What will Johnson's CPS power play mean in Springfield? More state funding — or more headaches for mayor
By installing a new school board that will do his and the Chicago Teachers Union’s bidding, Mayor Brandon Johnson is hoping to turn up the heat on the Illinois General Assembly to increase funding to Chicago Public Schools.
But that mayoral power play — opposed by 41 of the City Council’s 50 members — could accomplish just the opposite.
Instead of coming up with more money for CPS, the Democratically controlled Legislature and Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker could impose more oversight, taking power away from Johnson without providing any additional state funding.
The Council once had the power to confirm appointments to the Chicago Board of Education and sign off on the school system’s annual property tax levy. The General Assembly could reinstate those powers and/or require Council authorization of school loans such as the high-interest $300 million borrowing that Johnson is pressuring the new board to approve.
A Legislature once poised to deliver a fully elected Chicago school board before agreeing to Johnson’s request to phase in the shift to elected members could reverse field and snatch that power away from Chicago’s mayor for the second half of Johnson’s term.
Council approval of school board members could be attached to a now-shelved bill that would have extended a ban on Chicago school closings and limited CPS power to make budgetary and admissions changes to selective-enrollment schools.
The Illinois House overwhelmingly approved that legislation last spring. Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, Johnson’s former boss and political mentor, spared the mayor the embarrassment after Johnson wrote a letter promising not to close or harm selective-enrollment schools widely viewed as the gems of CPS and among the best public schools in the country.
Johnson may be on his own
Yet another option — and maybe the most likely — is that the notoriously risk-averse Legislature, along with a governor who tries mightily to avoid controversy, will do nothing. They could simply let Johnson stew in a political mess of his own making.
State Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, was the prime mover behind the House version of the fully elected school board. She settled for a “hybrid” board, a plan supported by the Chicago Teachers Union after the CTU helped elect Johnson, one of its own, as mayor.
Williams said the “primary reason” for a hybrid board was to guarantee a transition that would “minimize disruptions.”
But that rationale is out the window, thanks to Johnson. The mayor's power play sets the stage for the newly appointed board to dump schools CEO Pedro Martinez and authorize the short-term, high-interest $300 million loan to cover both a new teachers contract and a $175 million pension payment for nonteaching school employees. Johnson, like Lightfoot before him, has shifted that cost from the city to CPS.
Martinez and the seven-member board that resigned en masse Friday apparently sealed their fate by pushing through a $9.9 billion school budget without the pension payment. That saddled Johnson with a $223 million hole in this year’s budget and a nearly $1 billion shortfall in 2025.
“What's been happening the past 40 hours underscores why we need to keep moving toward a fully elected board, and I'm ready for that day to happen. We have to figure out how to move forward in this kind of unusual, difficult transitional phase,” Williams said.
Williams also issued a statement over the weekend warning that "the level of state oversight necessary for the district will be informed by the decisions made by the Mayor and his administration in the coming weeks and months."
Consensus needed — but unlikely
A longtime Springfield observer, who asked to remain anonymous, said the General Assembly would act only if the entire Chicago delegation “comes together and says, ‘We need to do something, and this is what we need to do.’”
That is highly unlikely, considering every Illinois House member is up for reelection, and Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, D-Hillside, is focused on picking up seats.
For those same reasons, the postelection veto session was widely expected to be a weeklong snooze fest, instead of extending over portions of two weeks.
“Springfield doesn’t like to get … in the middle of messes that aren’t theirs to clean up. They’re not gonna do something controversial for no reason,” the observer said.
On Monday, Pritzker, Harmon and Welch were unavailable for comment on Johnson’s board moves or state funding. All three are on a trade mission to Tokyo with plenty of time to talk about the drama unfolding in Chicago.
If the notoriously cautious Harmon were to become emboldened by the actions of Johnson — who was on the senator's staff 20 years ago — the Senate president would have no trouble rounding up the votes to give the Council more power over the CPS board, according to an influential Democratic lawmaker and Pritzker ally.
“Chicago is … setting itself up to be able to get additional funds from the state,” the lawmaker said, but that isn't happening. Instead, legislators could push back.
“They see the mayor as someone who's being destructive to Chicago," the lawmaker said, "and any situation in which we are taking power away from the mayor would be positive for them.”
State Rep. Curtis Tarver, D-Chicago, said the political turmoil would undermine the case Johnson hopes to make for additional state funding for CPS.
Johnson has argued repeatedly and emphatically that the state “owes” CPS more than $1.1 billion.
“Everyone wants to help children, but I don’t think anyone wants to help him — given his lack of leadership,” Tarver said. “I don't believe he has four city legislators that are willing to give him, give CPS any money, and I doubt that he has anybody outside of the city of Chicago who wanted to do so, and primarily because there's been no plan put forth about what they would do with the money.”
New board members announced
Johnson was unapologetic and downright combative during a lengthy news conference at a South Side church on Monday called to introduce six new school board members who are still in the process of being vetted by the mayor’s office.
“Some of the same individuals who claim to support a [fully] elected representative school board only got the gospel once I became mayor of Chicago. These are the same individuals in Springfield that did not fight for adequate funding. That when massive school closings were taking place. None of them stood up in that moment, and to say, 'You know what? Maybe the authority of the mayor is too much,'" Johnson said.
“Now, you actually have a mayor who recognizes democracy, [who] has given the people exactly what they asked for and what they voted for. And now all of a sudden, want to rehash the policies of [former Republican Gov.] Bruce Rauner, who called for state control and takeover? We’re not going down that route. We’re going to invest in our children. … The people of Chicago voted for a parent. They got one of their own,” said Johnson.
Five of the 41 Council members who condemned the mayor’s house cleaning have called a special Council meeting for 2 p.m. Wednesday, or immediately after the regularly scheduled Council meeting that day.
If 26 members — enough for a quorum — stick around, their plan is to have a “committee of the whole” take testimony from the seven former school board members and from officials and experts about fiscal “challenges” facing CPS.
“The City Council can have as many hearings as they want," Johnson said. "There’s only one person who has the authority by state law to make appointments and that’s the mayor of Chicago — and that’s me."
That's the state law for now, anyway.