Then-Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, right, hugs Senate President Don Harmon after speaking to a joint session of the General Assembly on April 19, 2023, at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield. SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Senate President Don Harmon said he passed on putting a measure to extend a moratorium on public school closings in Chicago to a vote because he accepted Mayor Brandon Johnson’s promise not to shut down any schools or deplete funding for selective enrollment schools.
The legislation to extend by two years, to 2027, an existing moratorium on shutting down Chicago Public Schools buildings had breezed through the House in a 92-8 vote and also was passed by a Senate committee before Harmon put the kibosh on it. The bill initially was aimed at protecting selective enrollment schools from closures before it was amended to all schools, including regular neighborhood schools. The measure was filed by state Rep. Margaret Croke after Johnson’s school board last year announced its intention to focus on neighborhood schools in a forthcoming five-year plan.
Feb. 1, 2027, instead of Jan. 15 of next year. The measure also says that funding of selective enrollment schools should not be “disproportionate” compared to other CPS schools, and bars any changes to admissions standards at selective enrollment schools until Feb. 1, 2027. In a statement to the Tribune on Friday, Croke, a Chicago Democrat, said she hoped the Senate would realize that Johnson’s letter “falls horribly short from how it is being spun” and without the legislation, she worries selective enrollment schools would be vulnerable to changes to their admissions criteria and “disproportionate cuts” will be made to magnet schools and charter schools will eventually be closed.