting this landmark legislation to the governor’s desk. We are also thinking tonight about our beloved President Emerita Karen GJ Lewis, NBCT. This victory is hers as much as it is a victory for our city. Here’s to you, Karen.
###
The Chicago Teachers Union represents more than 25,000 teachers and educational support personnel working in schools funded by City of Chicago School District 299, and by extension, over 350,000 students and families they serve. The CTU is an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Federation of Teachers and is the third-largest teachers local in the United States. For more information, please visit the CTU website at www.ctulocal1.org.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Kudos to the activists in Chicago that have long fought for right to vote for an elected school board in Chicago. Mayoral control makes education a political football. Elected school boards can better represent the interests of the people far better than a mayor that may put self interests ahead of what is best for the young people in the city.
LikeLike
In LA the charter barons poured in millions of dollars and control the school board – in NYC during the years of decentralization (1970-2002) local electeds controlled the elected school boards and turned into patronage machines …. the Houston elected school board sharply divided …. the Chicago Teachers Union hopes to collaborate with local parent organizations …. time will tell
LikeLike
While an elected school board is a step in the right direction, we also need to try to get the money out of process. We should limit spending on campaign or limit outside money. Too much money in an election interferes with the democratic process.
LikeLike
Supreme Court (Citizens United) allows unlimited contributions in all elections, and, in NYC decentralization the local electeds dominated and patronage ruled… how can “the right people” get elected?
LikeLike
Public school supporters pool our resources to support good candidates, and sometimes, when the truth comes out about who is funding the charter charlatans, we win some seats. Believe you me, it’s much better than having Rahm Emmanuel in charge.
LikeLike
Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza, a literal warrior in service to the charter school industry and board chair of Achievement First- R.I., is in the news. Reportedly, he had to be held back by security protecting the R.I. Governor. With DINO friends like Elorza, Main Street, the middle class, those who oppose “no excuses” schools for kids, etc. don’t need enemies.
I speculate Elorza is angling for a Pahara Aspen Fellowship (Gates-financed). There’s a great article at Vulgar Marxism by Matthew Thomas, 5-26-2021, about Elorza’s charter school twin, Diane Morales (NYC), “The Diane Morales Campaign Reveals the Charter School Industry’s Remarkable Reach”. The co-founder of Achievement First, donated to the Morales campaign for NYC mayor. Five years prior, Morales received a Pahara Fellowship.
The VM article’s author describes a Reed Hastings (Netflix) project. Hastings serves on the Pahara Board and he is personally bankrolling a permanent retreat for Pahara, a 2,1000 acre luxury property (money that avoids taxation). Quoting the article, “Hastings wealth won’t be confiscated until racism has been extirpated from the hearts and minds of a sufficient number of his fellow Americans.”
A Chalbeat article in March of 2019, reported that the Achievement First Network was still receiving Sackler money.
When the charter school minions are willing to get physical to protect their masters’ interests, let’s hope it signifies the Titanic is sinking and let’s save the life boats for a deserving group of people, instead of Morales and Elorza.
LikeLike
Thanks, DianeAll of you are doing very well to organize the teacher’s associations. But we are in Bangladesh and teachers are suffering too much, because we are a large number of teachers are not govt. organ, we are serving in various private organizations. I have tried to organize them but was unable to continue due to various barriers. Now we are suffering a tremendous condition. Our students are also suffering due to continuous lockdown and the close of our educational institution. Can you please give us some support to overcome this situation? I think you can because you have a big teachers organization and a huge amount of students on your platform. Can You create a charity found for our teachers and students? If it is possible please forward the following links to your organization to save our teacher and student society. There is no limit to donate, as small as possible by your organization of teachers and student association.Save humanity and save education: Donate to BCMC College of Engg and Technology. https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=J5SXZ2XDP2Y42
| | | | | |
|
| | | | Donate to BCMC college of Engg and Technology.
Help support BCMC college of Engg and Technology. by donating or sharing with your friends. |
|
|
It is the request from a teacher of a private technical institute from Bangladesh. I want your big-hearted support.Wish you all of your happiness.
LikeLike
Elected school boards are superior, but as everyone seems to agree, we really need to get the big money out of all our elections. I just found out from the union that the billionaire-bought board majority in mostly blue Los Angeles is secretively trying to use a grant from Betsy Devos to bring backpack full of cash vouchers to Los Angeles Unified, as early as September. They have no ethical standards at all.
LikeLike
We have a fully elected school board in Vegas and we truly suffer.
Our purple community – almost equally blue and red – elects truly selfish crazy folx who harm everyone. Since the school board position is unpaid and basically a full-time job, it is difficult to attract anyone with skill to run the fifth largest district or control the $3 Billion budget. Folx with an axe to grind against CCSD or someone connected to billionaires/corporations is who we get. Then they intentionally or unintentionally tear the district down.
Most recently, my school area which is primarily Latinx and undocumented – elected a MAGA Trumper Katie Williams. Her previous public experience was a former Ms Nevada who got removed for using the platform inappropriately for Trump. She tweets regularly like Trump. Most of it drastically inappropriate. Attacking LGBT folx with slurs and hate speech. Trying to fire teachers with twitter like Trump. Katie believes Jesus will save her from Covid so she is obviously anti-mask and anti-vaccine because she is determined to show no fear. A gun lover who recently voted against asking CCSD parents to properly store weapons so children do not bring them to school. Katie suggested on twitter – folx should physcially harm children with “wall to wall” action to get them to behave. The list goes on.
Before Katie. We had Kevin Childs. He suggested folx run over Protesters with their car. He openly attack Black Lives Matter students who knelt before sporting events. CCSD spent millions on lawsuits because he was sexually suggestive to staff. When he visited Sandy Miller, he got all the children in a circle to pray for his dead wife who committed suicide. His inappropriate behavior was notorious. As a Trustee, he was banned from coming to the CCSD Central Office or CCSD Campuses.
Danielle Ford was elected. As she campiagned, she posted popular photos of herself in various outfits of undress; she is beautiful model. She ran for Trustee because a disgruntled uncle and former adminstrator whispers in her ear. She does the bidding of the administrator’s union who were demoted by Superintendent Jara. Mainly Ford attacks the Superintendent, disagrees with everything, and pouts. She has zero skill to use the system to affect real change for kids. Unfortunately when Ford was a CCSD student, no one identified her ADHD. She could use this productively but instead used it as a cover for her racism when she used the racial slur “colored” during a meeting. She did not graduate from CCSD. Once she mentioned she did not want to get her hair wet in PE as part of the problem along with her ADHD. She got her GED. Ford is a very successful marketing and social media hacker – more a journalist publishing her opinion than using her true power as a Trustee to change anything. She received a restraining order to leave Superintendent Jara alone.
Lola Brooks was also failed by CCSD. On her own at 16 and working full-time prevented a regular graduation. She eventually used alternative route to make her way to college. Brooks networked with other educarion reformers who also ran for various school board or college elected positions. The only job she could find was at a charter school. So now she inappropriately uses her position for charter promotion. While she courageously moves forward social justice issues, she is obviously owned by her downtown neoliberal connections and the billionaires who privatize. She will not admit that charters fail kids. A defender of Superintendent Jara, she openly fights with Ford. They are both immature and petty.
This is a small sampling of what electing inept, incapable, and otherwise occupied Trustees can do. Nothing gets done because meetings are pure drama. The agenda’s light fires in a less productive manner and the public is invited to vent for the media circus.
Not one Turstee actually cares about the $3 billion budget, paying employees, bettering our insurance, or creating safe working conditions. And all this drama costs millions as everyone sues each other.
Trustee meetings are poltical rallies. The extremist right on one-side slinging racial slurs, shouting about masks, trans kids, guns, CRT or whatever the political talking point is for the day. And the left being abused, silenced, and harmed on the other side. Police come and escort folks out. The meetings are unsafe and if students attend they are attacked.
During the legislative session, Trustees were no where. As the teacher’s union moved forward aggressively to increase the mining tax and win a half billion – crickets from electeds. Annoying CCSD Trustees held a meeting to congratulate themselves – as if anyone on the podium did anything at all. Now the money ($384 million or $1200 per student). has not been moved from whatever bottle neck that likely is caused by them to the school campuses so we can reopen safely in a raging pandemic. Trustees did discuss trying to participate during the interim session which will look at revamping the CCSD Trustee System. Not one Trustee knows how to participate or organize there so they will fail.
I’m trying to move forward a dual board – with some appointees – because these elected folks acting like naughty children are harming 322,000 children and 40,000 staff. We need some adults who have some experience managing budgets and making sure employees get paid.
These electeds do a lot of things. They do not do their job.
I hope Chicago has a better experience and can attract some decent elected folks. Vegas cannot do it.
LikeLike