CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Some parent and community groups are calling for an elected versus appointed school board, and Mayor Lori Lightfoot is declaring parents will have a voice in whatever way the Chicago Public Schools are run.
Lori Lightfoot ran for mayor saying she favored an elected school board, but since taking office, she has resisted some legislative proposals for a 100-percent elected Chicago Board of Education.
She insists parents must have a voice in any new form of governance, but she opposes the plan introduced by State Senator Robert Martwick, partly because it doesn’t include undocumented parents.
"We have a substantial portion of CPS students and parents who are themselves undocumented, and to basically exclude them from having kind of any voice on a new form of governance for the Chicago Public Schools system doesn't make any sense to me," Lightfoot said.
The Mayor said she and her team are in the process of, in her words, “listening to a lot of stakeholders across the city” about what school governance should look like "based upon people in Chicago, who have a vested interest in making sure that our students are front and center."
The Mayor does agree that the schools can’t move forward unless parents are at the table.
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