Mayor Harold Washington indicated Thursday that he opposes the concept of an elected Chicago school board because he has not had a chance to name his own appointees to the board.
Though he said he had ”not taken a position” on the issue, his comments were clearly against an elected board. At one point he dismissed the current debate as ”a lot of whiffenpoof” and ”a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing.”
”The best test of whether the appointment system would work would be for this mayor to make his appointments,” Washington said in taping ”Chicago News Conference,” to air Sunday on WMAQ-AM.
”That is the major issue, period. The kind of people on that board. . . . We think over the four-year period we can give the city a high-level school board. Since I feel that way, it behooves me to take a negative attitude toward an elected school system for a lot of reasons.”
Three vacancies have been created on the 11-member board since Washington was elected nearly two years ago. The mayor has made two appointments; one was approved by the city council, one was rejected. Seventy-two mayoral appointments to other city boards are held up in the council.
The question of an elected school board has put Washington in a difficult political position because of distrust of the current appointed board in many parts of the city, including the mayor`s political base in the black community.
The mayor is known to be skeptical of a change to an elected school board because it could enable his foe Ald. Edward Vrdolyak (10th) to win control of the board.
Washington alluded to that Thursday, saying, ”Look at Chicago`s history. Based on that history, do we want an elected school board?”
He also warned that any map dividing the city into election districts is sure to be challenged in court, which could delay an elected board from taking office for years.
A top mayoral aide said he doubted that a map could be drawn that would fairly represent minority children, who make up a majority in the public schools.
”We haven`t seen a process that would give fair representation to Hispanics or the majority of families with children in the schools,” the aide said, adding that current proposals would give control of the board to
”people who don`t send their children to public schools.”
Though whites make up a majority of city voters, only about 15 percent of public school students are white.
The mayor also said Thursday that the $2.3 billion ”Build Illinois”
plan proposed last week by Gov. James Thompson would ”build a wall around Chicago” because it would provide few economic benefits for the city and suburbs.
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Other Democrats have noted that though the plan calls for accelerating completion of three highways, all of them are outside Cook County.
Washington criticized the share the city would get from the sale of Illinois Lottery tickets under a plan to install sales machines in O`Hare International and Midway Airports.
”Why should the state get 95 percent?” Washington asked. ”The governor needs to get his act together a little better. If this state is to thrive, Chicago has to get a fair return.” He suggested that a 50 or 60 percent share for the city would be fairer.