Candidate Q&A
Why are you running?
I’m running to represent District 2 on the newly created Chicago School Board to help create a thriving Chicago Public School system where every child in our city can walk to an excellent neighborhood school. In addition to securing increased funding, this can be achieved through reforming special education funding allocations; providing high quality, culturally relevant curriculum through an equitable, needs-based funding model; partnering with community based organizations, city services, elected officials, LSCs, and school staff to ensure a consistent, proactive approach to mental health and wellness for our children.
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; and I belong to a community that is representative of the vast majority of District 2 CPS schools.
Why are you the most qualified candidate?
What sets my candidacy apart 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.
What is the biggest issue facing your specific school board district?
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.
How has your district been impacted by the shuttering of CPS schools?
Compared to other parts of the city, the communities in District 2 have not faced the relentless extraction and trauma that result from closing neighborhood schools. But we have felt the destabilizing ripple effects and growing distrust that comes from opaque, top-down policy decisions that fundamentally misunderstand the complex ecosystems of community care.
We know that when Chicago closes schools, Black and Latine schools are disproportionately negatively impacted. When the much longer list of schools facing closure (129 schools) was first released, 80% of the students who would be affected were Black (2x the proportion of Black students in the district) and 87% of the schools were majority Black.
Not only have school closures proven deeply destabilizing for Chicago’s Black middle-class communities, there is OVERWHELMING evidence that having Black educators dramatically improves Black student outcomes.
When Chicago closes schools, Black teachers are purged from the workforce.The systematic elimination of Black educators in Chicago Public Schools was the predictable and inevitable outcome of every sweeping policy reform effort over the last 3 decades - from the devastation wreaked by Renaissance 2010 to the closure of 50 schools (leveraging manipulated “utilization” data) in 2013.
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.
The Chicago Teachers Union has long provided insights and suggested policy reforms that could increase the number of incoming Black teachers in our schools, such as reestablishing a hiring pipeline through Chicago State University. As a member of the Board of Education, I will have the opportunity to listen to the experts on the education workforce and will make translating those recommendations into policy changes a top priority.
How have your district’s schools been impacted by students who are new arrivals to the U.S. and how should CPS best accommodate those students and families?
In the past two years, enrollment at my family’s school has risen (for the first time in more than a decade) as we have been privileged to welcome families from Afghanistan, Venezuela, and other countries.
Our newcomers need stability and community.
These students and their families need culturally competent housing placements, health services, trauma-informed care, legal immigration partners, and language supports.
Providing these language supports is particularly crucial. 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 incentivize 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.
Because the parents of these new CPS students 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 these vital voices in our communities throughout my campaign. After winning a seat on the Board, continued engagement with the Non-Citizen Advisory Council will be a top priority of mine.
How do you believe the school board should handle the looming fiscal crisis at Chicago Public Schools?
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.
A moratorium on closing CPS schools is set to expire in January. Should CPS consolidate more schools?
As a member of the Board of Education, I would fight to continue the moratorium on school closures as well as staunchly oppose any further school privatization efforts.
What is your position on closing selective enrollment schools?
I strongly believe that CPS needs a long-term approach to ensure that every child can walk to an excellent neighborhood school. 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.
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”.
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.
What is your position on charter schools?
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. I would like to see the same principles of transparency I am seeking to bring to all of CPS applied to charter schools as well. 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.
Is your campaign being supported by the Chicago Teachers Union?
No
The Chicago Teachers Union wants the district to focus on retrofitting schools with equipment that will battle the effects of climate change. Is spending money that way right now a good idea with the massive deficit the district faces?
I do not believe that these need to be mutually exclusive efforts. We must address failing facilities AND bring new resources to our schools that plan for long-term needs. We should be looking at ways to improve the sustainability of our infrastructure that can also generate revenue, like exploring leasing rooftops for energy alternatives like urban solar farms that can bring additional funds into our schools, serve the hyperlocal community by reducing energy expenses, and align with the mission of climate justice leaders.
What is your biggest priority and what do you hope to accomplish on the Chicago Board of Education?
Members of the board will have to prioritize more than one issue at a time. I am committed to addressing the urgent and important needs of students, parents, and schools through an aggressive policy platform that includes special education reform, LGBTQIA+ protections, Black student success, revenue generation & diversification, meaningful transparency, reimagined community engagement, and more. You can find concrete, actionable plans at www.maggieforchicago.com/issues