(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Thursday she supports a permanently hybrid Chicago school board that would include appointed and elected members — and one that would be smaller than the “super structure” envisioned by some Illinois state lawmakers.
Lightfoot made her detailed comments in the wake of a measure passed by the Illinois Senate that would create a 21-person, fully elected Board of Education by decade’s end.
Lightfoot currently appoints Chicago’s seven school board members and stands to lose control of the Chicago Public Schools, if the House goes along with the Senate plan.
Here’s what the mayor says she would support: a permanently hybrid board with some elected members but with a majority of mayoral appointees. Lightfoot said the city spends significant financial resources on CPS and should have significant say in its governance.
The mayor said doesn't like the proposed size of the 21-member school board, noting that the largest elected school board in the U.S. has nine members. New York, which has the largest board of education, all appointees, is 13 members, she noted.
“We’re talking about creating this super structure that is going to be fractious, that I think is going to have a hard time governing,” Lightfoot said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Community activists who have clamored for years for an elected school board on Thursday derided the Senate measure for taking too long to kick in. They said the Senate should have gone with an earlier House version, which Lightfoot also opposes.
Mayor Lightfoot is the guest on this weekend’s “At Issue,” which airs 9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Sunday.
Related
