On May 15, Brandon Johnson was sworn in as mayor of Chicago. Johnson, a progressive former public school teacher, organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), and twice-elected Cook County Commissioner, is now leading the fourth-largest school district in the nation, Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The system faces declining enrollment, underfunding, and the city-wide question of how to keep young people out of trouble without preemptively criminalizing them. Johnson pledged to invest heavily in neighborhood schools and the communities surrounding them—unlike his former opponent and charter school proponent Paul Vallas.
In April, the mayoral race between Johnson and Vallas hinged on issues of public safety, criminal justice reform, and the economy of a city still recovering from the upheaval of the pandemic. But the election was also a referendum on the fate of Chicago’s public schools: Voters were faced with a choice between expanding charter and private schools and voucher programs or shoring up the public education infrastructure that already exists. They chose the latter, which suggests that, in Chicago, as in other major cities, progressive Democrats can win big by focusing on a pro-public education platform.
As attacks on public schools unfold nationally, public education champions have risen to the occasion.
As attacks on public schools unfold nationally, public education champions—especially those in large metropolitan areas like Johnson in Chicago, and former Philadelphia mayoral candidate Helen Gym—have risen to the occasion. The Chicago mayoral election may end up representing a watershed moment for the pro-public school movement left that’s been building strength at least since the 2012 CTU strike. That strike pioneered “bargaining for the common good” and inspired other unions to approach negotiations with the interests of the whole community, not just the union, in mind. In this sense, taking a close look at how each candidate framed their campaigns can be instructive.
Vallas, whose campaign received funding from Donald Trump’s former education czar Betsy DeVos, had been in charge of Chicago’s schools before. He was the district CEO from 1995 to 2001, and he was responsible for issuing “‘payday loan’ bonds” that caused CPS to pay potentially $1 billion more in interest than they would have with other financing. Vallas committed all sorts of similar financial blunders when he ran the public school districts of New Orleans and Philadelphia, leaving destabilized Black and Latinx communities in his wake.
In These Times incisively summed up Vallas’s strategy while helming public school districts: “Prioritize relationships with private entities (rather than people) that results in hollowing out schools. Then, evaluate those schools (which have been under-supported) using the metric of unfair standardized testing. Now, you can close the schools. Finally, open anti-union charter schools instead—while using public funds as much as possible—and be held accountable to the public as little as possible. Rinse, repeat.”
Outside of Illinois, states such as Tennessee and New Hampshire are facing aggressive pushes to expand private education funded by the government through voucher programs. In Houston, the state of Texas is taking over the entire public school district in the name of academic and administrative deficiencies as Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath carries out a school privatization agenda. Similarly, throughout his campaign, Vallas promoted expanding private school vouchers using Chicago taxpayer money, claiming that “school choice gives power back to parents.”
Johnson’s background, in many ways, is the inverse of Vallas’s. In addition to his time in the classroom and as an organizer, Johnson is also a protege of former CTU president Karen Lewis, who died of cancer in 2021. Lewis focused on forming alliances between teachers and community members, laying the groundwork for the 2012 CTU strike and for Johnson’s mayoral victory. Johnson will maintain these connections, in one way through his new deputy mayor for education, former CTU chief of staff Jennifer Johnson.
During his campaign, Johnson’s “Plan for Stronger School Communities” called for providing CPS students with free access to Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains; fulfilling “basic needs” like hiring a librarian and funding arts programs at every school; empowering students through partnerships with local trade schools; and overhauling the formula for funding Chicago’s public schools. Johnson also pledged to lead the district from a fully mayor-appointed school board to an elected twenty-one-person board. Each of these policies stands to vastly change the district by injecting energy and resources into public schools.
In Johnson’s inaugural speech on May 15, he also referenced the role that quality mental health care plays in the success of students and communities.
“Our schools call out for more resources to fulfill their mandate of providing every single child in our city with a world-class education that meets their specific needs,” he said. Funding for mental health care has been on the political agenda elsewhere in the Midwest, too—earlier this year, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers called for $270 million for mental health care for Wisconsin students.
Further east, progressives had their eye on Philadelphia, which had its mayoral Democratic primary just one day after Johnson’s inauguration, on May 16. Philadelphia garnered attention for its potential to create a greater pro-public education shift in the politics of major cities dominated by school privatization over the last two decades.
Former teacher and public school advocate Helen Gym was thought to be key to this shift in Philadelphia, but she was defeated by Rebecca Rhynhart and Cherelle Parker, the latter of whom took the nomination with 33 percent of the vote.
Gym, like Johnson, is a former teacher and was backed by powerful local unions and a strong coalition of progressive politicians and advocates. Her plan for Philadelphia’s public schools included putting a nurse and counselor in every building, as well as improving the physical spaces in which students learn. She has long been an advocate for public education, co-founding Parents United for Public Education, and founding Philadelphia Public School Notebook, a news organization that is now Chalkbeat Philadelphia. U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont, and U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, both endorsed Gym (Sanders had also endorsed and hosted a rally for Johnson in Chicago at the end of March).
Cherelle Parker is a moderate whose campaign was backed by the Philadelphia Democratic establishment. Her plan to expand the police force and her preference for stop-and-frisk tactics resonated with voters who were overwhelmingly concerned with public safety. Police presence and activity was a concern in Chicago, too—Johnson’s past comments about redirecting police funding to other programs and services that keep people safe were turned against him during his campaign, especially by Paul Vallas, who said Johnson would defund the police. However, this was not enough to thwart Johnson’s campaign.
Gym’s loss in Philadelphia might seem like a blow to the building progressive movement seen in elections in Chicago, Boston, and Los Angeles. But the momentum is still there, and it is certain that the labor-left and leaders in public education advocacy will continue garnering political strength.
The possibilities for Johnson’s mayoral tenure in Chicago, and Gym’s campaign in Philadelphia, signal hope for those who believe public school students need care and investment to thrive, not closures and charter school takeovers.
Jeff Bryant contributed reporting to this article.