Chicago Education Alliance seeks to bring clarity to CPS’ toughest issues

On the white board of Arnie Rivera’s downtown office is a list of controversial issues confronting Chicago Public Schools. Looming budget deficits. Half-empty schools. Privately-run charter schools that are increasingly struggling to survive.

When these issues and others have come up at school board meetings over the past year, discussions are often tense. For decades, the mayor appointed the entire board and public debate was often nonexistent. Now it’s a 21-member, hybrid board with 10 elected members who have various interests and allegiances. Next year, all members will be elected and the discourse could become even more fractured and political.

Rivera, a former top official at CPS, is stepping into that fray with the launch of the Chicago Education Alliance, a new organization that’s seeking to help shape CPS policy.

The organization will eventually hire more staff to conduct research and issue policy briefs and recommendations. But first he’ll go around the city listening to what issues parents, teachers and community members think are most important to tackle.

His goal is to help board members understand both the short-term and long-term potential impact of their decisions.

That means: “Really taking a look at, if we do this, what does that mean?” Rivera said. “Sometimes you're dealing with the lesser of two evils. Sometimes there are no good options.”

Education group aims to fill local vacuum

The Chicago Education Alliance is the result of several philanthropies coming together in 2023 to understand what players are pushing education agendas in the city and what is needed to focus on students and academic outcomes.

The philanthropies also wanted to respond to concerns from district leaders about how policy would be affected by the transition to an elected school board.

The philanthropies hired nationally recognized consultants to interview and hold focus groups with dozens of people involved in Chicago’s education community. They also compared Chicago’s landscape with other cities.

They decided that Chicago needed something like Advance Illinois, a major player in shaping state education policy. Advance Illinois helped develop the state’s new education funding formula in 2018, and influenced a range of other issues, from early childhood education to the recruitment of diverse teachers.

Robin Steans, who was the first president of Advance Illinois and still leads it, says Chicago needs an organization to help cut through the noise.

“If ever there was time for something like this, this is it,” she says.

She says the “sweet spot” for Advance Illinois combines listening to the different constituents affected who have a stake in the state’s public education offerings and pairing their experiences with data analysis. Also, Advance Illinois doesn’t take money from interest groups, nor is it looking for government funding.

“We have no axe to grind and no dog in the fight,” Steans said.

Steans’ family foundation is one of several philanthropic groups, including The Joyce Foundation and the Crown Family Philanthropies, supporting the Chicago Education Alliance. To date, more than $5 million has been raised to get the Alliance started.

An organization like the Chicago Education Alliance has not been in the mix for at least a decade. A similar organization, Designs for Change, which focused on policies related to Local School Councils, faded away a few years after its founder died in 2012. Other existing groups try to influence certain aspects of CPS policy, like the budget process, or elevate particular voices, like parents.

The co-chairs of the Chicago Education Alliance’s board — Sylvia Puente of the Latino Policy Forum and Karen Freeman-Wilson of the Chicago Urban League — have long focused on improving conditions for Latino and Black residents.

The board is diverse in terms of age, gender, and race, Freeman-Wilson says, and includes “those that are engaged heavily in education, and those of us who aren’t.”

Freeman-Wilson says she is most interested in advancing policies that promote equity, so that children in Englewood on the South Side get the same education as children in Edgewater on the North Side.

“I think that ultimately, people know what our kids need,” Freeman-Wilson says. “It's just a matter of, how do you deliver that? And sometimes we get so convinced that our way is the best way, that we find it hard to hear someone else’s way.”

She says she hopes the Alliance can act as an independent arbiter of how decisions will likely affect students and schools.

Many tough questions ahead for CPS

CPS faces a lot of daunting issues over the next few years. In addition to budget shortfalls and the continued loss of enrollment, there’s the ongoing tasks of how to improve attendance, the classroom experience and academic outcomes.

What to do about charter schools is one of the thorniest issues. Past mayors proudly opened them, invested in them and often visited them to tout their success. About 17% of CPS’ 316,224 students attend one of the district’s privately-run, publicly funded schools.

But in recent years they have lost their gleam. Like all Chicago schools, several struggle to fill their seats and a handful are either closing or threatening to close.

Recently, the school district has stepped in, sending a cash advance to one charter operator that couldn’t make payroll and taking over the management of five schools next school year. CPS officials estimate that taking over the charters will cost at least $15 million.

Many board members have conflicting opinions on these situations. Some are generally against privately run schools, but also are staunchly against closing schools because students are harmed. Meanwhile, others believe in charter schools, but are also fiscally conservative.

Rivera says this is an issue where the Chicago Education Alliance could weigh in.

To Rivera, the key questions are: “How are you making sure that the decisions take all the implications and all the complexities into account? What's the long-term strategy for these schools?”

He’s in the unique position of understanding issues from many perspectives.

Rivera spent his early years in Puerto Rico with his parents. When he came back state-side at age 5, he didn’t speak much English. His mom was a teacher and his dad was an electrical engineer. Still, he struggled to get to where he wanted to go, which was college.

“I always thought to myself, man, it was hard for me. How difficult must it be for other individuals who don't have as many advantages as I did?” he said.

Rivera says he was inspired to go into education by his third grade teacher. But after being in a classroom for a few years, he decided to go into the administrative and policy side of education.

He has an eighth grade daughter who just completed applications for high school and his wife is a CPS teacher.

Rivera has served many roles in CPS. After working in CPS’ central office early in his career, he was plucked by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel to serve as the city’s deputy chief of staff for education. He then was a senior advisor at After School Matters, which provides jobs for Chicago teenagers, and served as a CPS school board member.

Under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, he was CPS’ chief operating officer, a position in which he made sure schools ran smoothly. Rivera was involved in contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union in 2016 and when they went on strike in 2012 and 2019.

Sitting across the table from union leaders he learned something that he takes into this new position: Trust is paramount, as is respect and empathy, even if you disagree.