The Echo

Published Online: December 29, 2010
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/12/29/15mct_ilchicagoboard.h30.html

Chicago Teacher Coalition Calls for Elected School Board

By Tara Malone, Chicago Tribune (MCT)
As Chicago prepares to elect a new mayor, a coalition of teachers, community leaders, parents and students on Wednesday said the city's next leader should not control public education as Mayor Richard Daley has for most of his 21 years in office.

The group called for the return of an elected, 13-member school board that would be geographically representative of the city.

It said 7 of the 13 seats should to go to parents and community members, while also including two teachers, an administrator, an education researcher, a paraprofessional and a business person.

Jitu Brown of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization said the group plans to sit down with state legislators and rework the law that put Chicago Public Schools into Daley's hands in 1995. They also intend to make their case to the dozen or so candidates for the city's top office.

"We want to make sure this becomes an issue for the people seeking to be mayor of Chicago," Brown said during a news conference at the James R. Thompson Center that drew a group of students and teachers in the midst of the holiday break.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/12/29/15mct_ilchicagoboard.h30.html