Aaron “Jitu” Brown (District 5)
Section 1 - Basic Information & General Questions
Candidate's Name Aaron "Jitu" Brown
District 5
Campaign link aaronjitubrown.org
Are you a current or recent CPS parent, grandparent, or guardian/caregiver? CPS parent
Are you a CPS graduate? Yes
Have you ever served on a Local School Council (LSC)? Yes
Have you ever served on a Parent Advisory Committee (PAC)? No
Have you ever served on a Bilingual Advisory Committee (BAC)? No
Have you ever served on a Community Action Council (CAC)? Yes
Have you ever worked in a CPS school? Yes
How long have you lived in the district you are running to represent? Since 2006
Describe your CPS experience.
I am a graduate of Chicago Public Schools. I attended Bennett Elementary k-1st grade, Wendell Smith Elementary 2nd-8th and Kenwood Academy High School 9th-12th.
I led youth leadership programs in schools across the West and South Sides for over 20 years. I’ve served on LSCs at elementary and high schools for over 13 years. In 1999, I became a certified LSC trainer and have since trained hundreds of LSC members across the city. I was the community school coordinator at Chicago’s first community school, South Shore School of Entrepreneurship, taught Black History at St Leonard’s Adult High School (the only accredited high school in the country specifically for formerly incarcerated people), and operated at LANE credit professional development course for CPS teachers on infusing Black history into the classroom.
Having worked for many years as the education organizer at the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO), I organized parents in Bronzeville to fight for equity in public education, worked to stop school closures across the South Side, and was the organizer behind the campaign to save Dyett High School that culminated in a 34-day hunger strike in 2015. I have helped develop local and national community labor to move an equity based education agenda in my role as National Director at the Journey for Justice Alliance and designed the model of “sustainable community schools” that was born out of the struggle to save Dyett and the effort to rebuild it in the vision of the community once the school was ultimately reopened.
Why are you running for the Board of Education?
I have spent the past 30 years dedicated to making Chicago schools and schools across the country better, more culturally relevant, more rooted in the communities they serve, and more equitable. Now, with my experience fighting for education justice, I am running for the realization of a dream to make Chicago a model school district around equity and quality. For too long, I have seen decision-makers in Chicago choices that have sabotaged the education of thousands of children that look like me. I am running to advance a program of equitable school funding, investing in neighborhood schools, and increasing Black and Brown teachers.
What is the most pressing challenge our district is facing?
Inequitable school funding is at the heart of the challenges across the CPS system. We live in a city where some schools don’t have a full time librarian or counselor while other schools are well-resourced and have robust programming - the types of things that every young person in Chicago should have access to at their neighborhood school.
Section 2 - Board Responsibilities & Commitments
How will you interact with CPS students and families in your district to ensure that the voices of the most impacted are heard and understood?
How will you interact with CPS students and families in your district to ensure that the voices of the most impacted are heard and understood?
The 5th district comprises diverse communities with rich cultural and civic histories and backgrounds. Many of the Black and Brown communities in the 5th district have been disparately impacted by school closures and privatization schemes. In many cases, communities felt acted upon by CPS instead respectfully engaged. As communities most impacted by CPS school closures and actions, it is imperative that we develop a new culture and responsive practices that promote meaningful engagement.
I will hold regular meetings throughout the 5th district to discuss recommendations to improve the quality of education in neighborhood schools, and to hear concerns from students, parents and community members on an ongoing basis. I will engage high schools and feeder school communities in a sustainable community school village format to build from the ground a vision and strategy for a world class education system in neighborhoods throughout the 5th district. As an organizer and director of a network of grassroots organizations, I have a track record of being accountable to families, and grassroots constituencies, first and foremost.
As a member of the inaugural elected school board class, I will maintain my focus on accountability to community.
What specific actions will you take to address and repair the historical harms within Chicago Public Schools, and how will you ensure that students, parents, and educators are actively engaged in the healing and trust-building process?
Inequity, disinvestment, and school closures have sabotaged school communities in many Black, Brown and working class neighborhoods in our city over time. Privatization and private interests have fueled this process.
Equitable school funding is an essential part of any vision for improving our school system. There is no reason why students at some CPS schools have the ability to learn multiple languages, take art classes, and play any sport they want while other schools are stripped of all kinds of programming and struggle to even be properly staffed with counselors, librarians, and janitors. I will be a fierce advocate of equitable revenue strategies that properly fund schools that have been impacted by generational disinvestment throughout the state. We must develop an equitable school funding system and build on the good work that is transforming how resources are allocated (student need vs. population).
I’m in favor of a district-wide annual equity assessment that looks at different metrics like course offerings, wrap-around supports, how discipline is administered, and which would hold the superintendent/CEO accountable for the results of that assessment. In 2018, my organization Journey for Justice published a report called Failing Brown v Board exposing inequity in public education in cities across the country – the results our damning. We have since been advocating for this model of equity assessment at the local and federal level. If elected to the School Board, I would work to implement a pilot of the equity assessments model here in CPS as one of my core priorities.
What is your understanding of the Board’s relationship with Local School Councils? How will you collaborate with LSCs in your district?
I served on Local School Councils at the elementary and high school levels for more than 13 years. I believe deeply in local community level decision-making, believe school communities themselves should give direction around how the schools that serve them are run, and know first-hand that community wisdom has enormous value. LSCs are an important part of how we can be responsive to that wisdom as Board members. As a School Board member, I would like to empower and increase the level of of collaboration with LSCs. My hope is to convene meetings that welcome all the LSC members in the district to inform decisions made at the board level.
List the Board committees you intend to join and describe any new Board committees you will propose.
I would join the Whole Child Committee. I would propose a Sustainable Community Schools Committee and Committee for the Success of Black Children.
How will you prioritize your time to ensure you give your role on the Board of Education the attention it deserves?
As a longtime community organizer who has worn many hats in my community over the years, I am accustomed to juggling many responsibilities. Playing my role -- in whatever form it has take
Section 3 - Budget & Facilities
What are your thoughts on the current proposed district budget for SY24-25? As a board member, where would you look to increase funding and where would you make budget cuts?
Equity must be at the heart of any plan to address the budget gap. While we can always look at ways to reallocate resources and streamline expenses that don’t serve student and community needs, equity means focusing on new streams of progressive revenue - that don’t burden the working class - to fully fund Chicago’s school system. We have the largest district in the state, our students are
As a “portfolio” or “choice” district, CPS spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually in support of privatized infrastructure (support for charter expansion, testing companies, etc) that could be funding important staffing like nurses, librarians, counselors, and other need investments in neighborhood schools. Shifting from a “portfolio” district to a community schools district will not only improve the health, well-being and education of our students but it will support an approach to resource allocation that is focused on school communities and their needs.
Another way to bring resources into Chicago Public Schools is for the State of Illinois to fully pay its portion into the pension fund. Chicago is the only city that is required to pay twice. Our current system fundamentally creates a situation where hundreds of millions of dollars that could be going into the classroom are used to pay an imbalance amount toward pensions. At the same time, Illinois tax system still continues to tax low income and working families at the same rate as millionaires through a flat tax system. Instead, a progressive tax structure would generate more revenue which could be used to provide more funding for schools.
Funding for CPS is in a particularly precarious situation due to state shortages to Evidence-Based Funding (EBF), the end of pandemic funding, and more. What would you prioritize when facing these overwhelming budget realities?
I will prioritize equitable investment and budget choices that bring us closer to greater equity, investment in neighborhood schools, and efforts to increase the number of Black and Brown teachers.
What experience do you have with complicated budgets?
I am the National Director of a non-profit organization and serve on several non-profit boards where I am responsible for overseeing the financial health of big organizations, several of which have been around for many decades. In my capacity as the former education organizer at the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) and in my capacity as co-founder and director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, I have studied and campaigned around the Chicago Public Schools budget, state education funding, and education funding at the national level for decades.
What will you do to ensure equitable and transparent funding for neighborhood schools?
As a School Board rep, community meetings and townhalls will be an important of how I’ll engage my constituents. I’d like to host meetings open to LSC reps, parents, students, and school communities to understand and give input on the budget as it is coming together. I am also interested in exploring what participatory budgeting might look like as part of that process.
Many parents have expressed an urgent need for capital improvements in their schools. What steps will you take to ensure that schools have functioning facilities, particularly bathrooms and water fountains?
Candidate declined to answer.
Bussing challenges have a long and fraught history in CPS. The last few years have been particularly difficult for special education students, as well as those who attend magnet and selective enrollment schools. Given CPS’s recently announced plans for the coming school year, How do you plan to address the ongoing school bussing challenges and ensure that all students have reliable, safe, and equitable transportation to and from school?
I want all students who need it to have access to transportation to and from school. I believe CTA should be free for CPS students. We should avoid the costly and ineffective practice of privatizing any part of our school system, including transportation. I look forward to working with parent leaders who have advocated for solutions to this challenge and listening to their wisdom on the path forward.
Section 4 - Educational Programs & Academic Success
How do you define a quality education?
Out of the fight to save Dyett High School, I helped develop a vision for the model of “sustainable community schools.” The six pillars of sustainable community schools are core to my understanding of quality education:
1) Culturally relevant, engaging, and challenging curricula
2) An emphasis on high quality teaching, not high-stakes testing;
3) Wraparound supports and opportunities;
4) Restorative/transformative justice and other positive discipline practices
5) Authentic parent and community engagement; and
6) Inclusive school leadership.
What is the role of the Board of Education in ensuring quality educational programs for all students regardless of their background, zip code, or school type?
The Board should see its mission as ensuring equity and quality education across the district. There should be a world class pre-K through 12th grade system of education within walking distance in every neighborhood and the Board of Education should make decisions that bring us closer to that reality.
What are your views on the roles of neighborhood, selective enrollment, magnet, and charter schools within CPS? Please address each type of school in your answer.
My priority is to secure investment in neighborhood public schools. That said, I believe any type of school closure is traumatic for the community it serves and I understand why many parents don’t feel they can send their kid to a neighborhood school that is neglected or under-resourced.
In my capacity as an education organizer, I am particularly proud of the work our movement has done to keep open schools in Black communities that were at risk of being closed down. Stopping school closures meant saving neighborhood institutions that working families rely on. I am deeply proud of the role we played in keeping Mollison, Jackie Robinson, Woodsen, Fuller, Reavis, Dyett, Doolittle schools open and in winning the moratorium on school closures. I have been so committed to stopping school closures – going so far as to have participated in the 2015 hunger strike that saved Dyett high school. When Dyett was re-opened, we won needed investments and was reimagined in the vision of the community it serves. This is a great example of what is possible when we invest in neighborhood schools and when we let a school community have a say in what that investment should look like.
I think that “school choice” was a disaster in educational policy because you can’t genuinely have choice if you don’t have equity. If neighborhood schools are starved, there is no choice of a great school your kid can walk to. We know that only 1 out of 5 charters outperform public schools. Yet, the for-profit charter industry continues to suck resources away from a system of public education that should be able to provide every Chicago child with the high quality education they deserve.
How should the Board approach charter oversight and accountability?
One part of the problem with the lack of oversight and accountability of the charter industry is that there is a charter authorization board at the state level that can override what the School Board says. This has created a situation where they can easily evade accountability by the local governing body over schools. We need to abolish state charter authorization boards, which have been created around the country to grease the wheels for charter expansion, a process has resulted in many of our neighborhood schools sitting empty today while a private industry profits.
If charters fashion themselves as public schools, they should have to have the discipline, admissions policies as neighborhood public schools. Charter schools should be expected to have the same discipline policies and admissions policies as neighborhood public schools. If charters are intended to be public schools that drive some form of innovation, their only innovation can’t be how they select students and how they kick them out.
The initial recommendations of the Black Student Success Working Group were shared earlier this summer. Which of those recommendations will be most important to incorporate into the district’s strategic plan and why?
I have been honored to served as a member of the current the Black Student Success Committee and want to see the School Board listen to committees like this one. Black student achievement - which goes hand in hand with Black student opportunity - must be an agenda item for the Board in every meeting. The assessments of the Black Student Achievement Committee should inform board-level decisions and I will remain committed to ensuring that the committee is representative of long-standing and community rooted voices from Black communities, which have been most negatively impacted by school inequities.
The recommendations for expanding sustainable community schools, plans for increasing and retaining Black educators, and the importance of investing in neighborhood schools in Black communities are among the many important recommendations to come out of that committee.
How will you work to ensure special education assessments and placements are more timely and equitable?
Candidate declined to answer.
What should the Board board do to guarantee students are receiving all of their required IEP minutes?
Candidate declined to answer.
In 2021, even before the recent influx of asylum seekers, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) put CPS on a corrective action plan because the district was out of compliance with bilingual education requirements. To date, CPS still fails to staff bilingual programs and certified bilingual teachers at all schools that need them. What steps would you advocate for the district to take to solve this problem?
Candidate declined to answer.
How would you advocate for the reinstatement of comprehensive art, music, and library programs to our schools?
By advocating for more equitable school funding and more progressive streams of revenue that will fully fund our schools.
Section 5 - School Culture
What do you believe is the role of the Board in fostering a culture of belonging for every CPS student?
Candidate declined to answer.
What are specific steps you will propose to increase in-school mental health support for our children?
Candidate declined to answer.
What policies do you propose to help stop bullying in CPS schools?
Candidate declined to answer.
What specific steps will you take to address and reduce racial bias in our schools, both in terms of pedagogy, curriculum, and disciplinary practices?
Candidate declined to answer.
Students who report sexual assault and violence in CPS schools often feel that their voices are not heard. What is your approach to ensuring meaningful accountability and what will you do to ensure that this type of violence stops?
Preventatively educating our young people about respectful, healthy relationships and the importance of respecting their peers is one of the most important ways to address this issue on a cultural level.
How do you plan to ensure that LGBT+ students are protected and supported in CPS, both in anti-discrimination policy and inclusive curricula?
As a Black man aware of the nature of oppression, I stand against the oppression of anyone regardless of how they identify or who they love. I will not support policies that discriminate against anyone. Protection looks like incorporation education on how to support LGBTQ students into teacher training and professional development. It also looks like brave conversations among community members, parents, and classmates to prevent an unchecked culture of homophobia and transphobia in the school environment.
Is there anything you would change about the recently adopted Whole School Safety plan? What can the Board do to ensure its implementation?
Candidate declined to answer.