The Chicago school board voted to add two questions to the November ballot gauging whether city voters would support drumming up new revenue for Chicago Public Schools.
The first referendum is whether Illinois should impose a surcharge on millionaires to raise public school funding. The second will ask whether Chicago should charge financial penalties on owners of underdeveloped or vacant lots to funnel money to CPS. Both questions approved Thursday are nonbinding, meaning they don’t enact laws and instead serve as signals to legislators as they make policy decisions.
It’s the first time the Board of Education has exercised its authority to add advisory questions to the ballot.
“This is fundamentally about how we build the public support necessary to move our schools from scarcity to adequacy,” said board vice president Angel Velez, appointed to represent District 9A on the South Side.
The questions were put forth by board members aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union and appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson. Johnson himself attempted to add three progressive referendum proposals to the November ballot, though only one made it through City Council. Aldermen rejected his bid to ask voters whether they support adding a 3% tax on millionaires. In Springfield, a so-called millionaire’s tax resolution made ground this session but ultimately failed to advance among House Democrats.
Chicago school board members in favor of progressive revenue proposals note that the cash-strapped CPS is only 70% funded under the state’s funding formula. Both referendum questions passed in a 12-1 vote.
“I want us to place the responsibility for additional funding on those who can best afford it,” said board member Debby Pope, representing District 2B on the Far North Side.
Thursday’s meeting, however, was not without hiccups.
At first, the board fell short of the simple majority needed for a quorum. In an unusual move, the board then reconvened an hour later, this time with 14 members present. Six did not attend: Jessica Biggs, Therese Boyle, Angel Gutierrez, Carlos Rivas, Ellen Rosenfeld and Che “Rhymefest” Smith.
Those elected members not in attendance are part of a voting bloc that typically diverges from the CTU-aligned majority. That divide was on full display last month, when CTU-backed members passed a $10.11 billion budget banking on $150 million in unconfirmed state revenue, despite warnings from district leadership. The amended spending plan instructed CPS to reverse more than 1,500 layoffs, a directive that has proven difficult to carry out just weeks before school starts. If the money doesn’t materialize, officials said, it could leave CPS vulnerable to midyear cuts.
CTU-backed board members held a press conference following Thursday’s meeting accusing their colleagues of “boycotting” the referendum questions.
“I think more of a question I have is about the willful absences of several members of the board who took billionaire money and conveniently were unable to make it … to vote as to whether billionaires should be taxed,” said appointed board member Michilla Blaise, who represents District 5B on the West Side. Blaise pointed to seven elected members who have taken campaign contributions from billionaire businessman and major Democratic donor Michael Sacks.
Several members not in attendance told the Tribune they had prior work and family commitments. Most were not given notice of the vote until Monday morning, according to an email to members obtained by the Tribune. Members serve on a volunteer basis and are expected to attend all meetings, per the board’s bylaws, but are allowed certain exceptions for business and personal obligations.
Biggs, who represents District 6B and is running for school board president, said in a statement that the meeting had been rescheduled multiple times, arguing that the board has been “rife with chaos and disorganization.” She added that she would have voted in favor of the millionaire’s tax referendum.
Smith, who represents District 10A on the South Side, called the last-minute proposals “poor planning” and argued that special meetings “lack transparency.”
Board member Jennifer Custer was the sole vote against the proposals Thursday, expressing concern that they wouldn’t provide an immediate solution to the district’s mounting budget woes. “We should really be looking at more actionable things,” she said.
“The North Star is pretty simple. Does it help kids today? No, I don’t think that these do,” said Custer, who represents District 1B on the Northwest Side and is also running for board president in November’s election.
But appointed board president Sean Harden countered that the board needs to explore all of its options following the July budget vote. “We don’t have the luxury of looking finitely at just one thing,” he said.