Chicago Schools issues ahead of school board elections

Chicago Public Schools have been dominating local headlines for months now, and not always for positive news; whether it’s for a new funding formula, or changes for governing magnet and selective enrollment schools or transportation problems for the same, but headlining many stories was the need to fund a deficit, and how to get more money from the Illinois Governor J..B. Pritzker.

For many residents and observers, the nation’s third largest school system is on the financial precipice and has also faced a  mountain of criticism for failing to meet student standardized goals for reading and math; and, the Chicago Teachers Union also faces formidable opposition for even asking for more money.

Adding to the issues faced is that one of their former organizers, Brandon Johnson, is now mayor, with a hide bound progressive agenda, but whose myriad of other problems: housing migrants, increasing homelessness and high crime threaten to overwhelm him.

The elephant in the room is the near $400 billion deficit, the result of CPS being helped by COVID-19 federal relief funds, which is about to end, but as most agree that budget hole is bound to grow, and especially without the inclusion of staff raises when it announced its projected deficit, not to mention a new CTU contract, upon the existing one ending June 20.

Problematically, according to local public radio station WBEZ, is “the school district has not publicly released school level budgets, a break with past practice; media outlets, including WBEZ, requested them under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The district denied the FOIA request, describing the budget as ‘preliminary factual information that is inextricably intertwined with ongoing deliberations and policy formulations,’ leaving many wondering what to expect.”

CPS primarily serves a Black and Brown population, and amidst the city’s historical patterns of segregation, the lack of political will by some white majority leaders has led to a juncture that often seems insurmountable.

Even the much lauded selective enrollment and magnet schools, “created under court ordered desegregation, many still lack the diversity of the city and are largely segregated by race and class. A couple dozen are integrated, but serve more white and Asian American students than the rest of the school district,” said Chalkbeat Chicago.

New funding formula is on the books, but faces opposition

One seemingly ray of hope has been a new funding formula that is individually school based, instead of per pupil. In March CPS announced the change, a campaign promise by Johnson to end the old plan of student based budgeting that gave schools a set amount for each child that was enrolled.

This new plan establishes a baseline level but this has brought backlash from some schools who have voted against the budgets they received, feeling that it is inadequate.

Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ reported that, “Several elected local school councils in Chicago are either refusing to approve budgets sent by the school district or are approving those budgets with a message to let the district leaders know they don’t think they are receiving enough resources for the coming year.”

“The budget that we have does not meet the need,” said Sequoiah Brown, a member of the local school council at Poe Classical School in Pullman on the Far South Side. “Our parents are adamant about the needs of our students. You should be trying to bring up the others to that standard, not taking from one to give to the other. That is not how equity works.”

“The school district has not publicly released school-level budgets, a break with past practice. Media outlets, including WBEZ, requested them under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. The district denied the FOIA request, describing the budget information as ‘preliminary factual information that is inextricably intertwined with ongoing deliberations and policy formulations,”an assertion that the Illinois Families for Public Schools, a nonprofit parental advocacy organization, dismissed as “ridiculous.”

“As school communities discuss their budgets in a year of major budget changes leading to LSC’s holding budget votes, district-wide numbers to compare should be available to public reporters. These numbers ARE public at school level!” the group posted on X.” 

Those Local School Councils are also fearful that they won’t have enough classroom aides, or may have to do without administrative staff.

In a recent interview with WTTW Chicago’s public television station, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez answered a question of why the Fall budget, scheduled to be released mid June is now to be released in July, by saying, “We need to really firm up our budget.”

“We want to really firm up our budget. One of the things that we said,is again, to protect the gains that we’re seeing. We wanted to protect the investments at our schools. We worked with our principals to make some tough decisions, and so we’re finding efficiencies and reductions in our central office.

We want to make sure that we firm those up. I will tell you that I feel confident that we’re going to have a balanced budget for the July board meeting. We are going to be able to stave off the cuts from the schools. It does mean though, that we’ll have some challenges centrally, plus, we’re still going to have some more challenges in the coming year.”

For the deficit he noted: “One of the things we did is we phased in the federal funding over three years, so year three is next year. We’ve had a structural deficit of $600-700 million a year. It’s about half of that — $400 million — for next year. That’s as we have the last tranche of federal funding that we’re going to have, so that’s why the deficit will be bigger in 2026. The main issue is that, and our state has done a great job in adding funding, but as I said publicly, our needs are outpacing the funding we’re getting from the state. I have more students than ever that need IEPs that require special services. We have more migrant students than ever. In fact, our enrollment is actually up — we’re almost at 329,000 students as we finished last year. That’s up from 323,000 from the year before. So for us, we’re seeing more students, more needs, and the funding just is not keeping up.

We also know that the state, even from their own funding formula, they’re short about a billion dollars, with a “B,” just for Chicago alone. Again, this is not a problem that our leaders in the state created — they inherited (it), but I really want to work with them because we are seeing the evidence of what could happen when we invest in our district.”

Martinez’s statements may have been diplomatic to keep the tap open on future funding from the state, and there has been widespread opinion that the state is  not mandated to help fund Chicago schools with so many other districts statewide needing money.

CPS faces gubernatorial hurdle

Pritzker and the mayor have been at odds over funding for Chicago and don’t seem to see agreement, and he said, to local media, “It ought to be our priority to put more money into education, but not just for the city of Chicago,” and even more pointedly, “The city of Chicago is 20 % of the population of the state. So we have a lot of other people, a lot of other kids across the state going to school. We need to fund their schools better, too.”

In mid May, the Chicago Teachers Union went to the state capitol of Springfield to ask for $1.1 billion in state funding, and also to protest against House Bill 303 designed to “protect selective enrollment schools in Chicago from closure, admission changes or disproportionate state cuts,” noted an editorial in Crain’s Chicago Business, waring that these schools, while part of a flawed school choice system, are “some of the best high schools in the country within Chicago city limits, and that changing the system, or dismantling it, would cause “families to pull ups stakes and move elsewhere.”

Critics have pointed out that it is unlikely that CPS would close selective schools, and State Rep. Margaret Coke, Democrat of Chicago, has said that she hopes no significant changes will be made to charter schools until Chicago has its fully elected school board in 2027.

The Chicago Sun Times reported that “The majority of Illinois’ public school districts, including CPS, have less than 90% of the money needed to adequately serve students, state data shows. That’s less money for everything from general and special education to art, music and after school programs.”

Opposition to increased monies has been on the agenda since April when Pritzker, facing opposition from liberal supporters gave the bare minimum of an increase to state school funding, and as the Chicago Tribune reported, “cutting back on state funded healthcare for immigrants who are in the country without legal permission,” which has a deleterious effect on migrant children in public schools.

Looking back on the funding formula by his predecessor, Bruce Rauner, a Republican, critics point out that Prtizker’s increases are not enough to meet the state’s goals of adequately funding public schools,” under Rauner’s 2017 formula, added the Tribune.

Rep. Will Davis, Democrat, from south suburban Homewood, who was one of the sponsors of the 2017 bill “has pushed for at least a $500 million increase annually.”

The funding for K through 12 was increased by $350 million, the minimum allowed by the law according to education supporters and advocates.

 Test scores have improved, somewhat

In what can be widely touted as a huge improvement, test scores have risen for CPS students and in the WTTW interview Martinez said, “since the pandemic started, we’re now at exceeding pre-pandemic levels in reading, and we know that reading is foundational for all of our students . . [W]e have intervention teachers at our schools with the highest poverty rates; we have seen our Black students have the biggest gains in our district by six points.”

And, in a notable increase he added, “That’s 6% for black students. That is a large leap, 6%, which indicates to me that they had some room to grow, that there was a lot of room to grow.”

The interviewer questioned this, saying, “31% of students being proficient in English Language Arts, that still means that 69% are not proficient. What’s the plan to continue the progress, this growth that you’ve seen?”

Martinez replied, with some hesitation,”Yeah, no, absolutely. So I think one of the things I know is that this year’s gains build on last year’s gains, which also saw a six-point gain in reading and a two-point gain in math. And we know from a study from Harvard and Stanford that we are number one in the country in reading recovery, number one in reading recovery for Black students and number two for Latino students in the country, so this builds on these gains.”

Caught off guard the superintendent seems to have tried to place a spin on what are still weaker scores, and no doubt will be pounced upon by conservative and Republican lawmakers, when he said:”The other context I would give you is that our state proficiency rate, they were at 35% in reading and 27% in math. Our state overall also doesn’t have high ratings, but remember, we have a very rigorous assessment. More importantly, what I saw was students across every grade level growing. . . We also have to remind our community that our high schools right now couldn’t be stronger. We’re seeing record graduation rates, record scholarships, record number of college credits being earned.”

Selective and charter school dilemmas

We have previously reported on the fears that selective enrollment and charter schools faced in a recent post, on the vote to extend their contracts between one and four years and not the usual, and expected 10 years,” but parents of those schools are also frustrated by the lack of adequate transportation, in both directions for their children.

In late March, The Chicago Tribune reported that, “For months, students attending some of the city’s most selective schools have traversed Chicago, taking buses, trains and carpools sometimes as early as 5 a.m., to show up on time for school — and the district is telling parents they may have to continue to find their own transportation into next school year.”

As can be expected the news was met with an uproar of disapproval:

At that time, “For more than seven months, the district has not provided busing services for roughly 5,500 general education students across the magnet and selective enrollment schools. Some of their parents have repeatedly told the district they are commuting for up to four hours a day to get children to their classrooms, risking their jobs and tiring out their kids in the process.”

General education students are also competing with the needs of other students, those with disabilities and special education; and, Chalkbeat reported, also in March, “For general education students, the district is offering prepaid Ventra cards, a move that has drawn criticism from families who don’t have the flexibility to accompany young children on public transportation. Additionally, about 3,700 students with disabilities have opted for stipends of up to $500 to cover their transportation needs on their own, down from 4,000 students at the start of the year, according to the district.”

In a hoped for menu, Johnson also wants “free public transit for students, housing for the district’s 20,000 homeless students,” they added and a partnership with the CTU for the so-called wraparound services, long on the wish list.

“Currently, about 130 students with disabilities are on bus routes longer than an hour, according to CPS. That’s significantly down from the 3,000 such students on long routes last year, but it is up from 47 students at the start of the school year.

Many families with general education students at magnet and selective enrollment schools have protested the district’s decision and have demanded a stipend to cover their transportation costs. Some families who have struggled to juggle transportation have pulled their children out of magnet schools and enrolled them somewhere closer to home.”

Just before the announcement of the finding issue, and an earlier extension for parents to enroll their children, creating yet another problem, there was a protest in Daley Plaza, and outraged parents demonstrated, loud and clear, for a change, or a stipend to help them.

“The district is providing stipends to more than 3,700 families with students with disabilities but has said providing stipends to general education families is not sustainable, citing a projected $391 million budget shortfall,” noted the Tribune.

Parent Marissa Lichwick-Glesne told ABC 7 News that, “"I believe this is indefensible, inexcusable, and unconscionable," and, "We know what needs to be done, and we know what these kids are going through and what these parents are going through every day to get their kids to school, and we need help. We need relief."

“The district is providing stipends to more than 3,700 families with students with disabilities but has said providing stipends to general education families is not sustainable, citing a projected $391 million budget shortfall.”

A parental suggestion for transportation hubs to alleviate the problem has been rejected as not being feasible for all students: “Hubs would work for some but not all routes, thus not serving all families and schools in an equitable manner, but, again, we will continue to explore all options for the coming school year,” district spokesperson Mary Ann Fergus said in a statement.

"Students and parents are now facing commutes up to five hours per day. Some have resorted to unreliable and potentially unsafe third-party transportation services costing families hundreds of dollars each month," said Hal Woods with Kids First Chicago.

Increased student migration population

One factor causing greater budgetary concern is the arrival of migrant children, mostly from Venezuela, who have stretched the budget, as well as class size, and Martinez plans to cut the central office to staff in an attempt to cut the deficit.

Exact counts of migrant children in CPS schools vary depending on who is doing the counting, for the District, the count is 9,000, but using the criteria of the Illinois State Board of Education the number ratchets up to 17,000, and is based on if the student is born in the U.S. or Puerto Rico, and has less than three years in an Illinois school.

Beyond these methodologies lie a myriad of problems, mostly related to bilingual instruction, and despite mandates from the state, many schools in Chicago do not meet the criteria of properly staffed teachers, who have received certification.

Chalkbeat recently reported that families who move to find affordable housing are often not told that their children can stay in schools that offer bilingual education and can help them advance in their studies.

In that search many of the families end up in racially segregated neighborhoods with under-resourced schools, and can fall behind, and cited that one school on the city’s West Side, Laura S. Ward has depended on a kindergarten teacher and a custodian who speak Spanish for classroom assistants.

The New Arrivals Grant was recently defeated in the state legislature and Pritzker’s office has told schools in need to use the McKinney Vento Subgrants from the federal government, or the $350 million awarded to state schools.

What the future holds for Chicago Public Schools remains a question mark for many, with its myriad of challenges and problems, but a lot of hope is vested in the November school board elections, a first for the city.

Hopes for a more democratic process and community input are high and despite that the board will only be partially elected, with a full election slated for 2027.

There are concerns, among them that the positions are not paid, shutting out many low income voices dealing with an already bureaucratic laden process.

The historical significance cannot be underestimated, as it is a first for Chicago, while the rest of Illinois does have elected school boards.

The new board will have 10 of 21 school board seats, but the rest including the prescient, will be elected by the mayor, giving him a majority control for the length of his term, and the newly formed board will begin meeting in January of 2025, and as we have seen there will be a full agenda.

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Chicago Police breakup DePaul encampment

Since the Oct. 7th Hamas invasion of Israel and the taking of 250 hostages, the response from the world was one of deep hostility, but what followed: the swift invasion of Gaza, the near 40,000 Palestinian deaths, many of whom are women and children, often maimed and disfigured by Israeli bombs, sympathy and support for Israel has dwindled in what many see as genocide, plus revulsion as the Palestinian death toll has mounted.

Nowhere has this been seen more clearly than in the pro Palestinian encampments and protests across American college campuses where over the last several weeks police departments, aided by campus police, have been called to quell the often combative confrontations with pro Israel supporters. 

As of last week 2,400 arrests nationwide have been made.

The protests have centered on student demands that their universities divest from any investments that support the war in Gaza, much like earlier protests during the Vietnam war, and who later asked these schools to divest from companies that supported the apartheid government of South Africa in the 1980s.

Now for many students this has a new twist: they also don’t want to see their personal ethics compromised by the schools that educate them.

The protests while tamped down in some areas, and while there has been compromise at some universities, the questions it raises are varied: free speech as supported in the American constitution, the horrors of war, moral outrage, support for US allies who abridge the moral divide, to name but a few; but, in short, we are seeing an increasing level of awareness by a population that is claiming the future as their own.

The swift moving actions of some university administrators has been bemoaned by some student protestors who felt that there was some path forward, and for Northwestern University in suburban Chicago an agreement was reached, and a degree of transparency on the school’s investments was reached, but it left some, on both sides of the divide feeling betrayed, but in general, tangible results were achieved.

This has not been the case for DePaul University in Chicago, where its long running encampment was raided early Thursday morning and The Chicago Sun Times reported, “Chicago police cleared out a pro-Palestinian encampment at DePaul University’s Lincoln Park campus Thursday morning after school officials said they had reached an impasse with the protesters. The encampment has been in place since April 30 and had been the last remaining in the Chicago area and the longest-standing in the country.”

The pattern was the same as at the University of Chicago with an early morning confrontation, and school officials said that it was peaceful and that there was no credible threat ending, and that student protestors left quietly. Yet, there are reports that a Muslim student had her hijab torn from her head, during her arrest, and that another student, male, was pulled by his helmet by police to the ground.

Students were prepared for both the best outcome and the worst, said Simran Bains, senior to the Tribune a week ago, and was willing to get arrested if that was what it took to get school administrators to take their demands seriously, “I can’t pretend like things are normal, while other people are suffering,” she added.

DePaul President Robert Manuel had noted in an earlier statement that he hoped for a “timely resolution” to the encampment, but critics were doubting his sincerity, and now especially, in light of the police raid on the encampment.

He added a stronger police presence due to clashes between pro Israel counter protesters and said, “It was evident that the protest had become a magnet for others outside our community with nefarious intent.”

It should also be said that DePaul's campus, much like that of Columbia In New York City, sits in an open community with easy public access.

The Sun Times added that “During a news conference at DePaul, Chicago Police Patrol Chief Jon Hein told reporters that officers “assisted in the removal of the encampment” at the university’s request, "and the protestors departed quietly, and without incident.

“It became apparent that the student leaders did not have the ability to represent everyone or make decisions in our final meeting with the DePaul Divestment Coalition and their attorney on May 11,” Manuel said, adding, "... the student leaders demonstrated a complete lack of understanding or concern for the impact the encampment was having on the rest of the population in our university community.”

The university received more than 1,000 complaints about the encampment over the past 17 days and “took steps to address these concerns,” Manuel said.

“But we can no longer maintain this balance. We had no choice but to act, before we lost the ability to provide for the safety of the Jewish members of our community, to preserve the rights of all other students, and to maintain university operations,” Manuel said of the decision to clear the encampment.”

Accusations of anti Semitism abound but it’s certainly not clear that all of those that are seen offering the Hitler salute, or yelling racial slurs are students, and in fact New York City’s Mayor Eric Adams has blamed outside agitators for the unrest. Not reported in detail is the significant presence of Jewish students against the actions of Israel against the Palestinians, and, in fact, some have blamed certain media outlets for omitting this fact.

Media reports from the residential community surrounding the DePaul campus reported the following including the Sun Times:

"Brian Comer, president of the Sheffield Neighborhood Association, said the group became concerned about safety when counter protesters showed up at the encampment days ago and asked the university to take the encampment down.

Though that protest ended peacefully, Comer said he was worried about a different outcome of more clashes.

“It became very clear that this could be a tinder box for something besides free speech,” Comer said. “The second one person is injured, it’s too late.”

“The Anti Defamation League, praised the school’s action as did Metro Hillel Chicago, and noted that peaceful classroom discussions were their expected standard for protest.

“In a statement on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, Anti-Defamation League Midwest Regional Director David Goldenberg said they “appreciate” that the university cleared the encampment.

Additional pro-Israel groups have also opposed the encampments across the country, including Metro Chicago Hillel, which has started a petition to call on university administrators to clear them.”

“Free speech and the respectful exchange of ideas in the classroom and in peaceful public protests are fundamental to a college education,” a petition from Hillel International read. “What is happening on too many college and university campuses today is not that,” the petition said.

Despite the fears of the neighborhood association, it seems, from student reports that their encampment was peaceful with book clubs, prayers and music.

Redolent of earlier campus protests, the sight of police brutalizing students in headlocks, and often in riot gear, has turned the tide of public opinion for some, but politics has entered the public arena, with some like Sen. Ted Cruz lobbing wholesale accusations at the feet of protestors, and the Fort Worth Star Telegram reported:

"U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz made a stop in Fort Worth Wednesday night to stump for Cheryl Bean, who is in a Republican Primary runoff for Texas District 97.

Cruz, a Texas Republican, spoke about his grievances with President Joe Biden’s White House, immigration and the protests that are ongoing at college campuses across the country opposing the war in Gaza .

Following the event, Cruz told the Star-Telegram he “absolutely” supports the deployment of Texas Department of Public Safety troopers across the state to the University of Texas at Austin’s campus.

“Any radical who threatens the safety of another student should be arrested, should they be prosecuted they should be expelled and if they’re from another country, they should be deported,” Cruz said to the crowd, earning him a standing ovation

“Our country is based on everyone having the right to express themselves and worship like they are,” Bean told the Star-Telegram. “We keep forgetting that it wasn’t the Jews that went out and made the first strike. It was the Palestinians.”

The fact that many of these protests are being held at elite colleges, University of California Berkeley, Harvard, Columbia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other liberal institutions has not been lost on Republican lawmakers who see these protests as yet another example of “woke” ideologies, replete with their diversity, equality and inclusion departments.

To be fair, some university presidents are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place: if they come down too hard, they are being seen as authoritarian, if they don’t they are being branded as anti Semitic. 

President Joe Biden has publicly condemned anti Semitism at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Annual Days of Remembrance reminding the audience of the history of Jewish struggles, and that anti Semitism, and antagonism towards Jews, “This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world, and it requires our continued vigilance and outspokenness.”

The University of Chicago, known to be among the most committed of universities to free speech in the country, reported The Chicago Tribune, but noting that the Dean of Students Michelle Rasmussen said in an earlier statement that “protestors have had numerous opportunities to share their views during this encampment, and they may do so now, under the same rules that apply to others.”

This seemed to be a model for what happened at DePaul, and it was no surprise when news of their early dawn raid, when students were asleep, and as one Palestinian professor at UnChicago told the Tribune, “The point of the raid was terror, they waited for those kids to fall asleep and then they pulled tents from under them when they were sleeping,” said Eman Abdelhadi.

On Thursday, USPCN announced in a press release that they would protest at the university as they prepare for alumni weekend: “This Friday, hundreds of students, faculty, and community members organized by UChicago United for Palestine (UCUP) will rally at the University of Chicago in protest of the University's continued involvement in the genocide in Gaza. This protest comes after the University swept a Gaza solidarity encampment on Tuesday, May 7, in order to clear space on the quad for Alumni Weekend, an annual event intended to reunite University alumni and encourage donations.”

In a further statement that shows that University of Chicago officials may have been caught out, they added the following:

"Ironically, the University removed our tents on the grounds that they were blocking students' access to common spaces like the quad," said one third-year undergraduate organizer with UCUP, "but now they’ve set up even bigger tents, as well as barriers which prevent students from accessing a large section of the quad. The administration's definition of 'disruptive' activity is so clearly arbitrary and non-neutral. They’re more than willing to block off common space as long as it lines their pockets."

In the aftermath of the breakup of the DePaul encampment there was sorrow, and regrets, and some bitterness on the part of student participants, but while some of these feelings have remained on campus, events began to take a precipitous turn, when the university began an effort to target eight BIPOC and Jewish-Led Student Organizations

In a statement released on Friday by Students for Justice in Palestine, they said that, “the DePaul University administration sent an email requiring eight student organizations to attend disciplinary meetings for their support of an encampment calling for divestment from Israel’s genocide in Gaza. These disciplinary measures come just weeks before graduation and days after DePaul President Robert Manuel authorized a Chicago police raid on the student encampment, during which a police officer removed the hijab off of a Muslim student bystander before arresting her.”

In addition to this they stressed that while "The DePaul Divestment Coalition is a network of over thirty student organizations supporting divestment, but the only student organizations the University is targeting are those led by cultural minorities, including all organizations that participated in the encampment negotiations with President Manuel. The University notified them that they were accused of violating unspecified policies in unspecified ways, and must arrange an initial meeting with the administration by Friday, May 31st.” 

The notices target a wide variety of the school’s student population, “Palestinian, Jewish, Latino, South Asian, Native/Indigenous, and Black student leaders, including those who are regularly consulted and depended on by the University to provide input on University operations including the University budget, reviewing the Code of Student Responsibility, student safety, and other advisory matters. One of the organizations impacted by the DePaul administration’s disciplinary measures is the Student Government Association, which is considered part of the University’s governance structure. “

These moves seem to be a radical departure form the Vincentian values, the university espouses, as Student Government Association President Parveen Kaur Mundi noted by saying, “This will all have a chilling effect on freedom of speech and expression at DePaul not just for us, but for students who engage in activism on all kinds of issues.”

She also added, “Myself and the other organization leaders being targeted have immersed ourselves in advocating for improved student life at this campus as long as we have been students at the institution. The administration’s recent weaponization of the conduct process to suppress student freedom of expression of these same organizations is shocking and unprecedented,

Manuel seems to be getting ahead of any further student protests at DePaul with these actions, say some observers, and it certainly appears to be that way.

The targeted groups are the Student Government Association, Students for Justice in Palestine, Jews for Justice, the Black Student Union, Native American and Indigenous Student Tonight,

Adding fuel to fires of protest and disillusionment, was the news that “DePaul University alumni disrupted the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Alumni Reception—a high-level gathering of donors. Alumni protestors are calling on DePaul to divest from Israel’s genocide in Gaza, in which at least 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, including over 15,000 children, in the span of eight months." 

"Donations from alumni and others are the third biggest source of income for DePaul University. Alumni disruptors pledge to withhold donations to DePaul in solidarity with students and faculty in their demands for financial transparency and for divestment from human rights abuses," the statement added.

In their support of students they said, “As alumni, we are sending a strong message to DePaul that they cannot go on with business as usual during a genocide. We will not donate until DePaul clearly divests from human rights abuses,” said Leena Almasri, a 2019 DePaul graduate and a member of DePaul Alumni for a Free Palestine."

“DePaul’s actions against students protesting a genocide are reprehensible,” said Camila Mariana Barrientos, a 2022 DePaul LAS graduate. She continued, “Student repression at a university that claims to be liberal, progressive, and guided by Vincentian values of social justice is shocking to me. As an alumnus, I am ashamed that this is what my alma mater has become.”

Updated May 29 2024, 1:09 a.m. CDT

All but lost for Bring Chicago Home referendum

Tuesday’s primary election for Chicago proved the probable death knell for the much heralded and championed Bring Chicago Home referendum, which would have imposed a tax increase on properties sold over $1.5 million, taxed at 0.6 percent on the first $999,999 of the sale price, 2 percent on the next $500,000, and 3 percent on the rest.

In what was a surprise to many in City Hall, as well as residents, voters defeated the proposal by a resounding “no” with voters by a 53.6 % vote and only 46.4% vote saying “yes”, this despite a publicized effort by Mayor Brandon Johnson, and supportive alder people such as Maria Hadden of the 49th Ward, and State Res. Kelly Cassidy, both Democrats.

As we have noted before opposition was fiercest by building owners and managers, and their group, Building Owners and  Managers Association of Chicago, mounted a vigorous campaign to first take the vote off the ballot, which they did with the cooperation of an appeals court, but when it reached the Illinois State Supreme Court they declined to hear it, saying that the Court could not interfere in the legislative process.

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The supporters despite some intense retail politics, including door knocking all over the city, and Hadden and Cassidy appearing at the polls, along with other elected city and religious leaders, were on hand at polling places to answer questions; all to no avail.

What is known is that the Association did mount a full court press of its own to malign, say some, in their efforts to defeat the measure which would have generated $100 million to fight the ever increasing homeless population of Chicago, estimated at the last point in time count to be 700,000.

While in some quarters there was sympathy for the building owners, they never offered an alternative, and the specter of a property increase amongst all classes of real estate is an unwelcome alternative that few want to see.

Had the measure passed the burden would have fallen on commercial properties and few homeowners. In fact, it contained a tax cut that would have benefited most of them on properties sold between $1million with a cut to 0.6 percent on the first $999,999, of the sale price, and 2 percent on the rest.

As The Chicago Sun Times reported, “The lowest turnout in at least 80 years for a presidential primary would have appeared to favor the Chicago Teachers Union, the CTU-affiliated United Working Families and progressive unions that had proven their ability to turn out their own voters in a low-turnout election by electing Johnson last year,” and largely driving this recent effort, after previous failed attempts in the past.

“Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa (35th), the mayor's former City Council floor leader, made no attempt to hide his disappointment”, added the Sun Times.

"This is not the result we wanted. We're gonna have to take a real hard look at what happened and figure out how to move forward from here," said Ramirez-Rosa, who was instrumental in getting the binding referendum through the City Council and on the ballot after years of failure.”

Also expressing disappointment, in their report, and a possible reason for defeat was, “Johnson’s First Deputy Chief of Staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas [who] addressed the referendum at the Northwest Side party of newly elected state Rep. Graciela Guzmán.”

“We’ll continue to work. The issue is not going away,” Pacione-Zayas said, attributing the results to the court battle over whether referendum votes would be counted, which could have caused potential confusion among mail-in voters.”

With over 95 % of the votes polled, supporters are hoping that the uncounted mail in votes, 100,000 can give them a “Hail Mary Pass”, but with that count not coming until early next week, at least, that hope might prove to be more of a wish than a hope,

The political loss for a Jonson supported initiative cannot be dismissed, although it’s early enough in his term to salvage defeat, but some who never wanted to see him in office, are smelling blood in the water as was noted by the report:

"Bad policy should be defeated, and voters saw that it was bad policy," said veteran political strategist Greg Goldner, who quarterbacked the campaign against the referendum.

"It can't build affordable housing. It can't solve homelessness. It can't provide mental health services. It can't solve the migrant crisis. It can't provide affordable housing for teachers and vets. It can't do all of those things for a revenue stream that has proven to be unpredictable," he added. In the end, Goldner said, voters agreed the referendum was "poorly constructed, poorly defined" and a "very cynical public policy initiative."

While Goldner’s remarks ignore the enormity of these problems faced in cities across the country, with “solution” being a relative term, nonetheless, his comments reflect a deep dissatisfaction with Johnson, especially by the local white business elite, who did not want, as noted before, another Black mayor, after the defeat of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

In a larger sense, the opposition to progressive politicians in Democratic led cities has surfaced as business communities nationwide have expressed what they feel is a “lurch to the left,” noted Richard Florida, a professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, in a recent interview with Crain’s Chicago Business, who added that while some companies left some larger American cities such as Seattle, and others, “they were trying to make statements, and say . . . “Look, Chicago and New York and San Francisco are no longer as well governed. They have been captured by a liberal elite.”

He added that when some of those companies moved to Austin, Texas and Miami, Fla.,they found much of the same problems with poverty and homelessness.

It’s easy, as the old cliché stated, that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, but tracing a different trajectory, albeit progressive, also takes partnership, as well as a reality check.