Chicago is one year away from electing its next mayor. Based on recent polls, voters are weary of Brandon Johnson and are ready for change. Who will succeed Johnson? Better yet, who should succeed him?
Chicago has reached a pivotal moment that calls for a transformative leader.
After the chaotic reigns of Lori Lightfoot and Johnson, Chicago can ill afford a third rookie mayor. Neither mayor had broad appeal. Lightfoot showed she was unable or unwilling to build bridges, and the same goes for Johnson. Moreover, the current mayor has resorted to race-baiting, further dividing the city, and has pursued a socialist agenda to Chicago’s detriment and its taxpayers.
Chicago will need a new mayor willing to immediately tackle daunting challenges — a budget bordering on insolvency, nagging neighborhood crime, and a failing education system led by a powerful and unaccountable teachers union. The moment calls for tough decisions and bold actions and presents the opportunity to build a lasting legacy for Chicago.
The new mayor must immediately address three issues that are deeply entrenched and interconnected.
Chicago faces an annual fiscal and budget crisis due to chronic structural deficits, unfunded pension liabilities and rising costs. A new mayor must prioritize stabilizing city finances by addressing and balancing bloated bureaucracies, pension reform, labor agreements, and business retention and growth, while dealing with federal funding uncertainties. Ever rising taxes are a primary concern for voters, as the budget has ballooned since the onset of COVID-19. The new mayor must restore the budget to pre-pandemic levels.
Public safety and crime remain pressing concerns. While violent crime has declined nationally, including Chicago’s homicide rate, the city still has elevated rates compared with peer cities. Voters are skeptical of genuine and sustainable long-term progress.
Improving public safety requires a comprehensive approach that includes effective policing, community engagement, youth programs, mental health services and addressing police recruitment challenges. Lackluster support from the mayor’s office for law enforcement has hindered recruitment and retention. The new mayor must reverse the anti-police sentiment that has emanated from the fifth floor.
Chicago must also remove obstacles to effective policing, use technology such as the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system, and update and enforce curfew regulations. A new mayor must prioritize police staffing and ensure real consequences for criminal behavior.
A quality education is crucial for Chicago’s restoration. Our city once held the title of “capital of school reform,” but today Chicago Public Schools struggles with mediocrity, deficits, enrollment loss, absenteeism and youth violence. Despite annual spending increases, student achievement remains low and with no accountability. Lowering the bar for student achievement, especially for minority children, is irresponsible at best and racist at worst.
Chicago’s education reform has stagnated, but with the right leadership, we can unlock innovative models of education by removing red tape and a centralized structure that hinders local school success. It can empower principals and fund schools directly, rather than a central office bureaucracy that determines what’s best for families. They must champion all children with more opportunities for parents to select a school that suits their child’s needs, including providing adequate financial support for public, charter, private and homeschooling models. The focus should always remain on the child, not the “system.”
Fixing the schools will be challenging, but not impossible. The new mayor won’t have direct control over the public school system, but a mayor with strength restored can exert significant influence to affect student outcomes.
Increasing funding is not always the solution. Any increase in education funding must be linked to academic achievement with measurable student success. Before Chicago’s taxpayers are asked to shoulder another property tax increase, CPS must demonstrate effective use of current funding.
Of course, the primary culprit behind most of Chicago’s challenges today is the unchecked power of the Chicago Teachers Union, President Stacy Davis Gates and her Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) that have hijacked the teachers union. Over the last decade, they have managed to set Chicago back and infected the noble teaching profession with a socialist ideology. They have fulfilled their goal of becoming Chicago’s new political machine by electing like-minded politicians to all levels of government who grandstand rather than lead, all with disastrous results. A new mayor must unequivocally stand up to Davis Gates and CORE and stand for the values of Chicago’s working-class families.
A transformative mayor will envision Chicago as the thriving city we all know it can be and be willing to make difficult decisions, even risking reelection.
We need a transformative leader to answer the call and meet the moment as mayor. The timid need not apply.
Juan Rangel is president/CEO of The Urban Center, a centrist nonprofit organization with a “common sense” community agenda.
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