A Democracy Experiment at Chicago Public Schools

Note: Community Manager Jessie Nguyen is currently a graduate student at Northwestern University studying journalism. Her beat this quarter is education. She has been following the Chicago Public Schools closely as part of her work.

This year, Chicago elected part of its school board in a historic election, filling 10 of the 21 seats in a traditionally appointed board. 

The change came after years of frustration from community members who were fed up with not having a say as dramatic changes took place at their local schools. Chicagoans pushed for the elimination of the mayoral-appointed board after former Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his board closed 50 schools with low enrollment in 2013, despite pleas from students, parents and teachers, according to WBEZ. It wasn’t until 2021 that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law transforming the board into an elected body by this year.

Starting Jan. 15, 2025, Chicago’s Board of Education will go from seven members to a partially elected 21-member board. Since 1995, the state of Illinois has given Chicago mayors the power to appoint school board members. Both former Mayors Lori Lightfoot and Rahm Emanuel replaced the entire school board with their picks after being elected.

The change comes amid rising tensions over the district’s financial challenges and after Mayor Brandon Johnson’s public dispute with Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez, who was recently asked to resign by the city’s leadership. 

How it works

There are 21 seats for the new board, of which 10 were elected by voters on Nov. 5. The mayor will appoint the remaining 11 members, including the board president. 

Chicago is divided into 10 school board districts and voters elected one board member from each district. The districts are also divided into two halves. If an elected member comes from one half of a district, the mayor must appoint a member from the other half by Dec. 15.

Of the 10 elected board members, four are backed by the Chicago Teachers Union – an ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson; roughly half are former teachers or work in education; and seven are CPS alum. Many of the members are advocates for equity and racial justice as well as improving resources for underfunded schools and expanding school staffing. Award-winning rapper Che “Rhymefest” Smith will represent District 10 as the district’s elected board member.

Why it’s important

CPS is the biggest school district in Illinois and the fourth largest school district in the U.S., serving approximately 323,000 students. Chicago, alongside New York and Boston, is one of the largest cities in the U.S. that has an appointed school board rather than electing its members. 

Newly elected board members will have control over CPS's annual operating budget, which is now $9.9 billion including a $1 billion deficit for the next school year, the academic calendar and the firing and hiring of the new CPS CEO.

Some other concerns Chicagoans have are the underrepresentation of marginalized students in the district, specifically Latino students who make up nearly half of CPS’s enrollment, and the 21-member size. Parents said they want the board to reflect the makeup of the CPS student body, of which 90% are students of color while one-third of the city’s population is white. Of the 10 newly elected members, only three are Latino/Latina.

What’s next

Chicago has plans to transition to a fully-elected board by 2026 which will begin serving in January 2027. Twenty board members will be elected from 10 school districts. The board president will be elected citywide.