Chicago’s mayoral candidates both have deep ties to Chicago's schools — but starkly different visions for their future
CHICAGO — Brandon Johnson wants voters to know about his time on the front lines of Chicago Public Schools.
The mayoral candidate and longtime Chicago Teachers Union organizer often revisits his role in the 2015 hunger strike over reopening Dyett High School on the South Side. He recalls his view from Jenner Academy of the Arts, where he taught while the city’s infamous Cabrini-Green public housing towers were felled nearby. And he shares memories of his past students.
“One of my students looked me in the face and said, ‘Mr. Johnson, you should not be teaching here. ... You should be teaching at a good school,’” Johnson recalled during his victory speech Feb. 28, when he placed second among nine candidates to advance to the runoff. “It broke my heart then. It breaks my heart today. I wanted to change the system.”
But while Johnson tends to lead with emotion when talking about CPS, his rival, Paul Vallas, prefers to speak in statistics.
Vallas regularly cites its per-pupil spending — though using a figure that’s nearly double the official state number and whose accuracy has been questioned. A big proponent of school choice, he’s often noted that 97% of local charter school students are Black or Latino.
