Organizers, families and advocacy groups hold up a banner reading"elected representative school board" as they rally outside Chicago Public Schools headquarters in Chicago on May 26, 2021, to demand a vote on the elected school board bill.
“Our neighborhood schools are facing incredible challenges,” said state Sen. Robert Martwick, also a Chicago Democrat, who was the main Senate sponsor for the legislation that created the elected school board. “During these hearings we’ve heard about the need to increase violence prevention initiatives and improve transportation. We’ve heard about facilities that need to be repaired and expanded, and we’ve heard about calls to address long-standing inequalities and how resources are allocated.
“Students who attend Chicago Public Schools are not equally distributed across the city,” she said. “It is extremely typical for students to travel outside their neighborhoods for school. Their experiences should be reflected across the mapped districts.” The legislation to allow for an elected school board passed through the General Assembly in 2021 over Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s objections. The measure included an immediate moratorium on school closings until 2025. That’s when a “hybrid” board — with half of the members elected and the others, in addition to the president, appointed by the mayor — would be implemented before a fully elected, 21-member school board is in place in January 2027.
They're all Democrats and they all had the same failing ideas.