CHICAGO — After beating eight other candidates to become Chicago’s next mayor, buoyed by more than $2 million in support from the Chicago Teachers Union, Brandon Johnson will take the helm of Chicago Public Schools with his inauguration May 15 — embarking on a four-year term that will see Illinois’ largest school district profoundly changed.
With the district’s impending transition to an elected school board and financial disentanglement with the city, certain shifts to come have long been in motion. Others may stem from a schools plan like no other candidate’s, in which Johnson — a CPS parent and recent CTU organizer — advocated for a break from business as usual in CPS’ testing of students, funding of schools and social services to be provided to students.
In the face of declining enrollment, a looming deficit topping $600 million and the challenge of wrestling more money from the state, Johnson faces a number of uphill battles. But the policies he proposed while campaigning aren’t nonstarters, according to experts who spoke with the Tribune on the potential pathways and pitfalls for the mayor-elect’s plan for schools.
