Chicago school board election: Jessica Biggs lays out vision for CPS

Chicago will soon elect its first school board president, Hilario Dominguez, Victor Henderson, and Jessica Biggs are all battling it out. And speaking to Fox Chicago political reporter, Brandon Pope, one-on-one. Brandon spoke with Dominguez yesterday. And so Jessica Biggs was up today. What did she have to say about her vision for the role? Yeah, she had a lot to say about state funding. I mean, that's the big kind of elephant in the room, this budget that was there with $150 million budgeted but not banked yet for CPS. something we also discussed with Hilario Dominguez yesterday and will be doing the same with Victor Henderson next week now Biggs says working with state lawmakers is critical to getting CPS the funding that it needs the current school board member and former principal is making her case to lead the district's board among the issues we discussed the special interest money behind her the potential for school closings and securing state funding while giving schools certainty about their budgets. Biggs opposes counting on $150 million from Springfield without it being banked. Well, if you become school board president, does that mean you would not attempt to try to obtain that $150 million? Absolutely not, right? We have to be fighting in Springfield. I was down in Springfield at least three times last session. I was there for the evidence-based formula advocacy day. I would continue fighting in Springfield for the resources that we need for our schools. But what I hear from legislators over and over again is that they want to know that we in CPS have a plan and that we're using the resources we have responsibly. You've already said you don't really want to look to borrowing to get money. Are you looking at potentially raising property taxes? Is that a potential alternative? Well, Brandon, property taxes are regressive. They really harm those of us who are least able to pay. And so when I think about a Springfield strategy, when we can show our state legislators that we are using our resources responsibly and we have a plan, that strategy needs to focus on making sure that our mandated categorical expenses, which is the way that our district is reimbursed to pay for services for our students with disabilities, services for English language learners, that there is a real significant allocation from Springfield to match the cost that we bear here. here locally. The Biggs campaign gearing up with five days until election day. We've spoken with Hilario Dominguez. You can see that on our website right now. Victor Henderson will join us next week. And as for Biggs, that's just one part of our convo. You're going to hear the rest of it in the Chicago report tonight. It should be a really interesting discussion. We got into everything, including the special interest money behind her. Which has been such a big topic of discussion. It has, the Michael Sachs of it all.