Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez had the stage to himself Wednesday at City Hall, and used it to go on the offensive in his ongoing fight with Mayor Brandon Johnson over control of the city’s schools.
As expected, only Martinez — and none of the Board of Education nominees Johnson tapped in an apparent bid to get Martinez fired for refusing to borrow money to balance the school budget — showed up to the Education Committee meeting aldermen called to vet the mayor’s picks.
Johnson last week refused to pledge to tell the six to attend, taking some of the drama out of the meeting but clearing the way for Martinez to make his case for solving CPS’s daunting financial challenges with little pushback.
Martinez tried to wipe the target off his back, arguing to aldermen that his hand has guided recent education gains and that he has done everything he can to try to address decades-long disinvestment by lobbying for more school funding from Springfield.
“The issues that we have are about resources. That is the enemy: not having sufficient resources,” he said.
Education Committee chair Ald. Jeanette Taylor, 20th, started the meeting by emphatically declaring it was “not about Pedro Martinez.” The focus, after months of destabilizing tension, must be solutions, she said.
“It is sad, it is really sad that we cannot sit and work with each other. And it is about egos,” Taylor said.
But the embattled CEO has been in the spotlight at the center of an unprecedented struggle for control of the school district pitting him against the mayor and his Chicago Teachers Union allies. While Johnson has the biggest bully pulpit and the most power in the fight, Martinez on Wednesday took advantage of the council platform to boost his recent successes.
He and his staff touted increasing graduation rates and post-pandemic literacy rates and pointed to a newly released five-year strategic plan seeking to improve neighborhood scores and measure academic success beyond test scores.
But the district faces financial headways, Martinez added. Federal COVID-19 money has dried up, the teachers union is bargaining a new contract expected to include pay raises and Johnson has asked the district to cover a $175 million pension payment for non-teaching CPS staff.
Loans incurred by the district at the start of 2016 are still costing the city hundreds of millions, he said. And he predicted that the union’s next contract — for raises, additional staffing, help for migrant and homeless students and sports — would cost CPS more than $10 billion over the next four years.
“Long-term, that’s not sustainable. That’s not stable for taxpayers,” he said.
And Martinez came with a request of the City Council: Give CPS far more money via surpluses from tax increment finance districts.
Martinez has trumpeted that request since first airing it publicly last week. The CPS CEO called on Johnson in April to declare a widely expanded TIF surplus, he told the Tribune last Wednesday. Earlier that same day, the teachers union made a similar call for City Hall to redirect TIF money to schools on a sped-up and permanent basis.
The TIF system that diverts property tax dollars in specific areas for local projects blocks $600 million every year from reaching CPS, Martinez said.
“Our inability to access these TIF dollars has created these challenges that we have with our deficit,” he said.
The hearing was yet another chapter in the tense battle over the school district’s finances and future. Johnson demanded Martinez and the school board take on a high-interest loan to cover the cost of pension payments and a new Chicago Teachers Union contract, but Martinez and the board passed a budget in July without it — though they noted a budget amendment would be forthcoming to account for ongoing collective bargaining negotiations with the CTU and the principals’ association.
Early this month, the mayor announced he would name an entirely new school board after current board members reportedly refused to fire Martinez. However, instead of leaving, the CPS CEO has made a defiant public defense of his work in a bid to stay in office.
41 aldermen then signed a letter blasting Johnson’s school board maneuvers and calling for Wednesday’s hearing. Aldermen largely wanted the hearing to vet the newly tapped future board members and clarify what led to the shakeup.
While the board member no-shows came as no surprise, many council members criticized Johnson and his nominees for not attending.
“It’s challenging for folks in the public to feel like the board is going to show up for them if they cannot show up for this,” Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, said.
Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, praised the school district’s leaders for “remaining focused and committed” to students amid recent “nonsense.”
“I am so frustrated that for the last several months leaders in this city, many in this room, have been a part of so much divisiveness — the total destabilization of Chicago Public Schools,” O’Shea said. “Now is not the time for more drama.”
Aldermen aligned with Johnson meanwhile directed sharp criticism at Martinez. They argued he has not worked hard enough to secure additional funding from the state and tried to link him to a list of assessed school closures CPS administrators created.
Martinez in turn said he’s willing to go to Springfield to lobby as much as needed. The list of 100 school closures was prepared as a standard exercise, Martinez said before promising again that no schools will be closed under his leadership.
“It’s not worth the trust we lose in our community, and I really do believe that we need to invest in our schools,” he said.
Aldermen shot back and forth as the meeting stretched to six hours. Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, called for a “come to Jesus” moment for the city’s elected officials and education leaders with the school system “in intensive care on life support.”
Close Johnson ally Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, struck a different tone as he questioned Martinez over the planned closure announced last week of seven charter schools.
“I hear some people talk about divisiveness. I talk about accountability. I didn’t come here to make friends. I came here to make sure that CPS actually works for every single child.”
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