Featured Press Overview

December 20, 2024 • Chicago Sun-Times

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s Board of Education is set to take action against Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martínez on Friday—why is this prolonged drama now reaching a breaking point? The situation has left some parents confused and upset. Katrina Adams, whose three daughters attend Burnside Elementary School on the South Side, said she doesn’t want to see cuts, nor does she want the district to take out a high-interest loan that would “ruin the future.” “It’s so political, and the only ones suffering are the parents and students.”

December 16, 2024 • Chicago Sun-Times

On Monday, Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed 10 members and said an eleventh is still under review. The appointees join the 10 members who were elected by voters in Chicago’s first school board elections in November. Prior to the announcement, about 140 parents organized by advocacy group Kids First Chicago sent a letter to the mayor urging that the racial makeup of the board—both appointees and elected members—reflect the district’s students, who are nearly 90% Black and Latino. In the end, seven of the 21 are white, six Black, seven Latino, and one Asian American.

December 8, 2024 • Chicago Sun-Times

As parents and grandparents of CPS students, we watch with concern as negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and CPS move away from the urgent needs of our children. We love our teachers and want them to be well-compensated and respected—but we deserve respect too. It’s unfair for CTU or CPS to propose terms that ignore parents and our children’s rights, diminishing our voice in their education and potentially pushing schools into financial ruin. Above all, we deserve to know if our children are learning and meeting key goals.

November 1, 2024 • Chicago Tribune

The school board has long been appointed by the mayor, but this year it’s expanding from 7 to 21 members, with 10 elected by Chicagoans. While the November local elections may seem like a chance for more community voices in decision-making, advocates say it excludes non-citizen parents who can’t vote. “Can a Latino candidate get elected in a majority-white district? It’s probably rare,” said Jessica Cañas, head of community engagement at Kids First Chicago. “People tend to vote for candidates who look like them—who share their identities.”

October 30, 2024 • Chicago Reader

“From what I hear, no one is interested in voting,” says Blaire Flowers, a mother of five in Austin and a parent leader with Kids First Chicago. Her district only has one candidate on the ballot, which could make things even more discouraging. Flowers also pointed to perhaps the biggest challenge of all: “People who aren’t tuned in to media don’t even know they can have a say in the school board.”

October 21, 2024 • Crain's Forum

Behind the recent CPS drama—the school board’s resignation, the mayor’s attempt to fire the CEO, and his demand that the district take on loans to fund operations—is a fundamental long-term question: Should neighborhood schools be prioritized over school choice? “It would be great if every student could wake up and go to their neighborhood school and it was excellent,” said Hal Woods, policy chief at nonprofit Kids First Chicago and a former CPS official. “But we’re not in that situation as a city.”

October 21, 2024 • Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board

Voters should support candidates with experience in education, finance, or administration who aren’t afraid to speak up on a board dominated by mayoral appointees. “The most important thing is many parents don’t know about the elections,” said Blaire Flowers, chair of the Elected School Board Task Force at Kids First Chicago. Parents “want to be heard. They don’t care about politics, or the mayor, or Martínez,” Flowers said. “They care about the buses being taken away, the lack of extracurriculars in high schools, teacher quality, and crumbling school buildings.”

October 17, 2024 • The 74

Amid a growing deficit and a mayor with low approval ratings, the fourth-largest school district in the U.S. is heading to the polls for the first time. Families have an immediate opportunity to voice their feelings in November during Chicago’s first school board elections. Daniel Anello, CEO of Kids First Chicago, argued that recent events resemble more of Mayor Emanuel’s “top-down” leadership style than the participatory democracy voters expected in 2021.

September 22, 2024 • Chicago Sun-Times

We write on behalf of the Coalition for Authentic Community Engagement and are cautiously optimistic about the district’s recent launch of its strategic plan, Success 2029: Rising Together. However, our optimism is tempered by a process that significantly contradicted the values the board claims to uphold in the document.

July 30, 2024 • Chicago Tribune

CPS is teetering on the edge of a financial cliff, threatening to undo hard-won progress by families and educators. The system faces a structural budget deficit of over $700 million this year, the largest in nearly a decade. In our new report, “Revenue Options to Address the CPS Deficit,” Kids First Chicago presents six funding proposals. Our goal is to start a public conversation on how to secure the future of public education in Chicago.

July 25, 2024 • CBS News Chicago

The board approved a $9.9 billion spending plan for CPS for the 2024–2025 school year, despite protests from the Chicago Teachers Union, which warned about the impact of spending cuts to eliminate a $500 million deficit. “That money is running out, and there’s no way to sustain those positions moving forward,” said Hal Woods, policy director at Kids First Chicago, a group that advocates for parents and students, primarily on the South and West Sides.

July 25, 2024 • Chalkbeat Chicago / Crain’s / Block Club Chicago

On Thursday, the Board of Education approved a $9.9 billion budget after weeks of tension and pushback reaching all the way to the mayor’s office. Kids First Chicago, a parent advocacy group, suggested ways to raise revenue and save money, including advocating for more state funding, raising property taxes, and gradually merging the CPS teacher pension system—funded by CPS—with the state-funded teacher pension system.