Maggie Cullerton Hooper (District 2)
Section 1 - Basic Information & General Questions
Candidate's Name Margaret “Maggie” Cullerton Hooper
District 2
Campaign link maggieforchicago.com
Are you a current or recent CPS parent, grandparent, or guardian/caregiver? CPS parent
Are you a CPS graduate? No
Have you ever served on a Local School Council (LSC)? Yes
Have you ever served on a Parent Advisory Committee (PAC)? Yes
Have you ever served on a Bilingual Advisory Committee (BAC)? No
Have you ever served on a Community Action Council (CAC)? No
Have you ever worked in a CPS school? No
How long have you lived in the district you are running to represent? I have lived in the district for eight years, and in the City of Chicago my entire life.
Describe your CPS experience.
I chose Albany Park as my family’s community for the purpose of sending my children to the neighborhood school, Hibbard Elementary. Hibbard is 71.4% low income and 8% white with 28 different languages spoken in our students’ homes. It is an incredible school and community - the robust racial, religious, economic, and cultural diversity are core values that I wanted to ensure were normative for my children and our family.
I have served on Hibbard’s LSC for 8 years, assessing and approving 8 school budgets. I began before my children were school age as a community representative, then transitioned to a parent representative, and in 2022 I was elected to serve as the Chair by our teacher representatives to lead our principal selection process in partnership with a teacher & staff selection committee.
I am a woman with disabilities, I have a child with disabilities, and I work as a volunteer advocate for families of children with disabilities across CPS - helping them understand their rights, joining them for IEP meetings to advocate on behalf of their children, and using every opportunity available to move disability justice forward in Chicago Public Schools.
I am also a trained parent organizer with Raise Your Hand for IL, am deeply engaged in racial justice and equity organizing, fought for an Elected Representative School Board and then for an equitable map, and stood alongside teachers, staff, and families during the COVID-19 pandemic when we were pushed to re-enter unsafe classrooms. These experiences have allowed me to build a robust network of relationships with parents, teachers, staff and administrators at CPS schools across the city.
Why are you running for the Board of Education?
I’m running because I am a mom, an activist, and a public servant. I know that I am the best candidate to represent District 2 on Chicago’s Elected School Board.
I am the only candidate running in District 2 who has children currently enrolled in CPS. What sets my candidacy apart even further is my intentional choice to opt-in to living in, learning from, and listening to one of the most diverse communities in the city; parenting a child with an IEP as a parent with disabilities; decades of advocacy in Chicago; and extensive experience navigating city bureaucracy throughout my professional career.
There has never been a person with disabilities sitting on the Chicago Board of Education. It is absolutely essential that someone with direct, lived experience have a seat at the table where decisions are made. The fact that I am a person with disabilities, parenting a child with disabilities, and have been on the ground, in our schools, fighting for our kids means I will bring experience to public education that has never been valued by our leaders. Other city boards have had dedicated disability seats for decades, beginning with the CTA under Mayor Harold Washington’s administration. Diversity without disability is not diversity, full stop.
I’m running because I believe our schools deserve someone with a record of fighting for our kids. I have the organizing and advocacy experience to bring a progressive, equity-centered lens to my decision making; I am the only candidate who will bring an independent, parent voice representing District 2; I have served on our LSC for almost 8 years; and I belong to a community that is representative of the vast majority of District 2 CPS schools.
I am running because I know that my child cannot succeed unless every child can succeed.
What is the most pressing challenge our district is facing?
Racial and economic disparities are the most prevalent issue impacting CPS broadly and the schools of District 2, specifically. These disparities are manifested in a shrinking Black educator workforce, gaps in Black and English-language learner student achievement, increasing economic gentrification and reduced housing access/increased housing instability.
At my children’s school, enrollment has consistently declined due to housing shifts. The sale of buildings to developers often results in the loss of 15-40 students, primarily from the lowest income households.
In District 2, 31 out of 37 schools have at least 45% low-income students, with 19 schools exceeding 70%. Only one neighborhood school has a majority white student body. Hibbard Elementary, where my family attends, is 71.4% low-income and 8% white. I believe our representative should value and believe in our students and intentionally choose communities like ours for themself and their family..
Additionally, there are 28 different languages spoken at Hibbard Elementary. A meaningful investment in language services for LSCs, PAC/BAC, and parents and caregivers is critical to ensure every family can be a full participant in their child’s education and in their broader school community. Leveraging the existing resources available at our libraries, community based organizations, etc. can move our schools towards more robust and holistic engagement within and across our local schools.
Finally, because our non-citizen families will not be afforded a say in who represents their interests on the new School Board, it is a priority of mine to listen to and elevate these vital voices and center their experience and concerns with the same weight and respect as the rest of our neighbors. After winning a seat on the School Board, continued engagement with the Non-Citizen Advisory Council will be a top priority of mine.
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?
Communication and engagement are key to building community, and public schools are spaces that bring communities together and lay the groundwork for a neighborhood’s future. Non-profit partners bring parent mentor programs into schools, local businesses support fundraising events and donate to in-school events that bring us together, health partners offer clinics, community organizations provide english-language programs for parents and families. The foundation to build the spaces and connectivity we deserve exist. As an Elected School Board member, a priority of mine will be to strengthen these connections across our neighborhoods in ways that can be transformational.
CPS MUST entirely reimagine their definition, conception, and implementation of community engagement.
I will prioritize constant and direct communications with District 2 constituents, making myself available to all CPS stakeholders, students, and families across the city. I have a robust constituent engagement plan that I will put into action immediately upon winning this election and in advance of taking my seat on the board. This plan includes:
Monthly email communications
Hosting quarterly+ convenings of District 2 LSCs
Regular, in-school town-hall sessions for students, families, and school staff
Pre- and post- board meeting prep/follow up sessions to shift away from the one-way Board communications created by general “public comment” testimony
Regular, weekly “office hours” where stakeholders can sign up to discuss issues
Additionally, I will work with elected officials to ensure there are physical spaces to voice concerns and seek solutions. Because the office is new and not funded, I will partner with elected officials, ward organizations, individual schools, park districts, and local CBOs to ensure individuals and groups can come together to build, advocate, and create the infrastructure to collaborate and hold our elected board members accountable to the 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?
The systematic elimination of Black educators in CPS was the predictable and inevitable cost of Chicago’s education reform initiatives like Renaissance 2010 and the school closures under the Emanuel administration. When Chicago closes schools, Black schools are disproportionately negatively impacted and Black teachers are purged from the workforce. Not only has this proven deeply destabilizing for Chicago’s Black middle-class communities, there is OVERWHELMING evidence that having Black educators dramatically improves Black student outcomes.
Black students who have one Black teacher by third grade are 7% more likely to graduate high school and 13% more likely to enroll in college. After having two Black teachers, Black students' likelihood of enrolling in college increases by 32%. And this is but one such statistic.
As a member of the Board of Education, I will fight tirelessly to continue the moratorium on school closures, will staunchly oppose any school privatization efforts, and will support implementing policy reforms recommended by CTU such as reestablishing a hiring pipeline through Chicago State University. I will listen to the experts on the education workforce and translate those recommendations into policy that begins to right the wrongs done by past Boards.
Finally, for the first time in the history of CPS, the district is allocating funds using a methodology that is evidence-based, student centered, and that finally attempts to address the legacy of extraction, segregation, and oppression of marginalized students. Evidence-based funding models take those steps while establishing district-wide baseline standards, class sizes, and per-pupil funding rates. (I disagree strongly with the implementation of this model last year, as laid out in greater detail in my responses to other questions here.)
What is your understanding of the Board’s relationship with Local School Councils? How will you collaborate with LSCs in your district?
Currently, the board does not have a meaningful (or any) relationship with LSCs. I have been on our LSC for 8 years and have never interacted with a board member directly or indirectly. This is truly mind-boggling to me. As a member of our LSC, I have incredible insight on the impact of broad, district-wide policies on individual schools. LSC members are elected and invested in our schools. I do not believe the board should be passing any policies without giving LSCs meaningful opportunities to review and share the school level implications and possible unintended consequences.
As a member of the board, I would create an LSC Policy Advisory Committee that any LSC members can join and where district-wide policies can be reviewed and understood through the local school level lens.
List the Board committees you intend to join and describe any new Board committees you will propose.
First of all, I would reconceive the current committee structure which seems to include working groups and advisory committees without any public facing list of committees, their defined purpose(s), their members, or their mandates. I would make all of this available on the Board’s website under their “Committees” page which currently lists a single paragraph announcing the Mayor’s creation of a Special Education Advisory Committee.
I would create and/or join the following committees (not advisory committees or working groups):
-Finance, Governance & Audit
-Special Education
-Black Student Success
-School-level Budget & Resources
-Community Engagement, Communications, Transparency & Accountability
-Whole Child & Health
How will you prioritize your time to ensure you give your role on the Board of Education the attention it deserves?
Members of the Board of Education should be prepared to dedicate at least 30 hours per week to this role. While I understand this is unpaid and that is an enormous time commitment, anything else would be a disservice to Chicago’s students and families.
I am currently on the board of Planned Parenthood, on our school’s LSC, and invest significant personal time advocating for survivors of gender-based violence, families of students with disabilities, queer students and families in our schools and communities, among others.
I will have to step down from these roles as an elected member of the Board of Education and plan to invest all of those hours and all of my energy into exceeding the expectations of our school board members. My relentless and unyielding commitment to community is well established and my record demonstrates my ability to live up to this promise.
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?
I strongly support the shift towards an evidence-based funding model. I believe everyone can agree that the long-term goal is for every child in Chicago to be able to walk to an excellent neighborhood school.
That said, it will be absolutely essential that the board and the district prioritize transparency and create systems for individual schools to maintain key programs (like dual language education programs at schools with high EL enrollment). The board must lead on sharing information, communicating internal processes, and educating Chicagoans about the budget process, methodologies, and allocations that determine school level budgets.
We need a fully transparent process in place to appeal, assess, and address gaps in initial budget determinations and the budget process should begin much earlier to allow for meaningful community input.
I found the choice to hold off on publicly releasing the budgets disappointing, especially knowing that CPS does not have the trust of our communities, and the continued refusal to release that information was detrimental to the district and the Board . Even schools that benefited from the new model were left with concerns and uncertainty. The choice created resentment and perpetuated the adversarial relationship our community already has with CPS and the board of education. The community should not be asked to trust that a budget model is serving the purpose the Board claims, and with good reason.
As a member of the Board of Education, I would demand CPS publish their budget AND that each individual school do the same.The truth is, there are any number of revenue streams that schools access beyond central funding: student fees, earned revenue from rentals and programs, contributed revenue from donors, friends-of organizations, boosters, etc. We cannot effectively make the case for increased funding if we cannot look at the true cost of producing the highest educational outcomes.
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?
IMMEDIATE SOLUTION
Currently, the state of Illinois only funds the legacy pension contributions for schools outside Chicago. As a result, Chicago must cover these legacy costs through a property tax, creating an unfair burden on CPS.
This inequity is a little-known aspect of how the state underfunds public schools, and it must be addressed immediately. The Board should demand action by either pushing the legislature to resume funding legacy pension costs (as they did in the past) or by advocating for the merging of the state and Chicago teacher pension funds. This merger would strengthen teachers statewide and prevent future pension underfunding.
This change would free up $550M - $640M, all of which could be redirected to our schools.
THREE STRATEGIC LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS:
Earned Revenue
Many schools generate earned revenue (renting rooftops to telecom companies or parking to local businesses). Meanwhile, unused district-owned buildings cost the district to maintain. We need to diversify revenue through community partnerships that support neighborhood economies and generate income for CPS.
Sunsetting Costly Underperforming Contracts
The practice of outsourcing school needs to for-profit companies, like Aramark, for financial efficiency has been a disaster. Their opaque system lacks transparency, leaves schools in disrepair, and undermines high-quality union jobs while costing the district millions. We must rebuild internal infrastructure for facilities maintenance and unionized city employees supervised by school principals.
Balanced Budgets & Financial Sustainability
The Board must collaborate with state and city leadership on pension reform without further benefit reductions. A multi-year plan to address debt service and reamortization is essential. We should also review capital budgets, create a public database of investments, and ensure transparency in decision-making. Finally, new program investments should not come from facilities budgets.
What experience do you have with complicated budgets?
Professionally, I have dedicated my career to Chicago’s nonprofit and government sectors. I have ample experience managing multi-million dollar city budgets, maximizing the impact of limited funds, and building sustainable partnerships across government, philanthropic and non-profit sectors. I am a unique candidate in that I possess a keen understanding of how government functions, how to navigate the legal system and how to most effectively lobby state and federal funding sources. My extensive experience means I understand how the systems work and where to cut through bureaucracy to create lasting change.
What will you do to ensure equitable and transparent funding for neighborhood schools?
As stated above, I support the shift towards an evidence-based funding model. Beyond supporting the continuation of this model, I hope to bring my experience with community accountability practices to the board.
This office is ideal for meaningful implementation of community accountability because schools are physical anchors in our neighborhoods and natural centers for developing and building together within and across the schools of District 2 and the entire city of Chicago.
I believe community accountability will require a deep understanding of participatory budgeting, co-governance, mutual aid, and other movement based programs as well as a relentless commitment to meaningful community engagement (my vision for community engagement is further articulated in other responses here).
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?
The practice of out-sourcing school needs through vendor contracts with for-profit companies, in the name of financial efficiency, has been an unmitigated disaster. The process of submitting “change orders” through Aramark’s opaque system lacks any transparency or accountability and has left many of our schools in utter disrepair. The employees are subject to the anti-worker, profit-driven practices of a massive corporation.
We must rebuild an internal infrastructure for facilities maintenance and management. The staff in our school buildings should be unionized city employees supervised by our school principals.
Furthermore, the arbitrary and discretionary allocation of capital budget investments at the district level must be reformed. A full database of capital investments should be publicly available on the CPS website and all future decisions should be accompanied by a methodology for those decisions. Lastly, program-related new investments should not be directed from the facilities budgets.
CPS and the board should also aggressively pursue TIF funds to maximize their capital budget revenue and ensure a more equitable use of those funds through dedicated investments in CPS facilities.
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?
As a board member I will work closely with various stakeholders, including CPS Parents for Buses (who have proposed numerous well researched and concrete solutions) who I am proud to be endorsed by, to build a coalition to solve this issue. I would invite the union(s) who work with and for school bus drivers to identify long term solutions, understand the workforce pipeline, and address any systemic barriers to ensuring long-term strategies. I would also reach out to my network both in Chicago and other cities to understand how districts have successfully solved this problem in the past and to explore municipal policies that could be modeled here going forward.
Section 4 - Educational Programs & Academic Success
How do you define a quality education?
A quality education is one that centers a whole-child approach and that develops informed, involved, and critically-thoughtful individuals committed to the long-term care of our communities. A quality education fosters a full sense of self & justice. Ensuring a quality education is how we teach our children that people are different & our differences merit respect, not fear or separation.
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 of Education is tasked with creating a vision for the future of Chicago Public Schools that is aspirational and with ensuring the policies and decisions made are done in pursuit of realizing that vision.
Ensuring that every child has access to quality educational programs must be at the heart of that vision. I believe that the investment we make in our schools is a statement of our values at large. What we choose to prioritize for our children are clear demonstrations of our character. As a member of the board, I will be grounded in the history of CPS and will be driven by my certainty that no child can succeed unless every child can succeed.
In addition to setting and achieving this vision for CPS and the governance & policy function that any school board must pursue - the context and history of this Board of Education demands that its elected members serve as more than a governing body. The creation of an elected representative school board is steeped in the hard-fought battle to create it and the work of educators, parents, and activists over the course of decades.
Members of this board will be community organizers, they will be advocates, and they will be coalition builders. They will be tasked with continuing the pursuit of our wildest dreams and highest aspirations for all our children - for moving us all closer to a future where every child can realize their full potential.
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.
I strongly believe that CPS needs a long-term approach to ensure that every child can walk to an excellent neighborhood school.
Our current system is often painted as one where families and students have a “choice”, but any CPS family knows that could not be farther from the truth. A district with chronically underfunded neighborhood schools, small regional schools that can only serve a fraction of our gifted students, and a few exceptional options that are the only alternative for a tiny fraction of students is not a district where any of us has a “choice”.
We must create a long-term, transparent plan to increase funding to neighborhood schools that does not make those investments at the expense of the only options available to students currently navigating the deeply inequitable systems we have built to date.
I do not object to magnet or specialty schools being available to students who want to pursue fine arts, STEM, trade programs, or other educational opportunities and I believe that, once we are able to provide quality education to all our students, the landscape for selective enrollment and magnet schools may look very different than it does today. When we center and invest in our neighborhood schools, we build up all of our children and create a public school district that draws families and residents to every corner of our city.
Lastly, I will not support the opening of any additional charter schools in Chicago. That being said, I do not want to see the trauma and devastation that comes from school closures and will strongly oppose the closure of any current CPS schools, including charters. Whether we would’ve chosen it or not, many charter schools have taken the place of the neighborhood school in communities across the city. We must seek to understand the current landscape and what every school, regardless of governance, has come to mean to their communities.
How should the Board approach charter oversight and accountability?
I would like to see the same principles of transparency I have outlined above applied to all schools, including charter schools. I believe that all public schools should be subject to the same standards for education, discipline, admittance/rejection, etc. Additionally, I would make it a top priority to expand LSCs to all charter schools.
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 will advocate for the inclusion of all of the working group’s recommendations into the district’s strategic plan. I attended a number of the working group sessions and saw the amount of labor that went into building a robust and achievable platform. We have neglected and extracted from our Black community with impunity and rebuilding the trust and confidence of Black students and families will be a decades-long effort going forward.
Everyone in this city is negatively impacted if we continue to perform a commitment to Black Chicagoans while picking and choosing a few actions so we can appear to care. Either Black student success is a priority, or it is not. I will fight to incorporate every single recommendation.
How will you work to ensure special education assessments and placements are more timely and equitable?
Most of our schools begin each year with a dramatically understaffed special education team - this is a huge barrier to their ability to identify, assess, evaluate, establish 504s and IEPs, and secure appropriate placements when applicable.
This issue is more prevalent at chronically under-resourced neighborhood schools in Black and brown, lower income communities who are not able to compensate for funding shortages by in-filling funds from other sources. This issue could be easily addressed by correcting a flaw in the funding allocation policy for special education staff at the school level.
Every year, the district determines SPED funding by looking at the number of students with IEPs + the number of minutes and subtracts the total number of outgoing students with IEPs. For example, at Hibbard, the district will subtract the number of IEPs in the graduating class of 6th graders.
The district does not, however, use any projection to determine the estimated number of incoming students with IEPs and/or the number of students that will be identified as needing IEPs (generally in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades).
The result of this approach means our school loses at least 3 three SPED staff positions and between .5 - 1.5 FTE case managers in our new budget. Of course, eventually, we regain that funding loss at the mid-year re-allocation and scramble to hire new staff, after being understaffed for the first half of the year.
This process repeats itself, year over year, without fail. I will work to amend the existing allocation methodology and address this issue without requiring new monies or related cuts to other budget areas.
What should the Board board do to guarantee students are receiving all of their required IEP minutes?
In addition to correcting the special education funding allocation policy detailed above, the board can and should become a strong lobbying body at the state and federal levels to fight for full funding.
Beyond that, CPS must entirely shift the culture at the district and school levels, as well as the practices they employ when it comes to serving students with disabilities. People with disabilities do not have deficits. We are forced to function within systems and spaces that have deficits. For example, neurodivergent minds are brilliant and unique and NEEDED. The vision and perspective I am able to bring to complex systems change and my ability to balance both high-level vision and detailed, operational understanding has made me an asset innumerable times in my career.
And yet, CPS has the largest legal team of any city department or sister agency. The central function of this team is to maintain the minimum threshold for legal compliance without actually providing services or ensuring that every child can learn.
This is deeply offensive and completely unacceptable. While protecting municipalities from litigation can and should be one of their roles, we must demand that internal teams work through a comprehensive, collaborative, and long-term reimagining of their central purpose.
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?
My children attend a school with a two-way, immersive dual language education program and I have seen first hand how difficult it is to identify and hire educators with the requisite bilingual teaching certifications. The district must work with all of our education workforce development partners to dramatically increase the certified bilingual educators in CPS schools. I would support efforts to incentivise current educators to secure bilingual certifications, to ensure a robust pipeline in partnership with post-secondary institutions, and to identify innovative opportunities to recruit new teachers to this field.
How would you advocate for the reinstatement of comprehensive art, music, and library programs to our schools?
Having this role be an elected office means there is a huge opportunity to bring issues like this into the public discourse. There is prolific evidence and research available on the benefits of art, music, and library programs in our schools. That being said, this challenge spans everything from the availability of art educator certification programs to budget and underfunding constraints. Successful advocacy will require that board members engage and empower their constituents to action, innovate and partner with community organizations, and do the work to demonstrate the value through data and student outcomes.
Section 5 - School Culture
What do you believe is the role of the Board in fostering a culture of belonging for every CPS student?
The Board is an essential element to creating a safe and inclusive culture for students, families, and communities.
The Board is responsible for drafting and implementing the policies that directly impact school-level environments and for overseeing district leadership. We must take on the work of building robust policies that not only protect, but celebrate every child - be that through queer and trans inclusionary policies, comprehensive sexual education, calendars and meals that are inclusive of religious and cultural practices - these are the outputs of the board’s actions that will substantively contribute to a positive and inclusive culture at the school level.
Additionally, by standing up as vocal public advocates for our community, we model what we expect from other adults at the district and in our schools.
Finally, as a part of our evaluation of CEO performance we will play a role in holding leadership accountable to those standards. There is an existing criteria for evaluation that is mandated by various governing bodies including the Illinois State Board of Education but I would urge the board to incorporate a 360 review approach district wide. This allows staff across all levels to anonymously offer feedback and perspectives on leadership. Understanding the culture created in the workplace and how the staff at the district and school levels feels about their senior leadership is critical to assessing success and impacting culture.
What are specific steps you will propose to increase in-school mental health support for our children?
Frankly, this issue is simply too complex to attempt to address in 2,000 characters. From systems-wide change around our understanding and acceptance of mental health needs to the provision of accommodations to students in crisis, this issue requires significant and collaborative policy development.
To address one sub-section of in-school mental health supports, I will expound on how CPS currently responds to the trauma of experiencing community violence.
CPS currently has 5-6 trauma counselors, employed at the district level, who serve the entire district and who are utilized in a reactive, transactional approach immediately following incidents that impact students. This is a woefully inadequate approach to addressing trauma. The district should establish a robust department that partners with community based organizations, city services, elected officials, LSCs, and school staff to ensure a consistent, proactive approach to mental health and wellness. These coalitions will be culturally responsive to the individual school community and will not only serve our students but also our families, teachers, staff, and the community writ large. The district will maintain the existing, response-based approach to ensure that, in addition to the ongoing robust and collective supports, there are layers of care available in times of acute trauma.
What policies do you propose to help stop bullying in CPS schools?
While mine is an often unfavorable perspective, I am deeply committed to the principle that hurt people hurt people. I believe the best way to address bullying is by providing services and supports to people who cause harm while protecting victims, respecting their experiences and trauma, and working to proactively practice restorative justice toward healing.
What specific steps will you take to address and reduce racial bias in our schools, both in terms of pedagogy, curriculum, and disciplinary practices?
Racial bias and, specifically, anti-Black racism, is a deeply rooted issue that requires a commitment to interrogate and dismantle on the personal, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic levels. I have spent more than ten years working to examine internalized white supremacy, facilitating affinity groups, organizing alongside racial justice movement leaders, and working to build the requisite humility and self-awareness to be a productive member of a multiracial, democratic body through a limited individual lens.
I believe that it will be crucial to center the voices and leadership of Black and brown board members while doing the labor required where appropriate and invited.
I do not believe that the Board of Education should dictate pedagogy or be tasked with assessing and evaluating curriculum - we have seen the negative consequences of these patterns before.
Many of the recommendations made by the Black student success working group will have myriad positive outcomes for all CPS students, communities, and schools - including reducing racial bias. One of the best ways we can accomplish this goal is by immediately implementing the recommendations to provide culturally responsive curriculum and instruction and embedded culturally responsive professional learning communities.
If we want students to have access to culturally relevant curriculum we must ensure that our schools are staffed with culturally responsive educators.
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?
As a survivor and peer advocate for fellow survivors of gender based violence, I find the framework and policies that CPS has employed deeply offensive. Absolutely all actions taken in response to sexual assault and violence should be centered in the voices of and led by survivors and survivor-led organizations.
One of the most effective ways that the Board can impact the incidence and severity of gender based violence is by fully funding and more effectively tracking the implementation of comprehensive, age-appropriate sexual education curriculum.
Ensuring our children receive sexual education from kindergarten is the single best tool we have to meet our obligation to protect students and create safe and inclusive environments where they are able to thrive..
An enormous body of research proves that providing sexual education from kindergarten:
Reduces the risks of child sexual victimization by creating significant increases in self-protective skills; emotional gains in self-esteem, self-efficacy, and feelings of safety; significant increases knowledge of appropriate and inappropriate touch, what to do in an inappropriate situation and increases knowledge and skill to identify unsafe situations; and results in demonstrated improvements in young children's skills and behaviors specifically related to disclosure.
Reduces the incidence of domestic violence; increases knowledge and disclosure of domestic violence.
Increases bystander intervention & reporting, leads to more gender-equitable attitudes, and leads to improved overall school climate and external reputation of the schools as a result.
Increases understanding of healthy relationships and improves parent-adolescent relationships
Improves communication skills and intentions, including increased intentions to discuss relationships and/or sex within relationships with parents and medical providers
And this does not begin to address the benefits of teaching sexed in our schools to teens, families, and society writ-large.
How do you plan to ensure that LGBT+ students are protected and supported in CPS, both in anti-discrimination policy and inclusive curricula?
Members of the Board of Education should play a strong role in advocating for policy changes at every level of government. As an elected official, they will have the ability to build a lobby for legislation. There are numerous resources and policy positions that have been developed by organizations leading the fight for LGBTQIA+ rights. As a member of the school board, I will always listen to and fight alongside the LGBTQIA+ community and will push for policies like:
The creation of a Queer Issues advisory council made up of students, families, and community members (especially those who identify as transgender) to share experiences, make recommendations, and serve as key experts on how to ensure CPS is a safe and loving environment for all students and their caregivers.
Passing state-level comprehensive student-nondiscrimination legislation that is inclusive of trans and nonbinary students’ full participation in athletics, access to facilities that align with students’ gender identity, respect for their names and pronouns, and privacy protections.
Ensuring that sexual education is not taught to children based on or separated by gender.
Establishing policies to inform students and caregivers of their rights and provide them with resources like GLSEN and SPLC.
Establishing policies that require schools to teach students how they can form student-led clubs or organizations such as Genders and Sexualities Alliance Network (formerly Gay Straight Alliance) clubs and require that schools provide the requisite administrative support to such groups.
Is there anything you would change about the recently adopted Whole School Safety plan? What can the Board do to ensure its implementation?
All efforts to address community and school safety must include substantive protections that are grounded in gender based violence education and prevention efforts.
The Chicago Public School District has struggled tremendously to implement the comprehensive, medically-accurate and age appropriate curriculum that is mandated by state law. Chicago’s 2019 Healthy Schools Survey revealed that only 42% of schools are teaching all of the required sex ed minutes, and only 62% of schools complied with the requirement to send caregivers an annual letter about the curriculum with an opt-out option. In 2018, those numbers were far worse with only 28% of schools teaching the required minutes and only 50% of schools sending home the notification and opt-out letter.
So while the current numbers show an improvement, it remains deeply disturbing that the district continues to fall short on implementing a policy that was passed into law over ten years ago.
Additionally, the current CPS Sexual Education curriculum and online guide demonstrate significant gaps and a total lack of the thoughtful inclusion needed to ensure every student has the information they need. For example, the guide doesn’t mention sexual health and sexuality as they pertain to people with disabilities. All students, including those with disabilities, are entitled to educational information that goes beyond dominant normative standards.
As a member of the Board of Education, I will demand that Chicago Public Schools report, with full transparency, on the implementation of this policy, that a meaningful action plan is created, and that meaningful inclusivity is incorporated.