Lawmakers, pass a bill that protects Chicago's selective schools and programs

Before the Illinois Legislature passed a bill in 2021 to give Chicago an elected school board, supporters repeated the mantra of “democracy” over and over: An elected board, they said, would finally give Chicagoans, not the mayor, the final say on setting policy for the city’s public schools.

In November, that will happen, but only partially, with a hybrid board of 10 elected members and 11 mayoral-appointed members. Chicago won’t have the fully elected board so many folks clamored for until 2027.

With that in mind, and for the sake of thousands of students, lawmakers in Springfield should back a proposed bill that would bar the district from making drastic changes that impact selective-enrollment schools — some of which rank among the best schools in the country — until a fully elected board is in place in 2027.

Under the proposal, the Board of Education would be barred from any closures, changes in admissions standards, or other action that results in “a decrease in either the total amount or percentage of funds” provided to selective schools. It would apply to selective schools at both the elementary and high school level.

Kudos to those lawmakers who have already signed on to support the bill. More lawmakers should step up and do the same.

Let’s be clear: Supporting this bill (originally filed as HB 5766) is not about maintaining an “apartheid system,” or denying funding to neighborhood schools, or preventing change that is “frightening to some of those in power,” as one opposition email we’ve seen puts it. Overheated rhetoric only pits one group of schools against another.

Supporting the bill is about letting Chicagoans, as represented by a fully elected school board, decide the thorny question of the future of Chicago Public Schools, which has been brewing ever since the board passed a resolution late last year signaling its intent to focus on neighborhood schools and shift away school choice.

School choice, in which selective schools all across the city play a key role, is not perfect. The application process is often fraught with stress for kids and parents. Not every family gets their first pick of a school. Too often, families that do get their top pick have to send their child to a school several neighborhoods away. And neighborhood schools deserve adequate resources too, so that families can get a high quality learning experience for their children in their own community.

Many of the students in selective schools, it should be noted, are Black and Brown students doing their best to get a good education in a flawed system. Remember too, that selective schools are also in neighborhoods of color like Pullman, Englewood, the Southwest Side, Bronzeville and elsewhere.

‘Raising an eyebrow’ on funding

Why is the bill important now, when City Hall and the current board have said they don’t intend to get rid of selective schools?

In part, because of school budgets.

Last week, principals got their first look at school budgets for next year under the district’s new funding formula, which focuses on school needs instead of enrollment and favors high-poverty schools. But it also eliminates extra money historically provided to selective programs and schools and to magnet schools, as WBEZ’s Sarah Karp reported last week.

One local school council president at a selective school on the South Side told us that his school took a big funding hit. “I don’t fault CPS for trying to uplift neighborhood schools,” he told us. “They say they’re not going after selective schools, but by their actions, they look like they are. It’s raising an eyebrow for sure.”

A CPS spokesperson told us in an email that that “some schools may see shifts but CPS is maintaining the overall level of funding to our schools. Every school, regardless of size, location, or type, is guaranteed a foundational baseline of positions and resources.”

CPS has typically made school budgets available to the press, but hasn’t yet done so this year. The district ought to do so, now. If there really is no disproportionate impact on any one set of schools, make the budgets public — and prove the point.

The Sun-Times welcomes letters to the editor and op-eds. See our guidelines.