Mayor Johnson’s Springfield trip focuses more on relationships than school funding or the Bears

SPRINGFIELD — Mayor Brandon Johnson said he came to Springfield on Wednesday to fight for equitable education funding and to make sure Chicago receives its fair share of resources.

But there was more geniality than specificity in private meetings with Gov. J.B. Pritzker and legislative leaders just three weeks before a self-imposed May 24 spring session adjournment date.

Democrats were prepared to talk to Johnson about his Monday reference to $1 billion owed to Chicago Public Schools due to years of underfunding under the state’s school funding formula — but the issue wasn’t even broached during a nearly 30-minute meeting with the governor.

And the mayor’s controversial support for a new lakefront Chicago Bears stadium was also not a focal point of the meeting.

Johnson told reporters he reminded Pritzker and legislative leaders that Chicago is the economic engine of the state and deserves its “fair share of resources.”

“It’s also to continue to build relationships with the opportunity that we have in this moment, as a state, to really build the type of operation that speaks to equity injustice. This is a unique chance for us to do that,” Johnson said of his trip. “So it’s a level-setting. It’s making sure that we’re building on relationships, but it’s also clear that in order for the state of Illinois to be the great state that it is, that the city of Chicago has to have its fair share of resources.”

Johnson called discussions with the Illinois General Assembly about the Bears “ongoing,” dubbing Soldier Field a “structural damaged situation that really needs a solution.” The Bears last week met with Pritzker aides who highlighted their opposition to the plan. The governor’s office last week called the proposal a “non-starter” after the meeting.

“And that’s what this is about, providing solutions to a problem … like everything else I’ve inherited,” Johnson said.

It was the Chicago mayor’s first trip to the state Capitol since taking office. Johnson also met with Pritzker and legislative leaders in Springfield in April 2023 in a ceremonial visit weeks before he was sworn in.

Johnson defended the timing of his visit — and his late-in-the-game budgetary asks — saying, “we’re at the right time.”

“You know when stuff gets done. So we’re down here at the right time,” Johnson said.

Several members of the Chicago City Council Black Caucus also met privately with Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch on Wednesday, in what was dubbed an informal city lobbying day. Ald. Jeannette Taylor (20th), the mayor’s hand-picked Education Committee chair, said it marked the first time in five years that members of the caucus had come to Springfield.

“The thing we’ll do next year is we’ll come in January. We come earlier. We get earlier access,” Taylor said. “We can get a lot of those things that we’re looking for.”

Taylor said her requests included funding for infrastructure and investments in education, some narrower than the mayor’s.

“He’s advocating for some of the same things we are, but remember, it’s 50 other folks. It’s just 20 of us as the Black Caucus, and so he’s advocating on the entire city. We have specific asks for the South and West sides,” Taylor said.

“Him coming down is a great thing. Him coming down with us didn’t make or break us because now the other caucuses have to do their due diligence to come down here as well.”

During Johnson’s closed-door meetings, the Illinois Senate Executive Committee quietly cleared an education measure that Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union had opposed.

The bill was initially intended to stop the Chicago Board of Education from closing, or making any changes to, selective enrollment schools until 2027 when the board will be fully elected. It was a response to a resolution passed by the CPS board that called for a plan to invest in neighborhood schools and move away from school choice.

The measure the Senate committee passed on Wednesday cleared the House last month. It included a moratorium on all Chicago school closings until 2027 — and it would also stop the Chicago Board of Education from changing standards of admission for selective enrollment schools. The measure must still clear the full Senate.

Johnson said he has had discussions with lawmakers to amend the measure: “Those amendments are being assessed and analyzed now.”

As for whether he felt snubbed by the Senate’s approval during his visit, the mayor countered that he understood the “process.”

“There’s a process that the General Assembly goes through,” Johnson said. “I understand that process, and we’re going to stick to that process.”