After the April 4 mayoral runoff, all eyes will turn toward Chicago’s foray into an elected school board, the most consequential transformation in governance of the city’s public school system in a generation. In 1995, Illinois’ legislature handed Mayor Richard M. Daley control over Chicago Public Schools. Come July, when a newly created special committee of the legislature is tasked with enacting its recommendations for how those 21 seats should be drawn, informal campaigning is expected to begin by summer’s end.
Chicago’s students have the most to gain or lose with this seismic shift. With more than 1 in every 10 Chicagoans enrolled in CPS, the board’s effectiveness affects many and matters enormously. This elected board, like the existing appointed one, will still need to allocate and pass budgets on time, approve procurement contracts, reach collective bargaining agreements and enact policies that strengthen support for students, parents, teachers and school administrators. And whereas Chicago’s mayor has traditionally been responsible for hiring and firing the district’s CEO, that responsibility will now rest with the board.
Yet the sheer size of Chicago’s school board could condemn it to failure even before it commences. Thankfully, Springfield leaders still have a chance to correct the board size before districts are drawn this summer.
A swollen school board consisting of 21 members violates best practices in board governance and represents a radical outlier compared with other large, elected urban school district boards. No Chicago constituency believes 21 members are needed; less than 1 in 5 CPS parents advocated for a board with more than 16 members. Such a size also violates state law: Under the Illinois School Code, school boards may have either three or seven members. With 21 members, Chicago’s board would be three times the size of that of any other Illinois school district.
Research consistently shows smaller private sector boards operate more effectively than larger ones. A study of 400 companies produced for The Wall Street Journal found that smaller boards produced higher returns and better results for several reasons: They are more likely to identify and act on CEOs’ poor performance; they dedicate more time to tackle issues; and, perhaps most importantly, they develop stronger interpersonal relationships, improving cohesiveness and a sense of common purpose.
A 21-member CPS school board would dwarf the boards of other large urban school districts. Several districts with larger or comparable population sizes — such as Los Angeles and Clark County, Nevada — have seven-member elected school boards, while Miami-Dade County in Florida and Houston each have nine-member boards. Indeed, Chicago’s board would be more than twice the size of more than 90% of all school boards in America. The only urban school district with a similar size is New York City, whose 23 members, selected through a combination of borough elections and mayoral appointments, serve as a quasi-advisory council and possess no oversight or approval authority over key district functions like budgeting.
The only justification for a larger school board is to increase the likelihood that its members will be more diverse and, therefore, more reflective of CPS’ student population. However, Chicago’s school board law forbids board member compensation — despite the fact that more than half of all school board members nationally receive compensation for their time and that numerous statewide boards and commissions provide salaries or stipends to their members. School board members in Denver, Clark County, Miami-Dade County and Los Angeles are all compensated. The lack of compensation for Chicago school board members means that only those with financial independence will volunteer to serve in a position that a national survey found routinely demands more than 25 hours of time a month.
A smaller Chicago school board and the offer of a modicum of compensation to ensure everyday Chicagoans can participate are essential to ensuring that the board is effective and that it truly serves as a representative body.
The state legislature’s select committee overseeing the specifics of the newly constituted board should also consider adopting common-sense amendments to Chicago’s elected school board law that are supported by CPS families. These include ensuring the racial and ethnic composition of the districts aligns with CPS student demographics; that campaign contribution caps are established to reduce the influence of money on election outcomes; and that any Chicagoan should be able to run and vote in the city’s school board election, regardless of immigration status.
The state legislature created Chicago’s elected school board believing that the change in governance would benefit CPS families and educators. Now, Springfield must act to deliver on its promise.
Hal Woods is chief of policy for the nonprofit Kids First Chicago.
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