October 9, 2024
SCHOOL BOARD CONTESTS ARE A PRELUDE TO OUSTING "SOCIALIST" MAYOR JOHNSON

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) essentially runs the city, and that’s because Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former organizer and lobbyist, is its stooge.

He doubled down on that premise again on Oct. 7 during a press conference reminiscent of the Richie Daley days, in which he harangued the Chicago media for asking basic questions as he unveiled six new Chicago School Board (CSB) members after all seven resigned last week.

The new members’ sole purpose is to vote to ratify the pending CPS contract with the CTU, and likely vote to fire current CEO Pedro Martinez, and take out a high-interest loan to pay for pensions and salaries and a litany of other “wants.”

The new members are Olga Bautista, Michilla Blaise, Mary Gardner, the Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson, Deborah Pope and Frank Niles Thomas. There was supposed to be seven, but one was dropped at last minute.

Think of it: It’s the flunky appointing a bunch of sub-flunkies. And that’s not going to change on Nov. 5 when Chicagoans elect 10 school board members from ten districts. The current board will sunset  by state law as of Dec. 31. But the new 21-member CSB, also established by state law, will have at least 16 pro-CTU flunkies, maybe more. And that’s because Johnson will appoint  11 members who will serve until 2026, until a fully elected board in 2027.

Chicago’s current population is 2,638,159, so each CSB district has about 275,000 people. That’s the equivalent of 5 wards (55,000 each) with about 160,000 total households and maybe 175,000 RVs. As set forth in the attached chart the CTU has fielded a pro-CTU flunky in every district but an upstart pro-School Choice group called Urban Center has candidates in nine.

“We are a voice that demands competency and opportunity” in CPS and education in general, said Juan Rangel, the Urban Center’s CEO. And that means competition, as in secular charter (private-run) schools, which the CTU abhors.

Chicago’s public school enrollment is currently 323,251. The CPS budget is $9.9 billion for 634 public schools in Chicago. The 2024 deficit is $505 million, so that money has to be found somewhere this year.

According to Rangel almost 56 percent of every Chicagoan’s property tax dollar is allocated to public education, which includes the CPS and junior colleges. According to the latest tax bill the Board of Education has unfunded pension liability of $18,032,390, which is more than the city’s $16.6 billion annual budget. A top priority of Urban Center – which is really a “dump Johnson” movement geared toward building the groundwork for the 2027 mayoral election – is school choice. There are about 111 charter schools in Chicago with an enrollment of about 51,000.

Johnson’s (and the CTU’s) mission is to stop the chartering of new non-public schools, a process which is done by the Board of Ed. And that is done by controlling the members of the BOE. Until this year all members and chairman were appointed by the mayor subject to city council approval. That was always perfunctory. The new state law, effective Jan. 1, creates an elected citywide school board composed of 20 members with 4-year terms and a president elected citywide in 2026. There is no pay, but that could change in a flash if Governor JB Pritzker so decrees in 2025.

Under the new law in 2026 there will be 20 members elected from 20 districts plus a president  citywide in the November election, with a later runoff if nobody gets a majority. But 2024 is a preliminary, with ten members elected from ten districts on Nov. 5. The mayor is then empowered to appoint a second member from within each of those districts after Nov. 5. So the playing field is anything but level. The CTU dominates all.

At worst the CTU will have 16 flunkies, at best all 20. Those elected in 2024 will have just a 2-year term, expiring in 2026. The 10-district map is already drawn with the utmost of political correctness: There are 3 Black-majority districts, 3 Latino, 3 White and one mixed. Before 2026 each of those districts will be split north/south into A and B (1A, 1B, etc.) with a population of about 135,000 each, encompassing about two-and-a-half wards. The intended result is 6/6/6/2 Black/Latino/White/mixed.

The Far Northwest Side, for example, will have a District 1A, taking in the 41st Ward, most of the 45th and the west half of the 38th; District 1B will take in the south third (Portage Park) of the 45th, the east half of the 38th, most of the 39th and the east (White) half of the 33rd.

The CTU has endorsed a candidate in 2024’s ten districts as has Urban Center (in 9). “We could win in four,” said Rangel, meaning in the 1st, the Latino-majority 3rd, 7th and 8th and the mixed 6th, which runs from Lincoln Park through the Loop to the near South Side (Bronzeville and Chinatown). That may be meaningless but it will lay a foundation for 2027.

“Johnson is a Socialist,” said Rangel whose UCAPAC will spend at least $700,000 on behalf of 2024 CSB candidates. “We will have paid workers” in the precincts, he added. Given that each CSB district has over160,000 households, a mailer is an expensive proposition. An aldermanic candidate can crank one out for $10-15,000 to just RVs (registered voters), and a state rep candidate for $10,000 to hard and soft D’s in a Democratic primary.

But a CSB election means a mailer to every household with a RV and that could cost upwards of 30K per district. We know where CTU gets its money: From union dues paid by the city’s more than 25,000 teachers and 5,500 support employees. They will have their paid operational arm, United Working Families, swarming the precincts where needed. But what about Urban Center? One need not go any further than the 2023 Paul Vallas for mayor donor list. Republican billionaires Ken Griffin and Richard Uihlien are on board.

The 3-year Plan is to take down Johnson, who has been erratically governing to please his base. Johnson beat Vallas by 319,481-293,033 in the 2023 runoff, winning by 26,448 and getting 52.2 percent. Politics is a game of addition. Since his 2023 win, Johnson has not moved any Vallas voter. They are not voting for Johnson in 2027.

The Urban Center’s goal is to get a ground game in place this year, use it again in 2026, and fund a CSB president candidate in 2026 that can then run for mayor in Feb. 2027 – just 3 months after the Nov. election.

School choice is a salient, relatable issue for parents. They want a quality education for their kids. Texas is on the verge of enacting a parental choice plan wherein the parents get the per-pupil allotment and can spend the voucher as they choose. Imagine if every Chicago parent got a $30,000 plus voucher to send their kid to the school of their choice. CPS enrollment would shrivel by 100,000 in an instant. But the CTU runs the CPS, so that is a fantasy.

The best bet for an anti-CTU win is in the 1st District where pro school choice champion Michelle Pierre is running against ex-teacher Jennifer Custer.

The key is getting the Trump voters to back her. The next best bet is in the 2nd District where 50th Ward (West Rogers Park) Democratic committeeperson Bruce Leon, is running against the CTU’s Ebony DeBerry, an ex-CPS teacher.

I think at least one of them will win.

Read more Analysis & Opinion from Russ Stewart at Russstewart.com

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