Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday ruled out school closings to help the Chicago Public Schools dig out of a $732 million hole, and he said it’s up to the Illinois General Assembly to approve progressive revenue measures he believes it will take to avoid classroom cuts.
A moratorium on school closings expires at the end of the 2026-27 school year, but Johnson said he won’t consider the possibility — even though scores of public schools are operating with more empty seats than students.
As a former middle-school teacher and paid organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, Johnson helped to mobilize teachers and parents against former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to close 50 schools in one fell swoop in 2013.
The lessons he and Chicago learned from those mass closings — and the community resentment that still lingers — have informed his decision-making as mayor.
“Didn’t we do that already? I believe the Emanuel administration made the same argument, right? And here we still are. Why are we continuing to ask working people of this city to embrace the same policies of old that continue to fail us?” Johnson asked Thursday during a wide-ranging interview to mark the end of his third year in office.
The mayor talks often about having “taken an arrest” while protesting Emanuel’s decision to close Dyett High School on the South Side before he reversed course. The school has since undergone a renaissance of sorts that culminated in the boys basketball team capturing the Class AA state championship, the first in Dyett’s history.
“It’s a clear example … that if you invest in a community school and you provide support with community organizations along the way, a school can be a thriving, working environment where champions can be produced,” Johnson said. “Imagine if we would’ve taken that same frame with Dyett High School 10 years ago. We would’ve never experienced what those children on the South Side are experiencing right now.”
Earlier this week, CPS told principals that classroom cuts in the form of fewer teachers and higher class sizes will be necessary to erase a $732 million shortfall for the next school year. The district had projected a deficit of $520 million, but the figure was adjusted upward to align with declining enrollment.
CPS used an avalanche of federal pandemic relief funds to add 8,000 staff positions, but the COVID-19 money has dried up.
Johnson used a record $1 billion tax increment surplus to bail out CPS and bankroll a new teacher’s contract in his third city budget. He told the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ that his hope for staving off threatened classroom cuts is for Gov. JB Pritzker and state lawmakers grappling with their own budget crisis to ride to the rescue with what he calls progressive revenue.
That’s a long shot at best with only two weeks to go in the spring session.
“The last I checked, the state of Illinois has a moral responsibility to ensure that the most vulnerable … are prioritized,” he said. “And so, whether it’s a digital ad tax, whether it’s a billionaire’s tax, there is still time in Springfield to ensure that our children are prioritized.
“There’s only really one answer here. Are we going to fully fund our schools or not?”
Another veto to help tipped workers?
Earlier this week, rookie 27th Ward Ald. Walter “Red” Burnett negotiated a compromise that would give restaurants more time to phase out the subminimum wage for tipped workers. Burnett went around Johnson to deny the mayor a hard fought political victory that allowed him to check off one of the key items on his progressive to-do list.
The compromise — two extra years for large restaurants and four additional years for small ones — appears to have broad support. But Johnson appears to be considering what would be his fourth veto to preserve a pay raise in an industry dominated by Black and Hispanic women.
“I still believe that workers deserve raises, and my belief is not going to waver,” he said.
A defense of United Center tax break
The City Council will also be asked at its meeting next week to give final sign-off to a $54.7 million tax break for the owners of the Bulls and Blackhawks to subsidize their plan to turn the sea of parking lots around the United Center into a massive mixed-use development.
Johnson defended the United Center tax break, even though he’s trying to block a separate property tax break that could pave the way for the Bears move to Arlington Heights by arguing that owners of billion-dollar sports franchises shouldn’t receive handouts.
“There’s two different things here… This is not about payment in lieu of taxes. This is about incentivizing corporations to build out more affordable housing,” Johnson said about the planned development around the United Center, known as the “1901 Project.” The Bears’ plan is a “much different dynamic.”
Will he run again?
Mayoral candidates can begin circulating nominating petitions July 28. They must be filed by Oct. 26. Johnson has $813,125 political cash on hand, compared to $18.3 million for Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.
Johnson has yet to say definitively that he’s running for reelection to a second term. On Thursday he continued to fend off questions about mayoral politics.
“I’m not thinking about elections that are a year out,” he said. “I will say that I’m very focused on the midterms because we have to change the trajectory at the federal level if we’re going to make sure that cities across America are protected.”
In addition to his third year anniversary, Johnson is preparing to deliver the commencement speech at his eldest son’s graduation from Kenwood Academy High School. He recently celebrated his 50th birthday. The Johnson nest is starting to empty with his son’s forthcoming departure for Eastern Illinois University, where he will play Division 1 soccer.
The commencement address is foremost on his mind.
“I’m going to do my best to keep those emotions in check. But… it’s very sobering,” the mayor said wistfully. “You are hustling and running around and changing diapers and trying to find childcare and trying to get them situated in swim classes, and before you know it, you’re ordering a cap and gown and putting a suit on him. Life certainly does move quickly.”