* Senate President Don Harmon…
The people of Chicago deserve representation and accountability. The Illinois Senate is not going to consider an elected school board bill with woefully inadequate ethical provisions.
We are concerned with the failure to include strong ethical safeguards in the legislation the House approved.
For example, there is no prohibition on executives and employees of school district contractors and vendors being able to serve on the board.
The House legislation opens the door for corruption by exempting board members from the requirements under the Public Officer Prohibited Activities Act.
A Chicago School Board must be held to the same ethical standards as every other school board in Illinois.
These are specific accountability protections the public requested during numerous Senate hearings. We also heard repeated testimony regarding the importance of electing all 20 board members next year, a provision the Senate supports and one that is lacking from the House version.
We are eager to work with the House on the shared goal of an elected representative school board but we will not accept watered down ethical provisions, and we believe the parents, families, students and taxpayers of Chicago deserve immediate representation.
Much progress has been made this week. I look forward to continuing discussions with our colleagues in the House to swiftly reach an agreement.
…Adding… Rep. Ann Williams, sponsor of HB4221, which is the House’s latest version of an elected school board bill…
The House and Senate are both working towards the same goal: a fully elected school board for Chicago Public Schools. While we may have suggested different paths to accomplish that goal, and these particular concerns from Senate President Harmon were never brought to our attention until tonight, I feel confident we can continue to work together to achieve a product that Chicago can be proud of.
- Thomas Paine - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 8:00 pm:
Harmon raises a good point. CPS has a $6.9 billion budget and history of contract problems involving its CEO and board.
If someone was indeed angling to exempt the board from ethics provisions that apply not just to every school board in Illinois, but virtually every elected body, you seriously have to worry what they were up to.
“We are worried about teachers controlling the school board but want to open the door to contractors controlling the school board” is not a great look.
Oopsie?
- Navin Johnson - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 9:08 pm:
No ethical issues with an elected Chicago school board, nope: https://www.chicagoreporter.com/highlights-decade-1994/
- JS Mill - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 10:30 pm:
=A Chicago School Board must be held to the same ethical standards as every other school board in Illinois.=.
Harmon is right. So is @Thomas Paine
- Leslie K - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 10:47 pm:
===Harmon is right. So is @Thomas Paine===
Agree. (So I would also say JS Mill is right.) I’ve been on the fence regarding an elected Chicago school board (partly out of deference to those more knowledgeable because this is not my wheelhouse). But if we are doing it, could we please actually do it well? (And I don’t want that to be a rhetorical question.)
- Thomas Paine - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 11:04 pm:
I had a chance to read the actual language tonight. It does indeed strike key ethics provisions from the Chicago School Board. It allows a senior employee of a company that has contracts with the board to serve in the board, as long as they abstain from voting on matters directly related to their contract.
This leads to the very corruption of which Ed Burke was long accused, where he demurely abstains on voting on zoning matters involving his clients after making sure everyone in the room knows that they will vote for it if they know what’s good for them.
This is how you end up with an “I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine” school board.
See Page 510.
https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/103/HB/PDF/10300HB4221lv.pdf
- Thoughts - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 11:32 pm:
At this point both chambers need to punt this issue. Why waste so much time on something that is Chicago’s problem. Let the city council deal with it.
- Oswego Willy - Wednesday, Nov 8, 23 @ 11:41 pm:
=== Why waste so much time on something that is Chicago’s problem. Let the city council deal with it.===
Friend, the legislation needs clarification towards the number, representation, and how that representation is distributed.
Things ain’t arbitrary on this. The chambers need to do far better than a mere trailer bill cleanup. Heavy lift here to get it done.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, Nov 9, 23 @ 6:57 am:
=== Any mayor of the city, especially the current one, is highly influenced by the CTU. ===
LOL. Lori Lightfoot, Rahm Emanuel, and Richard Daley disagree with you.
Anyone looking at the history of electoral politics in Chicago would have to disagree as well. It’s hard to point to an election since we had mayoral control of the school board and say that schools were a dominant fact in the election.
That is not to say that the CTU has not had an influence, but it is an influenced they have earned by having 25K members who are very well organized and effective at grassroots organizing and politics.
You want to handicap them for exercising their constitutional rights? That’s not the way democracy works. Not only that, its proven counter-productive. Raising the threshold for the CTU to strike only succeeded in unifying them around a more aggressive agenda.
Disenfranchisement is not a winning long term strategy. If you think that teachers engaging in the political process puts your side at a political disadvantage, ask yourself some questions like
1) Why are we on the opposite side of teachers all the time?
2) Why aren’t we more engaged?
3) Is the anti-teacher, anti-public school sentiment just a minority viewpoint in this electorate?
It never ceases to amaze me that people can reach adulthood in the United States and believe that losing an election is proof that the system is broken, and never consider that either they should have worked harder or the majority just disagrees with them. The only topper is when the same folks complain about “participation trophies.”
=== An elected school board in Chicago will exist solely to cater to the teachers union ===
Parents of public school children are the dominant force in school board elections.
- Kate - Thursday, Nov 9, 23 @ 7:04 am:
==Anyone looking at the history of electoral politics in Chicago would have to disagree as well. It’s hard to point to an election since we had mayoral control of the school board and say that schools were a dominant fact in the election.==
Property taxes were also a lot lower than the suburbs then and catholic school tuition was more affordable for working families. Schools were always a factor on whether working families stayed in Chicago or left for the suburbs. Voting with your feet does impact mayoral elections.
- DougChicago - Thursday, Nov 9, 23 @ 7:14 am:
As a 30–year resident of the City of Chicago, I can assure you we are not equipped for an elected school board. We are barely capable of self-government at all.
Having a school board utterly dominated by the CTU is going to be a catastrophe.
Any mayor of the city, especially the current one, is highly influenced by the CTU. But at least he has other competing constituencies to worry about and to try to satisfy. An elected school board in Chicago will exist solely to cater to the teachers union.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, Nov 9, 23 @ 11:19 am:
===As a 30–year resident of the City of Chicago, I can assure you we are not equipped for an elected school board. We are barely capable of self-government at all.===
What, should Chicago end all democracy then, have 50 feudal fiefdoms, knights and caste system of royalty towards ruling families?
Yeah. That’s how silly yours reads too.