'Not legit!': Protests erupt as Mayor Johnson announces new Chicago school board picks
CHICAGO - A defiant Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday exerted his authority, plowing forward on replacing the seven resigned school board members. But his announcement went off the rails before it even began.
As the mayor began to introduce the new members at a South Side church, a handful of protesters had other ideas.
"Not legit! Not legit!" the group shouted, referencing their dismay about the board turmoil, with some of them holding signs saying "Fire Brandon."
But the mayor, who referenced how he fought to achieve an elected school board, repeated over and over that the authority to appoint new members right now rested with him, and him only.
"The power doesn’t have to be flexed. The power just is, because I have it," Johnson said.
The mayor dismissed reporter questions about whether he was doing the bidding of the powerful Chicago Teachers Union and likened critics who have called his moves 'fiscally irresponsible' to supporters of the Confederacy.
"The so-called fiscally responsible stewards are making the same argument when our people wanted to be liberated and emancipated in this country. The argument was, you can’t free Black people because it would just be too expensive."
The mayor revealed the new members just days after his previous handpicked seven-member board all resigned. But he only had six names for seven positions: Olga Bautista, Michilla Blaise, Mary Gardner, the Rev. Mitchell L. Ikenna Johnson, Deborah Pope, and Frank Niles Thomas.
"We must remain focused on the goal, making sure every child has access to safe and well-funded education," Bautista, a longtime South Side community environmental activist and self-described ‘socialist,’ said.
Featured
Mayor Brandon Johnson reveals Chicago School Board appointees in contentious news conference
Mayor Brandon Johnson revealed six interim appointees to the Chicago School Board during a heated news conference marked by protesters and confrontations with reporters.
The crisis at CPS comes after what sources describe as a relentless pressure campaign from the mayor's office to fire CEO Pedro Martinez, after Martinez refused a high-interest short-term loan to plug a budget gap and pay for a new CTU contract.
A letter signed by 41 of 50 alderpeople this weekend expressed concern at the CPS upheaval and urged the mayor to slow down and include City Council in the process.
"We're headed toward bankruptcy and these people don't care. All he wants to do is reward his friends, which is CTU," said 9th Ward Alderman Anthony Beale.
But the mayor made clear he is unfazed by the overwhelming opposition.
"The City Council can have as many hearings as they want," Johnson said. "There's only one person that can make appointments, and that's the mayor of Chicago, and that's me."