In a defeat for Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Illinois House approves shift to elected Chicago school board; broad gun control bill also approved

The Illinois House on Wednesday delivered a rebuke to Mayor Lori Lightfoot by approving a transition to an elected Chicago school board, and also passed a gun-safety bill that is aimed at easing a backlog of firearm applications and would require background checks on private gun sales.

But lawmakers once again left Springfield having failed to move forward on a major energy package that would provide ratepayer subsidies to keep nuclear plants in operation, encourage renewable wind and solar operations, and set deadlines to end carbon-emitting coal and natural gas electric generation.

After the passage of Chicago school board and the gun control legislation, a procedural hold was placed on both bills, preventing them from going directly to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk.

Supporters of the firearm owner’s identification legislation said they expected the hold to be lifted quickly, while House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch said the hold on the elected school board would give Lightfoot “time to come to the table and work with the folks that support an elected school board, and we’re going to continue to move forward.”

The elected school board plan was approved on a 70-41 vote and would shift control of Chicago Public Schools from the current mayoral-appointed board to an elected 21-member school board by 2027.

The action came despite last-minute pleas from Lightfoot to members of the legislature’s Black Caucus contending the shift of power was too rapid, that it would deny minority representation and would cater to well-financed special interests and the Chicago Teachers Union.

Pritzker, the first-term Democratic governor, has indicated his support for an elected school board in Chicago, which now is the only nonelected board in the state.

Progressive Democrats have long pushed for an elected school board for the city, contending the centralized power in the mayor’s office, which now appoints the board, has led to indiscriminate school closings that fail to take neighborhood interests into account. They contended an elected board would give local communities a more active say in local schools.

The CTU cited its late President Karen Lewis in a tweet, saying “Chicago will have an elected representative school board. This is the will of the people. It is their legacy. It is Karen’s legacy.”

Lightfoot campaigned in support of an elected school board in her successful 2019 mayoral campaign. But once in office, she has fought efforts to remove control of the schools from the mayor.

A mayoral spokeswoman declined to comment after Tuesday’s House action.

The mayor’s objections included the fact that the bill does not restrict CTU leaders from running for the board, and does not allow residents who lack citizenship from voting for and seeking board seats.

Under the legislation, the city’s school board would become a hybrid panel in January 2025, with 10 members elected to four-year terms in the 2024 general election and 11 members appointed by the mayor, including the board president. Mayoral appointments would require City Council confirmation, another thing Lightfoot’s office did not support.

In the 2026 general election, the board’s appointed members would be replaced by 10 members and a board president elected to four-year terms, putting a fully elected board in place in January 2027.

The 20 board members would be elected from districts throughout Chicago while the board president would be elected at large. District boundaries would be drawn by the General Assembly, with about 135,000 people living in each district.

The bill also puts a moratorium on CPS school closings until the hybrid board takes over in 2025.

Financial entanglements between the city and CPS remain a major issue since the new school board would effectively be a stand-alone governmental unit. Lightfoot noted the legislation does not address about $500 million that City Hall gives to CPS, largely for pensions.

Supporters of the legislation said negotiations would continue on a follow-up bill that would deal with the city subsidies and also would set up campaign finance limitations for spending in board races, review the potential for public financing board campaigns and look at the issue of noncitizens voting or running for the elected board.

The citizenship issue had raised some opposition from moderate suburban Democrats. But former state Sen. Miguel del Valle, who was appointed by Lightfoot in 2019 as CPS board president, said the failure to give noncitizens participation was disenfranchisement.

“We shouldn’t be isolating noncitizens within our educational system,” del Valle told a House committee. “I am hoping that more work can be done on this so that we could move forward and come up with a new governance structure … that responds to the entire population and includes the entire population.”

Lightfoot had pushed her own plan that would have created an 11-member board with three elected seats in 2028, contending a 21-member board is too unwieldy. She said the legislation creates its own new “bureaucracy” that can set its own salaries and hire staff.

Ultimately, she argued the measure was a political payback by Chicago Democrats in Springfield to the politically active CTU, which has been constantly at odds with Lightfoot during her tenure, and not a move to address concerns over educating children.

The bill’s House sponsor, state Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Chicago, said follow-up legislation would contain language clarifying that board members would not be paid. But she said any subsequent bill would not deal with reducing the size of the board.

Ramirez also said a variety of issues, including the financial entanglement of city and CPS, were raised only in recent days and contended it appeared to be people “playing games” to try to derail the overall legislation.

But Rep. Bob Rita, a Blue Island Democrat, warned about unintended consequences in moving the bill with a number of follow-up issues still needing to be addressed.

“I’m hoping that we’re not going to go forward and that this is going to be something that, down the line, we’re going to say our intentions were right and we did it wrong,” Rita said.

In debate on the House floor before the vote, Chicago Democratic state Rep. Ann Williams said the elected school board issue has been the most talked about topic from her constituents during her decadelong tenure in the General Assembly.

“I think we need to recognize this is a major revamp of the Chicago School Board, and bringing democracy to the board is a big deal,” Williams said.

But Rep. Ryan Spain, a Peoria Republican, said the legislation left many unanswered questions amid promises that issues could be dealt with in a future bill.

“I would urge a great deal of caution,” Spain said. “This bill is not ready to go yet today. We should not be passing legislation where the trailer bill actually is the more substantive and complete legislation.”

Earlier, on a 75-40 vote, the House approved the comprehensive gun safety measure aimed at updating Illinois’ 53-year-old firearm owner’s identification card law.

The action comes almost two weeks after the Senate gave its backing on a 40-17 vote, and follows constituent complaints about delays in getting a FOID card or having it renewed amid a flood of applications to Illinois State Police, which has been swamped trying to process the numerous requests.

The bill provides assistance for the state police for dealing with FOID and concealed carry applications, and seeks to boost efforts by law enforcement to take away firearms from people who have had their FOID cards revoked, including from those who are deemed to be a threat to themselves or the public.

Gun control issues have always been contentious, reflecting divergent views on firearms between the heavily populated Chicago area, where crime is high, and downstate rural areas where guns are embraced for sport, hunting and protection. In the past, those culture differences crossed party lines, but in recent years downstate has become more heavily Republican and more united in backing gun rights.

Rep. Jay Hoffman, D-Swansea, said the number of FOID applications has nearly tripled since 2017 while the number of FOID cards has grown from 1.2 million to 2.2 million in the last decade. He warned that lawsuits over delays in processing FOID applications could lead to a constitutional challenge that would eliminate the requirement.

“I believe this will save lives in Illinois. I believe it’ll ensure the constitutionality of our FOID system, and it’ll move us forward in making sure that universal background checks take place on all gun sales in Illinois,” said Hoffman, the House sponsor of the bill.

Opponents, who have long urged the elimination of the FOID card, contended it would do little for public safety.

Rep. Andrew Chesney, R-Freeport, contended policies pushed by majority Democrats have encouraged crime and called Chicago “for all effective purposes a war zone” while Lightfoot “blames Indiana” for city violence. Lightfoot has often cited an influx of illegal guns from outside Illinois for the city’s gun violence.

“Republican districts for all effective purposes, leader, we don’t have the crime problems. We just don’t,” Chesney contended. “We arm our citizens, and we put bad people in jail. That’s why people move in our districts.”

Lawmakers were spurred to act, in part, by the mass shooting at an Aurora warehouse two years ago, when a convicted felon with a revoked FOID card shot and killed five co-workers and wounded six, including five police officers.

The proposal requires the state police to monitor state and federal crime databases to compare them with FOID and concealed carry license holders to initiate revocation proceedings. The state police also would be required to establish a database of all firearms reported stolen so they can be compared to gun transfer records.

The Illinois State Police, under Pritzker, supported the legislation and took part in negotiations on the bill.

The legislation also seeks to incentivize FOID card applicants to voluntarily provide fingerprints to the state police by having their card automatically renewed every time a background check is conducted when they buy a firearm. A House version of the bill that was never considered by the Senate would have made fingerprinting mandatory.

The measure also seeks to crack down on what gun-safety advocates say is a loophole involving the private sale of guns. It would require those transactions to be subject to a background check through a federally licensed firearms dealer or through an online process with the state police.

Legislation on energy policy remained the biggest unfinished issue at the Capitol.

At an unrelated news conference Wednesday, Pritzker expressed frustration at the lack of action on an energy policy overhaul that aims to set the state on a path to his goal of 100% carbon-free power by midcentury.

As labor groups and others push for a more gradual phaseout of fossil fuel power plants, Pritzker emphasized that creating a more robust clean energy industry and combating climate change remain his top priorities, along with addressing the corruption exposed in the Commonwealth Edison bribery scandal.

“Let me make myself perfectly clear: Our long-term goal is to create meaningful climate change policy that makes Illinois a leader in protecting our people, the environment and the clean energy industry that we can grow,” Pritzker said in Springfield. “I will not sign a bill that does not match the gravity of this moment.”

Throughout negotiations this spring, one of the main obstacles to a deal was the push from Exelon, the parent company of scandal-plagued ComEd, for the state to bail out several of its nuclear plants.

Pritzker and Exelon reached an agreement in the closing hours of the legislature’s spring session that would put customers on the hook for nearly $700 million in subsidies over five years for three plants, including two the company has threatened to close this year if it doesn’t get state help.

But concerns over the timeline for phasing out two coal plants — the Prairie State Generating Station in southern Illinois and a city-owned plant in Springfield — prevented lawmakers from reaching an overarching agreement, and the General Assembly adjourned June 1 without taking action.

The Senate returned Tuesday, but new concerns about Pritzker’s proposal for declining limits on natural gas plant emissions ahead of a statewide 2045 shutdown date scuttled a potential deal.

“When new things get thrown on the table, it makes it difficult to finally get to a conclusion,” Pritzker said, though he predicted lawmakers would be back at the statehouse later this summer for a vote.

For its part, Exelon is keeping the pressure on officials to act, issuing a statement after the Senate left town Tuesday that reiterated its threat to close its Byron plant in September and Dresden plant in November.

Exelon’s initial threat last summer came roughly a month after ComEd agreed to pay a $200 million fine and admitted in federal court that it engaged in a yearslong bribery scheme aimed a currying favor with then-House Speaker Michael Madigan to advance its agenda in Springfield. That agenda included a 2016 energy bill that included $235 million per year in subsidies for two other nuclear plants Exelon had threatened to close.

Madigan has not been charged and denies wrongdoing, but a host of former lawmakers, lobbyists, utility executives and others, including Madigan’s closest confidant and his former chief of staff, are facing charges in the ongoing probe.

Tribune reporter John Byrne contributed.

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