Hall Pass: Your Ticket to Understanding School Board Politics, Edition #132

By

Ballotpedia staff

Welcome to Hall Pass, a newsletter written to keep you plugged into the conversations driving  school board governance, the politics surrounding it, and education policy. 

In today’s edition, you’ll find:

  • On the issues: The debate over Kentucky Amendment 2 
  • Thirty five candidates running for 10 seats in Chicago’s first ever school board elections
  • Extracurricular: education news and numbers from around the web
  • Candidate Connection survey

Reply to this email to share reactions or story ideas!

On the issues: The debate over Kentucky Amendment 2

In this section, we curate reporting, analysis, and commentary on the issues school board members deliberate when they set out to offer the best education possible in their district. Missed an issue? Click here to see the previous education debates we’ve covered.

Kentucky voters will decide on Amendment 2 in the Nov. 5 general election. The amendment would permit state funding for non-public education. The measure would add language to the state Constitution saying that “the General Assembly may provide financial support for the education of students outside the system of common schools.” In the Kentucky Constitution, K-12 public schools are referred to as “common schools.”

We covered Amendment 2 in an earlier edition of this newsletter. Learn more about Amendment 2 here. This year, voters in 10 states will decide on 10 education-related measures. 

Tom Shelton writes that legislators would use the amendment to enact voucher programs and divert funding away from public schools. Shelton says the amendment doesn’t limit how much money the state can spend on private education or who would be eligible to receive public education dollars.

Jim Waters writes Amendment 2 wouldn’t establish a school choice program directly. Waters says the measure’s opponents cite low-quality research and exaggerate claims about the amendment’s potential effect on the state’s budget. Waters says school choice programs are popular and beneficial for families and academic achievement.

Amendment 2 advocates can’t win on facts. So now they’re making things up. | Opinion | Tom Shelton, Lexington Herald Leader

“An obvious falsehood is that the amendment won’t lead to major public dollars being diverted to private school vouchers. That’s like ordering an elaborate restaurant dinner and saying you don’t plan to eat it. The whole purpose of Amendment 2 is to allow what’s now unconstitutional: ‘provide financial support for the education of students outside the system of common (public) schools.’ The amendment would overturn seven sections of the constitution to make the widest use of vouchers possible. And it’s deliberately written with no guardrails on who benefits and how much is spent. … Vouchers are the priority, and don’t be fooled by state workarounds like running them through the tax code, putting voucher money into an account or obscuring them with a new name. All these programs are vouchers because they use public dollars for private education. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you know what it is. … It’s important that Kentuckians be clear about the choice in front of them this November. Amendment 2 will completely overturn Kentucky’s longstanding constitutional commitment to public education. And it will divert dollars all communities now depend on to unaccountable private education for the few.”

Opinion: Ignore the fearmongering. Here’s what Amendment 2 does and doesn’t do | Jim Waters, Courier Journal

“Even though Amendment 2 doesn’t set up any school choice program, opponents call it “the voucher amendment.” They use shoddy research, exaggerated claims and pure fearmongering by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy to support their claims that school-choice programs will damage the commonwealth’s budget and public education system. … Passing Amendment 2 doesn’t set up any school choice policy. It simply clarifies that Kentucky’s Constitution doesn’t prohibit lawmakers from funding school choice programs in the future. … Even the KYCEP report acknowledges ‘rapidly growing programs in Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin,’ which begs the question: Why are such alternatives growing in popularity if such options aren’t welcomed by parents, needed by families and setting kids up for success? Recent studies show the positive impact of school choice policies on students’ learning in traditional public schools. For instance, in the 1990s, Florida’s public schools scored lower than the national average – and below or near Kentucky – on the ‘Nation’s Report Card,’ but now has become a leader in academic results. This is all happening with public schools in a state where nearly 500,000 students participate in funded school choice programs that offer them a better education and a brighter future.”

Thirty five candidates running for 10 seats in Chicago’s first ever school board elections

This fall, Chicago voters will see a new office on their ballots—Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Board of Education. Since 1995, the Chicago mayor has appointed all seven members of the CPS board. But due to legislation Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed in 2021, voters will get a chance to directly weigh in on the office that oversees the nation’s fourth-largest district.

We covered the resignations of all seven board members on Oct. 4  

Thirty-five candidates are running to represent 10 districts that are home to around 300,000 residents each. Funding, absenteeism, school closures, charter schools, safety, and the role of teachers unions have been issues in the election, making Chicago a prominent microcosm of education debates playing out nationwide.

Below, we look at the details involved in transitioning from an appointed to an elected board, the biggest issues playing out in the election, and what some of the candidates are saying.

Voters will elect 10 candidates in November who will serve alongside 11 mayor-appointed board members. In 2021, Gov. Pritzker signed House Bill 2908, which expands the seven-member Board of Education to 21 members beginning in 2025. This hybrid board will serve until early 2027, at which time a fully elected board will take control. 

When all 21 members take office in January, the CPS Board of Education will be one of the largest public school boards in the country. Of the 13,194 school districts in the country, only 240—or about 2%—have school boards with more than 10 members. Those 243 districts are spread across 18 states.

The role of charter, magnet, and selective enrollment schools has been a central issue in the election. According to Crain’s Chicago Business’ Judith Crown, “The election has become a referendum on the vision advocated by Mayor Brandon Johnson and the CTU [Chicago Teachers Union], which includes borrowing funds for a new teachers contract, limiting school choice and moving away from traditional metrics and rankings.” 

Johnson, who was a teacher with CPS and an organizer with the CTU, won election as mayor in 2023. The CTU, which has more than 25,000 members, endorsed Johnson in the mayoral race.

In 2023, the school board passed a resolution that called for transitioning “away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools.” 

All Chicago students can enroll in neighborhood schools based on their zip code, but they can also apply to charter, magnet, or selective enrollment schools. During the 2022-23 school year, about 56% of CPS students attended neighborhood schools. 

The CTU and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS), each with different visions for the school system, have backed competing candidates and spent heavily on the election. INCS Executive Director Andrew Broy said, “The question is do these candidates running for school board support the concept that parents should have a choice of where to send their kids to school.” The INCS advocates for charter schools. 

CTU Vice President Jackson Potter said, “You really have to de-emphasize choice in some way to really make the neighborhood schools rise.” 

CTU has endorsed candidates in all 10 districts and contributed more than $800,000 to them or affiliated political action committees. The INCS Independent Expenditure Committee has spent more than $500,000 to promote candidates in seven districts through digital ads and mailers. 

In all, candidates have raised more than $3.1 million in cash and in-kind contributions this year. 

Another PAC supporting mostly pro-charter candidates is Urban Center Action. Paul Vallas, who previously served as the CEO of CPS from 1995 to 2001 and who lost to Johnson in last year’s mayoral election, co-founded the group. The Urban Center Action endorsed candidates in nine districts. 

Disagreements between the mayor and the board over funding have also been an issue in the election—one that led all seven members of the current board to announce their resignations on Oct. 4. On Oct. 7, Johnson appointed seven new members, who will take office at the end of the month. Johnson said the newly appointed board members would remain on the board in January, when the elected members assume office. In a press release, Johnson said new members will get a chance to “orient and gain critical experience prior to welcoming additional elected and appointed members in 2025.”

Johnson clashed with the board and CEO Pedro Martinez over staffing cuts in the 2024-25 budget. The board voted 7-0 on July 25 to pass a $9.9 billion budget for the upcoming school year. Johnson, along with the CTU, opposed aspects of the plan, which cut some support staff as a way to close a $500 million budget deficit. Johnson said, “That is not what the people of Chicago elected me to do, to cut our school district. I am not going to do it.” Johnson instead recommended CPS take out a short-term, high-interest $300 million loan to cover teacher raises and pension payments.

The Washington Post’s Laura Meckler reported on Oct. 21 that CPS received $2.8 billion in Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding—that is, federal grants distributed to public schools during the pandemic—and used the money to add around 8,000 teachers, classroom aides, social workers and more. The district was required to have spent all ESSER money by September of this year, but according to Meckler, “had no clear plan for how to maintain that payroll once the covid relief money was gone.” 

Click here to read our primer on ESSER.  

The 2024-25 budget also did not include money for a new contract with the CTU. Negotiations over that contract are ongoing. The CTU has asked for 9% annual raises, while the district has offered between 4-5%.

Here’s a look at the race for District 4, which features six candidates, including two the CTU and The Urban Center have backed. Six candidates—the most in any district this year—are running to represent the north lakefront district, which includes the Lincoln Park and Lake View neighborhoods. 

According to Chalkbeat Chicago, District 4 has 34 schools and serves more than 23,000 students.

Kimberly Brown, Thomas Day, Carmen Gioiosa, Ellen Rosenfield, and Karen Zaccor have completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey. Andrew Davis is also running in the election. 

The CTU has endorsed Zaccor, while The Urban Center has endorsed Rosenfield. 

Here’s what the candidates told us in their survey responses:

  • Brown said she is “passionate about putting public education at the forefront of governance as the first and primary solution to driving economy, public safety, and infrastructure viability for cities large and small. Schools drive our communities and economy.”
  • Day said the following book reflects his political philosophy: “‘Ours was the Shining Future’ by David Leonhardt, columnist for the New York Times. Leonhardt publishes a morning newsletter for subscribers. He is a left-of-center commentator, but isn’t afraid to question progressive orthodoxies (and neither am I).”
  • Gioiosa said “the primary job of a school board member is to improve student learning and achievement: It’s about improving student outcomes.”
  • Rosenfield said “I fully support implementing and funding CPS’s new school safety plan because safety is about more than physical security. To improve safety and create a positive learning environment, we need to prioritize mental health resources, expand restorative justice programs, and ensure staff are trained in conflict resolution. Strong, trusting relationships between students, teachers, and families are essential.”
  • Zaccor said “Elected officials need to be transparent and accountable, and that doesn’t mean just sending out a newsletter and holding office hours. They need to go out into the community they represent and listen to what their constituents have to say. That means showing up at community events, block club meetings, religious organizations, anywhere their presence would be welcome.”

While Davis has not completed Ballotpedia’s survey, he said the following in response to a Chicago Sun-Times and Chalkbeat questionnaire: “In the 4th District narrowly, maintaining excellence in schools and student success where it currently exists is a critical issue. The 4th District voters are also keenly aware that in large portions of Chicago the system is failing the students. Chicago’s future demands that this be addressed. It is all our problem.”

Extracurricular: education news from around the web

This section contains links to recent education-related articles from around the internet. If you know of a story we should be reading, reply to this email to share it with us! 

Take our Candidate Connection survey to reach voters in your district

As we approach Election Day, we’re featuring responses from school board races in which all candidates have completed our Candidate Connection survey. We’ve previously shared responses from candidates running in general elections for Granite School District Precinct II, in Utah, and Poway Unified Board of Education Trustee Area A, in California. Other races that have recently had all candidates complete the survey include Canyons School District District 3, in Utah, and Alexandria Public Schools Position 7, in Virginia. 

Today, we’re looking at survey responses from April Guerra and Melissa Ross, the two candidates running in the Nov. 5 general election for Round Rock Independent School District Place 2. 

Three seats on the seven-member board are up for election this year. Round Rock Independent School District enrolls around 46,400 students, making it the 20th-largest district in Texas. It encompasses the city of Round Rock, north of Austin. 

Here’s how Guerra answered the question, “What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?”

  • “Support for Special Education: Advocating for better resources and programs for students with dyslexia and other learning differences, promoting curriculum that addresses diverse learning needs to make RRISD truly equitable and diverse.
  • Funding and Equitable Management: To ensure funding across all schools, particularly those serving students with special needs, I advocate for reducing disparities and guaranteeing high-quality education. This involves properly managing funds to navigate financial constraints while providing necessary resources.
  • Academic Success: Maintain a goal of achieving a 90% graduation rate by closely monitoring career, college, and military readiness. Ensure all students have access to the resources they need to graduate prepared for their next steps. Also, work to increase participation in advanced coursework, as currently only 3% of students with special needs have access to these opportunities.”

Click here to read the rest of Guerra’s responses. 

Here’s how Ross answered the question, “What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?”

“Round Rock needs a school board member who understands our community, the needs of our teachers and administrators, and can hit the ground running on day one with the wisdom to solve the issues facing our schools.

In addition to my experience, I’m a dedicated listener who brings people together to find creative solutions that benefit the whole community. I am methodical and take the time necessary to evaluate the pros and cons of the decisions we make and how that will impact students and our community. I value the ideas of others. I know that to solve the problems ahead, we need to bring together a variety of voices and ideas across our community.

Having spent years in the classroom and as a parent advocate, I understand both the challenges and the opportunities in public education.”

Click here to read the rest of Ross’ responses.If you’re a school board candidate or incumbent, click here to take the survey. If you’re not running for school board, but there is an election in your community this year, share the link with the candidates and urge them to take the survey!