* WBEZ…
Parents, teachers and community groups on Tuesday asked Illinois Democrats to go back to the drawing board and create a new map for Chicago’s upcoming first school board elections. They want a map based on the city’s student demographics rather than its overall population.
About a dozen people spoke out at a virtual hearing Tuesday evening. This comes days after lawmakers from the House and Senate released a first draft map. Lawmakers have until July 1 to draw the voting boundaries.
As first noted by Chalkbeat Chicago, the draft map proposes seven majority white districts, seven majority Black districts and six majority Latino districts — closely resembling the city’s population, which is 33% white, 29% Black, and 29% Latino, according to the U.S. Census.
But the CPS student population is 11% white, 36% Black and 47% Latino.
* Here’s a visual…
* Chalkbeat…
“Our students need representation who understand their communities and the challenges that they face in their daily life,” said Vanessa Espinoza, a parent with Kids First Chicago. “We know that board members who have shared experiences with the communities they serve can better understand the needs of the students.”
Espinoza called the draft map “unconscionable” because she said it underrepresents Latino families in Chicago. Kids First Chicago has published a map that will create eight Latino districts and seven Black districts, she told lawmakers. […]
It is unusual for lawmakers to use school district enrollment rather than city population numbers to create districts for an elected school board, but advocates say it is the only way to ensure that Black and Latino families are equitably represented. […]
It remains unclear how many maps will be drawn during the general assembly’s map-making process. State lawmakers have published a draft map for 20 districts, and have received nine map proposals from the public, Sen. Kimberly Lightford, who represents that city’s West side and west suburbs, said Tuesday.
* The Chicago Tribune…
State Rep. Ann Williams, who leads the House Democrats’ Chicago Public School’s Districting, stressed the current map is only a starting point.
“We will be seeing another map; it will look different,” Williams, who represents Lakeview, said at the end of Saturday’s hearing. “We are hearing what you are saying and taking your input into perspective and into account.” […]
For decades, Chicago’s Board of Education members have been appointed by the mayor, unlike most school systems, whose governing boards are chosen by voters. But under a change in state law, the Chicago school board will expand from seven appointed to 21 elected members by 2026. The transition will begin with the November 2024 election, when 10 members will be elected and 10 members, plus the board president, will be appointed. […]
Jamie Groth Searle with the Southwest Collective, a nonprofit that advocates for Southwest Side residents, called out the borders of one district in particular to make the point that the map fails to keep communities intact.
“Can you explain why you drew a district that is 79 blocks long?” Searle asked. The panel responded by reminding the audience that this was a preliminary map.
* Press release…
As legislators work through remapping the Chicago School Board districts, Cor Strategies’ data experts developed a map that provides more representation to Chicago’s Hispanic and Asian communities.
Cor’s data experts built a model, pulling data which included registered voting data, along with data from the Chicago Public Schools and Census Bureau, that more fairly and accurately took the city’s demographics into account.
Click to view the proposed map here.
In the proposed map, the district breakdown includes:
16 Majority Minority Districts
7 Hispanic Districts
7 Black Districts
1 Asian Plurality District
5 White Districts
“The stark contrast between the school district map we developed and what has been proposed already is we accurately include the Asian community and we don’t underrepresent Hispanics,” said Cor’s Chicago Political Expert Chris Jackowiak. “If you just look at voting data, you don’t get the full scope of Chicago demographics and that’s how Hispanics and Asians can end up being so misrepresented in maps that have been politically drawn.”
Springfield Democrats claim their new maps would bring them closer to community-led education, yet certain minority groups would actually have less representation if these maps were passed.
Cor Strategies Founder Collin Corbett said, “We’re not map-makers but we are data experts, and our data team was able to identify maps that would lead to even more Hispanic and Asian representation on the school boards than what the Democrats in the House and Senate proposed, so clearly their maps could be improved to better reflect the city.”
Cor Strategies is a GOP firm.
- UICflames - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 11:18 am:
That Chris guy knows what he’s talking about, Cor’s map is way better than the dems’ map because unlike the Dems the Cor map takes the time to give Latinos their fair share.
- DriXander - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 11:30 am:
It’s hard enough to draw fair maps for a diverse city when you’re talking about all voters, this is multitudes more difficult. Only 11% of CPS students are White, and we’re simply not going to get a map that reflects that reality. As a CPS parents that’s been looking forward to elected representation, I look forward to a more fair map coming out of this process. Can’t say I’m looking forward to the actual elections though, haha.
- NIU Grad - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 11:35 am:
From what I know about Cor Strategies, that raised an eyebrow…who’s funding their involvement in this?
- NWwildcat - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 11:38 am:
Find it interesting Cor finds away to give latinos 7 districts, but the Dem map can only get to 5. Seems like a trend of Dems giving latinos less representation than they deserve
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 11:40 am:
===But the CPS student population is 11% white, 36% Black and 47% Latino.===
The districts ought to represent all Chicago residents, not simply students. There are residents paying taxes with no students attending CPS and they need representation on this board.
- Hannibal Lecter - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 11:42 am:
=== They want a map based on the city’s student demographics rather than its overall population. ===
Not sure that would be legal. You can’t disenfranchise voters simply because they don’t have children in the public school system.
- lake county democrat - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 11:47 am:
47th Ward said my point - parentless residents are affected by the Board’s decisions too, especially given the Board has a limited ability to independently raise taxes. Also, parents who don’t send their kids to CPS schools might have a vested interest in the Board’s actions so that they could move their kids from private-to-public.
- Socially DIstant watcher - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 11:50 am:
Talk about be careful what you wish for.
If the board had a mix of elected and appointed members it might be easier to get a board that matches student composition, but they shot that down, too.
- levivotedforjudy - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 11:54 am:
I knew this was going to be hard. A city that is roughly 10% Asian and 29-29-32% Black-White-Hispanic but the CPS percentages are different is a tiny needle hole to thread. If you throw in Special Service Area and TIF districts as a consideration, it seems that the fairest thing would be to have the makeup of voters in the neighborhood as the overriding factor. This is one where no one may be happy with the result.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 12:09 pm:
As other have stated, the districts should not represent student population, it should reflect all citizens. In a public school board, everyone in the school district boundaries has a right to be represented. 7 majority black wards is not appropriate when they are not even the largest ethnic group in the city.
I would guess other schools in big cities look at the board districts this way, but the overwhelming majority do not. Leave it to Chicago I guess.
Ultimately this will end up in litigation.
- Nick - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 1:13 pm:
Gerrymandering the maps to reflect the demographics of *students* is one of the dumbest ideas I’ve ever heard
Might as well ditch an elected school board by that point
- DriXander - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 1:35 pm:
I don’t work on education policy, in other districts across the state? other major cities? is there such a stark difference between the voter pop. & who attends the school district? Just curious.
- Suburban Mom - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 1:53 pm:
===I don’t work on education policy, in other districts across the state? other major cities? is there such a stark difference between the voter pop. & who attends the school district? ===
There can be, and it can create problems. One pattern you see a lot of in the Chicago suburbs is that a near-ring suburb becomes much more Latino, their ELL population explodes, etc., and eventually they have to go to voters for a bond issue — and the majority-white electorate, heavily weighted towards retired people, votes down the bond that will be serving a majority-minority student population. Once that happens, there’s usually a few people who jump in to the school board race running on “lower taxes” and “protect our schools” as a thinly-veiled racial grievance complaint.
During the Baby Boom, approximately 2/3 of households had a child attending public school in the household. Today, around 1/3 of households do, due to people living longer, fewer people having children, families having fewer children, etc. So there’s already an issue of a school funding system that’s built on a world where 2/3 of households are directly invested in it through their children when we now exist in a world where 2/3 of people are NOT directly invested and maybe don’t want to pay that much in taxes for schools when they see no personal benefit.
When you add changing racial makeup of an area to the funding challenges already posed by shifting age and household demographics, it can get ugly fast.
- Hannibal Lecter - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 2:28 pm:
=== I don’t work on education policy, in other districts across the state? other major cities? is there such a stark difference between the voter pop. & who attends the school district? Just curious. ===
Another consideration is that white families send their children to private school far more often than other groups.
- cermak_rd - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 2:36 pm:
Hannibal Lecter,
Yes, white students are more likely to go private, wealthier young people are also likely to move to the burbs when they start having children, as well.
- BLMBill - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 3:00 pm:
I am a staunch Democrat, but I have to say, Cor’s map is pretty spot on. I don’t know who this Chris guy is, but he nailed it. Definitely someone I will be paying closer attention to.
- JS Mill - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 4:11 pm:
= and the majority-white electorate, heavily weighted towards retired people, votes down the bond that will be serving a majority-minority student population.=
I am not saying that has never happened, but where has this happened specifically because of an ELL population?
The school funding formula (past and present) accounted/accounts for ELL funding.
For instance, Cicero 99 has a large ELL population and program to go along with high poverty (the two generally go hand in hand but not always). As a result, under the old funding formula the district ran budget surpluses (money they received but did not spend) from $15-$22 million annually under the old funding formula and that was even during the worst of the financial crisis.
The new EBF formula gives them much more money.
So unless you have some evidence I suspect ELL was not why a district needed to go out for an Education Fund referendum (which is what you are talking about) because of ELL costs.
And if you track the referenda during and election year, Ed Fund referenda have the worst record of success across the board every time.
- Amalia - Wednesday, May 10, 23 @ 4:25 pm:
are we drawing other boundaries based on demographics of service usage? like library boards? no we are not. voters vote. everyone pays taxes, either home or via rental payments. don’t we want everyone to buy into the quality of public schools? leave the lines alone.
- Suburban Mom - Thursday, May 11, 23 @ 8:42 am:
Typically the bond is for buildings. But you see older white voters who have for decades supported bond issues for their local schools suddenly voting against a bond issue when the district demographics have changed, was more the pattern I was pointing out.