The Chicago public schools, one of the worst big-city school districts in the country, is in crisis again. All seven members of the school board, including President Jianan Shi, abruptly resigned on Friday, driving an already chaotic situation into a total meltdown.
The board was supposed to be Maytor Brandon Johnson's lapdogs. The former union organizer for the Chicago Teacher's Union believed he had the board in his back pocket.
But then, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) started spending money it didn't have, creating a $1 billion budget shortfall. The board knew this shortfall was coming but passed its $9 billion budget anyway.
To close that budget gap, Johnson wants to take out a $300 million loan at usurious rates. That may be only the beginning since the teachers have come to collect on their investment in Johnson.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is negotiating a new contract and they expect their handpicked mayor to back them in what promises to be the biggest, most expensive contract in the city's history. Standing in their way is the CEO of the school board, Pedro Martinez.
Martinez opposes the loan idea. He'd rather cut some of the budget bloat and fat from the district. He and Johnson are at loggerheads over the loan, with the board caught in the middle. Johnson wants Martinez gone but the board refused to fire him.
The school board will undergo many changes in January, including expanding the board to 21 members, 11 chosen by the mayor. Johnson denies it's a power play and played the race card to the fullest.
“This is not about a loan,” Johnson said. “It is about investing in our children and not accepting cuts like for too long in this district. Guess who loses when we cut schools? Black and Brown children. I don’t want Black and Brown children to lose under my administration. In fact, they’re not going to lose under my administration. I’m going to fight for them.”
Using children to fight to enrich the teachers is about as low as it gets.
Part of the problem is Johnson's terrible relationship with the state's powerful Governor J.B. Pritzker. During the illegal alien crisis last year, Johnson wanted to open a huge tent encampment that would have been located over a toxic waste dump. When the state refused to approve the site for human habitation, Johnson insisted it was fine and tried to blame the governor for his own stupidity.
Over the summer, the city came hat in hand begging the state to help them close the $1 billion budget shortfall and Pritzker refused. Payback's a beatch.
Johnson can now appoint an entirely new board and their first act will be to send Martinez packing. The teachers' union is blaming Martinez for not trying hard enough to get Pritzker to throw more money down the CPS black hole.
In the end, the departures seemed mutual, a source said. Some board members were upset with the mayor’s handling of the strife and unhappy about the position they were being put in. The mayor, meanwhile, was faced with the unprecedented scenario of his own school board and CEO resisting his demands. Talks about resignations had gone on for weeks, at times prompted by board members and other times by mayoral aides, sources said.
While Johnson might ultimately get his way, these mass resignations likely will be viewed by many as a rejection of the mayor’s approach by his own appointees, especially after a senior aide in his office recently declared that it was Martinez who had “lost the board.” That aide confidently told WBEZ and the Sun-Times that the board was agreeable to a loan.
And it’s an astonishing outcome for this board that was expected to be Johnson’s rubber stamp and has worked hand-in-hand with the mayor to successfully usher in several progressive policy changes ahead of the city’s first school board elections on Nov. 5.
Mr. Martinez’s supporters argue that Johnson's budget plan is irresponsible, given the exorbitant interest rate for the loan. They and Mr, Martinez see the loan proposal and the effort to push Martinez out the door as nothing more than a naked power play by the teachers.
“The entire Chicago Board of Education getting forced out for refusing to oust a fiscally responsible C.E.O. during contract negotiations is stunning,” said Bill Conway, a City Council member, adding that the students “deserve stability, not chaos.”
Johnson, who serves until 2027, doesn't do "stability." He is Mr. Chaos and will continue to run Chicago into the ground until someone stops him.
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