CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A proposal that would allow for an elected Chicago school board is being floated in Springfield but local community leaders and elected officials gathered at Daley Plaza Sunday morning to say there is something missing from the proposed legislation as it stands.
Nury Ortega is a mother of three Chicago Public Schools students in Little Village. Though Ortega is not a full U.S. citizen she has a seat at the table with the local school council.
"And, yet, because my legal status [is not a U.S.] citizen, I won't be able to vote [in the school board election]," Ortega told WBBM Newsradio.
Ortega, who attended the gathering at Daley Plaza, represented the frustration of many parents like her whose voices would be absent in future Chicago school board elections if the bill were to pass in its current form.
Thirty years ago, a hard-fought win came for thousands of immigrants in Chicago from all parts of the world with CPS legislation that was passed, said Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle.
Del Valle was then a freshman state senator who took part in drafting the Chicago school reform legislation that allowed for all parents, regardless of their citizenship status, a vote in local school council elections. That inclusion is something del Valle said is being left out of the latest bill concerning an elected school board.
“They're talking about leaving them totally out. If the bill gets to the governor without the participation of all parents then the governor must amendatorilly veto that bill,” del Valle told WBBM Newsradio.
Iris Martinez, a former state senator who is now clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County, said all parents with children in Chicago Public Schools should have the ability to vote in Chicago school board elections just as they now have the right to vote in local school council elections.
Related
