By Erin Geary
April 19, 2024
The Chicago School Board elections are upon us. Ten seats will be filled by those who sway voters to their way of thinking regarding the best way to run the Chicago Public Schools. Those that win will have a tough task ahead of them because the other ten seats are appointed by the mayor. Finding consensus will be difficult, for Mayor Johnson’s vision of CPS is led by Chicago Teacher Union’s Stacy Davis Gates.
And this fact should be the winning ticket for a school board candidate. Unions should not decide the fate of educating children. Stacy and Jackson Potter are more interested in lining the pockets of teachers, which means greater dues for the union. Chicagoans have an opportunity to stop this money train leading nowhere and should consider the written “Board Member Expectations and Conduct” before casting a vote.
First, a candidate must state how their win would ensure student success. Avoid those who give platitudes listing pie in the sky hopes and dreams. What specific changes will they push while serving their two years before yet another election? Literacy must be a top priority. Indiana, for example, recently announced that teachers will be required to obtain a literacy endorsement.
Here, the Illinois State Board of Education created a plan to raise literacy skills using the new research supporting phonics. However, the plan acts as a guide and is not mandatory. Listen carefully to how each candidate will address an ever-growing problem.
English language learners (ELL) are big business for teacher training, texts, and hiring. The question is why? Those seeking refuge in the United States should speak English. It is the language that brings us together as Americans. At the same time, cultural traditions can continue within the home, at churches, and cultural celebrations. As Teddy Roosevelt once said, “There is no room in this country for hyphenated Americanism. … Any man who comes here … must adopt the institutions of the United States, and, therefore, he must adopt the language which is now the native tongue of our people, no matter what the several strains in our blood may be. It would not be merely a misfortune, but a crime to perpetuate differences of language in this country” (Education Week).
CPS is already failing to teach reading to children who speak the language. Having separate ELL teachers is ridiculous. Immerse those with various languages within English speaking classrooms with a focus on phonics and phonemic awareness. They can all learn together. Which then leads us into another area of expectations listed for board members. They must swear to “respect taxpayer interests by serving as a faithful protector of the school district assets.” The candidates who succinctly state how they will cut CPS costs and lower taxes will become standouts. CPS spends approximately $30,000 per student and has a budget of $9.5 billion.
Stacy Davis Gates wants more money from the city to give to teachers for “housing assistance.” In other words, Chicago is too expensive for young college graduates. In her estimation, first responders who are receiving housing assistance are no different than teachers. It is true that the lack of learning in Chicago is an emergency but not one that requires monies to help teachers live in their condos overlooking the lake. Instead of wasting even more tax dollars on CPS via the CTU, the Chicago School Board should get rid of the residency clause in teachers’ contracts. There is no reason that a person willing to take a job in a CPS school should have to live in Chicago. As long as they come to work on time, who cares where they live?
But politics plays a role in this. The board mandates teachers live in Chicago because then those teachers will buy food, clothing, sundries, go to restaurants, etc., thus being taxed at higher rates than the suburbs. But we want the best teachers teaching low-performing students. Moreover, it’s absurd to conflate the role of a firefighter with that of a teacher. Get rid of the residency mandate.
Lastly, a candidate who truly wants to change the direction of CPS and put kids first is a must for a board member. Yet, there is a proposal on the table to pay Chicago School Board members. According to Chalkbeat Chicago, “Being a CPS board member requires between 25- 30 hours of work per month, according to the board’s website, and involves attending public meetings, briefings with district officials, visiting schools, and reading hundreds of pages of documents every month.” Additionally, there are other large cities who pay their members. Denver pays their school board members $33,000 per year and in Los Angeles they get paid up to $125,000 per year. Yes, let’s pay members who willingly took a non-paid position because they work 30 hours a month and have to read documents.
Chicago is already in debt, so another tax raise would have to be proposed. Perhaps Bring Chicago School Board Members Home would have a nice ring. No doubt, paying school board members could open up a can of unethical worms, thus defeating their pledge to “[retain] the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels.” Money corrupts. And for those believing that paying board members will entice those with skin in the game living on the West and South Sides, Duke and University of North Carolina studied the issue and found that incentivizing board members hoping for more economically diverse members had the opposite effect: “The researchers found states with higher salaries actually had fewer working-class people serving” (Chalkbeat Chicago).
In short, we need to have elected school board members who are willing to upset the apple cart to get CPS students literate, which should include shutting down CTU’s control and power; getting rid of the residency clause in order to encourage high performing teachers to work in the city; and ensuring that those elected and appointed are doing the job because they want what is best for kids not themselves. Continue next page
Having elected Chicago School Board members is a chance to change the course of decades of failure. Become engaged and do not sit on the sidelines this November.
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Erin Geary has thirty years of teaching experience in Chicago Public Schools, suburban public schools, and the Catholic Archdiocese. After retiring, Erin’s interest in writing led her start her own Substack in 2022. Her account– Common Folk 365– is where she writes unabashedly about politics, education, and culture. Her columns can be found at commonfolk365.substack.com,
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