Greetings School Leaders:
Everything from our school budgets to our salaries will be impacted by the Mayor's Office, so I've ensured both candidates know your concerns and commit to taking positive action to address them. I briefed them on our severe understaffing crisis, the inequities of SQRP, compensation issues, and the need to include the voices of school leaders in policymaking. Both candidates stated on the record that they would take affirmative steps to solve each of the problems I discussed with them. Below is a summary of the briefing I gave the candidates about each problem, along with each candidate's response.

Problem Summary
Chicago Public Schools is the most understaffed school district in Illinois, according to data from the Illinois State Board of Education. We now rank 861st out of 861 school districts in the ratio of students to certified staff. The average Illinois school with 600 students has 60 staff members, while the average Chicago school with the same number of students has just 35 staff. We have nearly half the staff for the same number of students while our students often have a greater need for the services of those staff. What is your response to this and how would you approach addressing it?

Lightfoot Response
I think this is something that’s critically important. We have to build in the supports that we need for our kids to thrive. We know that many students have needs way beyond reading and writing. For example, we have to make sure they’re healthy. We have to make sure they have a love of learning; that’s why librarians are critically important. Given the circumstances that many of our students find themselves subject to in communities that are under siege and under stress, we need to make sure we have school counselors available. Those things have to be part of the ecosystem of learning. Those things, as you know, have been grossly depleted and we have to make sure we find the funding to add those resources back into those communities because they’re critically important to the way in which our kids learn.

Preckwinkle Response
That’s something I’d work hard to address. We need to have support services at our schools. We need nurses, social workers, librarians. It’s about reallocating resources, and looking for efficiencies because we need more adults in the schools to help support the kids. 

Problem Summary
Many school leaders--especially those who serve students in impoverished neighborhoods--feel the criteria by which they and their schools are rated is unfair and inequitable. Attendance, for example. I know from experience that a principal serving a poor community can move mountains to raise attendance from 90% to 95% while a principal serving an affluent community can get 96% or higher each year without lifting a finger. I know because I was an administrator in both types of schools. CPS' rating system uses those percentages to say the affluent school and its principal are better and more effective but that's not necessarily the case. Whether it's attendance or test scores, most principals feel we need a fairer measure than the one we have right now because it punishes us when we decide to serve underrepresented populations. We embrace accountability when it comes to moving students forward and improving their performance no matter their background, but don't punish us for the decision we made to serve impoverished communities.

Preckwinke Response
I think you’re absolutely right. Preparation for school is a zip code issue. If you live in a privileged zip code they’ve had early childhood education and preschool, but there are communities where that’s not the case. They are not as well prepped as kids from wealthier zip codes and that needs to be taken into account in rating schools. I’m also open to looking at the formula for allocating funds. The needs are greater in some communities and therefore you have to allocate the resources differently.
 

Lightfoot Response
I can say that that’s not been an issue that’s been flagged for me. It’s on my radar screen now that you’ve raised it, and what you’re saying makes a lot of sense to me. The circumstances under which a particular school operates are always going to be unique. Even within the same community, you’re going to find differences. I believe in metrics, data, and accountability but it’s got to be around an apples-to-apples comparison and not apples-to-bananas. I think that’s a fair point you make and it’s something I’ll focus on. My list of questions for CPS leadership continues to grow but I will definitely add that to the list.

Problem Summary
Among the many compensation issues I'd like to discuss with you is an absurd CPS policy that treats assistant principals who become principals as “new hires” by ending the district's contribution to their pensions, which creates a disincentive for existing assistant principals to become principals. It is a backward and thoughtless policy. Will you reverse it?

Lightfoot's Response
That’s clearly something that we have to address. We don’t want to create disincentives for people who aspire to positions of leadership within the system. It’s not an issue I was familiar with, but now that you’ve flagged it for me I will look into it right away and raise it with CPS leadership. We want people to aspire to be principals. We can’t create a financial disincentive for them to do so. That seems wrong to me. I want to understand the rationale and the financial impact but certainly, I’m interested in learning more about it. If we can right this wrong I’ll take the necessary steps to do so.

Preckwinkle's Response
I wasn't aware of that policy. Of course, it needs to be reversed. It's ridiculous.

Problem Summary
Since their arrival in 2011, the Emanuel appointees at CPS have cared little about the voices of parents, teachers, and community members. They also attempted to side-step input from principals. I've had to pursue policy victories by working with CPAA members and community allies to force CPS to the table in the courts, through the State Board of Education, through a powerful research program on special education and administrator compensation, and through the State Legislature. How will you approach getting input from CPAA?

Preckwinkle Response
You’re the elected representatives of the principals and you’re the people who should be at the table. That’s pretty simple. They shouldn’t be cherry-picked. They should be representatives of your organization. I spent ten years as a classroom teacher so I know the principal is the most important person in a school. They set the tone and they’re the educational leaders, so of course I want them at the table. 

Lightfoot Response
Principals have to be at the table. Full stop. All stakeholders have to have a place at the table and clearly, principals play an incredibly important role. Some would argue the most important because you’re setting the tone for the school, you hire the teachers, you’re organizing the budget to make your priorities. So of course principals have to have a seat at the table. And as I mentioned before, I’m going to go to the agent who’s responsible for being the voice and advocate for principals. The principals elected you as their representative, and you can't go around a representative body.

I appreciate Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle taking the time to talk with me, and I look forward to working with our next mayor to address the issues that concern our members. While a place at the table is a positive change, that place means nothing if everyone at the table is eating while we have no plate in front of us. No mayor can give us the power we need to command a full plate. We have to build that power for ourselves and be willing to use it to accomplish our goals. Frederick Douglass once said, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.... Find out just what a people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and that injustice will continue until it is resisted."

Whether its teachers and principals, or clerks and nurses, those of us who work for a living must organize ourselves, resist unjust and inequitable policies, make reasonable demands of our employers, build allies and be willing to take action with those allies in order to accomplish our goals. We want fair pay and good working conditions for ourselves, as well as good learning and living conditions for the students and families we serve.

We must continue to build power to accomplish those goals. During my first term, we built power through the courts, the State Board of Education, through research, and through the State Legislature. We have to expand and build on that power to take full advantage of our place at the table. Follow this link or click the button below if you'd like to be a part of expanding that power with us.