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Harmon, Welch talk about elected Chicago school board bill

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* Senate President Don Harmon was recently interviewed by WBBM Radio’s Craig Dellimore. Here’s part of what Harmon said on an elected Chicago school board…

I believe there is broad support within the city of Chicago and frankly across the state for an elected Chicago School Board. The Chicago Public Schools are the only schools in the state not governed by an elected school board. Every other suburban and downstate school district has an elected school board. Politically, it has been proved it referendum in the city. And frankly, by just about every politician campaigning for election in the last several years. I know I campaigned in favor of an elected school board. I believe the Speaker of the House did. I know that the governor did and frankly, I know that the mayor did. So it’s hard to derail an issue that everybody has already come out in support of publicly. Nor do I think there was any appetite to do that. The time had come in the Senate.

The House had passed a version of this bill several times before, including earlier this year. In the Senate, we sat down and tried in good faith to negotiate a compromise. And so Senator Rob Martwick from the Northwest Side was the lead sponsor of the original bill. Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, who represents a part of the West Side of the city as do I, was a sponsor of the mayor’s counter-proposal. And we tried to negotiate a bill that provided for a measured and reasoned transition from the fully appointed school board we have today to a fully elected school board. So in the end, it won’t go into effect in the fall of next year as the original proposal would have. It will transition over time with a fully elected school board being seated in January of 2027. And I hope that gives everybody time to weigh in, measure the consequences and do this right. And I trust that the mayor is going to be a willing and necessary partner.

* Harmon was also asked about Mayor Lightfoot’s opposition to the size of the new 21-member board, something that House sponsor Rep. Delia Ramirez said would not be changed…

We spent a lot of time wrestling with that issue, because it is a large board. But at the same time, the city of Chicago is a very large city. And if the model in other school districts is seven members elected at-large, and if you did that in Chicago, you would have seven people running citywide for a position on the school board. I think it would tilt the scales in favor of those folks with money or those folks backed by people with money. The wisdom of the 20-member board with one member elected city wide as the as the chair is that the size of the district is manageable. It’s not much different than a House of Representative district. And what that means is that somebody without money, somebody without a political organization can still run an effective campaign by going door to door and talking to neighbors and listing friends. And so real people will have a fighting chance of getting elected to the to the Chicago Public School Board. And I think that’s really important. And that persuaded me in the end.

* Harmon was then asked why no spending limits were put on school board campaigns…

Well, I would be all for that, or for public financing for the races. But the US Supreme Court fairly well resolved that issue for us with the Citizens United decision that said we can’t stop rich people from spending all the money they want from their own pocketbook on these elections. So it’s hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube on an issue like that. I hope that the size of the district will give those real people that fighting chance to get themselves elected to the school board and have a voice in their children’s future.

* From House Speaker Chris Welch’s interview with Laura Washington and Lynn Sweet…

Q: Is it possible that the the fundamental bill itself will change? The mayor doesn’t want to fully elect the school board, and she’s been fighting that battle for a long time. Is it possible that you could retreat or the leadership could retreat from that? […]

A: No. We supported a fully elected school board. That’s what’s in the bill that passed. I don’t see that changing. There’s other issues that the mayor has addressed.

* When asked how allowing undocumented residents to vote would work, even though it’s not in the bill passed by both chambers, Welch said…

You’re asking me to answer a hypothetical question. I don’t even think it’s, you know, got to be an issue. The lawyers are going to guide the parties in this. If it’s not constitutional, it’s not going to be in the bill.

* Harmon was asked if he would be open to changing the law to allow undocumented residents to serve on the elected board…

Well, the beauty of the legislative process is it is just that it is a process. We are never done. We don’t go out of business. And as proud as I am of the work that we have done in a variety of arenas, we never get everything right. And even when we think we’ve gotten something right, something in the rest of the world might change that requires us to revisit. So this is a process.

* Related…

* A bill for an elected Chicago school board has passed. Now what?: Ramirez called the red alarm about CPS finances “fear-mongering” and a late attempt to come up with reasons to kill the bill. “The city has this liability regardless,” Ramirez said. “This bill passing or not, this debt was beginning to incur more and more. I don’t see the city in any way walking away from its schools and the school district.”

* Mayor Lori Lightfoot declines to concede defeat on elected school board bill passed by lawmakers, says there’s still time to negotiate: “We’ve got to address some of the obvious deficiencies in the bill,” Lightfoot said, adding that those include the size of the board and a lack of campaign finance “guardrails” to prevent exorbitant political spending.

* Illinois House Speaker Chris Welch reflects on his first legislative session

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jun 21, 21 @ 11:36 am

Comments

Not sure why the mayor keeps complaining. It’s now off her plate.
She should ask the GA to pass a bill that relieves the city from paying CPS bills. Reverse the Edgar Daley deal and give CPS its own line item in the property tax code in the city just like everyone else. Sure the mayor may lose some revenue initially but I think it’ll be a net gain in the long run.

Comment by Frank talks Monday, Jun 21, 21 @ 11:52 am
===relieves the city from paying CPS bills===

Those bills are almost solely pension payments that the city has been paying (or, more accurately, not paying) for 100 years.

…and about half of that pension cost is for city workers.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jun 21, 21 @ 11:53 am
I don’t think the system can be fixed, so who controls it may not matter much. I expect CPS budgets and property taxes to go up under an elected board. CPS already spends roughly as much per student as Naperville, so I doubt more money will help.

I think it will take radical change to educate Chicago’s children. I don’t see the will or the skill.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Monday, Jun 21, 21 @ 2:28 pm
Not only can CPS improve, it has done so. Since the 1995 legislation, graduation rates have moved from under 50% to over 80%, and student academic growth is one of the strongest in the nation - gains driven by low-income students, and students of color. And while CPS spends roughly the same as Naperville, it should be spending much more than Naperville, because the level of student need in CPS is that much greater. So money would definitely help…which makes CPS’ gains in the teeth of chronic underfunding that much more impressive, and explains why CHicago is in the national spotlight, with many trying to understand and copy its playbook.

Comment by Fact checker Monday, Jun 21, 21 @ 4:03 pm
Hey Last Bull Moose, In 2020 Naperville spent 14% more than CPS per student and Naperville has much lower need for a variety of, high cost per unit, support services - given the level of need of the student population. Of course the CPS system could be fixed, but there are powerful interests supported by people like you that don’t want to fix the problems. For the very few who can get into the selective enrollment schools at the very top - the education is among the best in the country. For most though, it is a low quality education that is provided by CPS. Overall, CPS exists to manage and control the lower rungs of class structure in Chicago. It provides child-care services for the bottom 1/2 of the work force with kids. Beyond watching the kids as parents work, the CPS system provides basic knowledge, hard and soft skills, cultural and social norm socialization for the children of the mostly Black and Brown working-class communities of Chicago. On the whole, the people doing the work are good people doing the best they can under needlessly substandard circumstances. & we know from other times and places that doing Pre-K and K-12 educaation more effectively is actually cost effective overall & in the long run as the more educated but still lower class people experience: less crime, less domestic violence, less disease, are more on-the-ball patients when they are sick, recidivate less after prison, get addicted to drugs less, spend less time unemployed, experience less skill erosion when they are unemployed etc. etc. etc. More educated people are cost effective, overall, and in the long-run. But overall and in the long are secondary to the short-term immediate needs of the people with wealth and income. What they want is what matters most. And they want to not pay taxes that go to reducing the hardship of poverty for kids in Chicago. Reducing the hardship of poverty is more expensive for the rich people who end up paying the taxes to pay for those programs. Chicago is good places to be rich, and a bad place to be poor. C’est le guerre classe!

Comment by SN1848 Monday, Jun 21, 21 @ 4:14 pm
Fact Checker Hope you are right and I am wrong.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Monday, Jun 21, 21 @ 5:15 pm
Last Bull Moose and SN1848 - the gains in Chicago have been driven by low income students and students of color - not by wealthier students or white students. That’s just a fact. In addition, Black and Latino academic growth, and growth of low income students in CPS outpaces that of other Illinois districts and that of low income students and students of color in other districts across the country. CPS has plenty of problems, but they are also getting some things right. And every kid that graduates that might not have otherwise, and every kid who truly grows and masters critical skills and content faces a tangibly real and better future. So let’s keep working on what we can and should improve, but let’s please not demagogue this and ignore real progress - lest we squander it. Would like to think we can all agree that wouldn’t be good for students and families.

Comment by Fact checker Tuesday, Jun 22, 21 @ 10:45 am