This year, 2021, is the 26th anniversary of the Chicago School Reform Amendatory Act passed by the 89th General Assembly, which established a mayoral-appointed school board for Chicago. A quarter century of mayoral control has yet to set the Chicago Public Schools on strong footing in terms of fiscal stability, racial equity, enrollment, or labor relations. Our constituents have waited long enough for the fundamental democratic right to elect the people who run their schools, a right afforded all other Illinois residents.
Please help us pass SB 249 this year to ensure that every Illinoisian has a voice in how their children learn.
Honorable Senator Harmon,
The undersigned school boards and school board members in your district urge you to support and to call for a vote SB249, which allows Chicago Public School families to have an elected rather than an appointed board. We are fully aware of the merits of having an elected representative school board, and believe that elected school boards are a more effective method for including the voices of families and the community than school boards appointed by government officials. Therefore, we wish to express our hope in seeing the same for the people of Chicago.
Respectfully,