You might have missed it with all the hubbub over Chick-fil-A, but last month Mayor Rahm Emanuel teamed up with Alderman Joe Moore, of all people, to temporarily stall the elected school board movement.
Then they sit there stone-faced, barely pretending to give a shit, while outraged parents, teachers, and students show up to board hearings to howl in protest. Meanwhile, the mayor says it would be a mistake to inject politics into the board of education.
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Over the last several months, the Communities Organized for Democracy in Education—a coalition of parents, activists, retired teachers, and members of the Chicago Teachers Union—began advancing the idea of an elected board. On June 8, they announced they were gathering petition signatures for a citywide advisory referendum on November’s ballot: Should the current rubber-stamp board be replaced by a group of people you’ve had the chance to vote for?
And should the U.S. Congress pass a bill “empowering the federal government and the states to regulate and limit political contributions from corporations?” You know, like House speaker John Boehner is waiting to hear from Chicago’s predominantly Democratic voters to tell him what to do.
The obvious committee for such a matter was education. But it’s chaired by Alderman Latasha Thomas, an unbending mayoral loyalist, so that wasn’t going to work.
Just to make sure of the ground rules, he called on a lawyer for the city’s corporation counsel. “I asked for a ruling on the deadlines,” says Moore. “He told me it had to be stamped by the city clerk’s office 48 hours before the meeting. I asked, ‘Forty-eight business hours or 48 regular hours?’ And he said, ‘Business hours.’”
Arena remains irritated at Moore, who he claims backed off after hearing from Emanuel. “Joe said the mayor called and told him he was personally offended we were doing this,” says Arena.
