A Better Chicago Starts with a Better CPS.

More than 35 community leaders gathered on Wednesday, May 22, at Platform 47 Chicago, for a community dinner in support of my candidacy for Board of Education. Below is the video as well as a clean transcription of my speech explaining why a strong CPS should be top of mind for every Chicagoan.

Platform 47 is an amazing local restaurant. And so when I chose last year to do the most amazing free job that could fill my soul, it is really cool to be able to make every decision intentionally. And so we are intentionally here at a CPS family-owned restaurant that is local, and supporting people in the neighborhood. We are intentionally here as neighbors and community. And so thank you for being here. Thank you, It really means a lot. We have QR codes, which you can scan and look at my website, and so many of you know me in different facets of my life. In this conversation, I'll share a couple things that I've learned on this journey. 

First, I have never been - and I say this genuinely - more impressed and committed to local democracy now than when I started this in January when the process really got going. The best conversations I've had in my life with customer service have been with the customer service department at the Illinois Board of Elections. And I truly mean that. 

Second, the ability to do petitions has been a learning and growth opportunity. You can't trust AI to make sure there's a real person on the ballot. So while it's annoying, to have a human-to-human interaction and do a physical signature, the reality is we're going to have a ballot full of real human beings. And we need that assurance now more than ever. 

I'm running for CPS Board of Education because we have never in the history of Chicago had a true level of governance. At that highest level, every organization should have independent governance, and CPS has never had that. It is really amazing to be able to participate in democracy in this way. It’s an incredible experience. 

I have empathy and experience to earn your support for this election. I am someone with experience in education and someone that has led organizations for change. 

The big question right now is, “Kimberly, what makes you qualified to do this job?” 

I'm not a PhD; I am an adjunct professor. I am a parent, and I'm a working parent who knows the struggles of drop off. I can build community, and I can build consensus. I can fill a room with individuals from all walks of life. I believe in restorative justice. I believe in making the pie bigger. I believe in real democracy, more now than ever before. I believe in independence in our system. I believe that America is actually built on the foundation that public education is what makes us different. And then every single human being should be able to walk into a classroom and get an education. 

I met with the principal of Lake View High School, and I asked him what his metric is for success because that high school is an average of every single person that walks in to get an education. I said, “What is success to you?” He told me it is when that student walks out, that they feel like they are worth learning, and that they want to continue to learn, and that they know how to learn. And the best part is, we can quantify that, that's a quantifiable metric. How powerful is that? We can build a system that gives human beings that value that they can walk in and feel like they can and that they're worth being taught and learning. That they will want to learn and that they have the skills and resources to figure it out after graduation. And that is within our sphere of control. We can't control a lot, but we can control that. We cannot control whether they're gonna have food on the table at home. We don't know what home they're going to go to - there is a huge percentage of foster and homeless children in Chicago. But we can control that when they walk in to that building that they're going to be valued and taught how to learn forever in their life. And we're going to build that. That was the most meaningful metric I've ever heard. 

I'm so committed to doing this. I am genuinely honored and humbled to be in a position to ask for representation. As we go into an election year and a part of our democracy that is historically unstable, we need to remember that change happens in our backyard. 

So when you're thinking about this School Board election, and you're talking to friends, and you're wondering, “Does my vote count? Does it matter?” Yes. Every vote does count. And it does matter. And your children's education matters. 

I had a conversation with a consortium of people, and someone asked me the question (and I’m paraphrasing: Why this? Of anything you could do, why this free job for the Board of Education for the Chicago Public School system that gets C-average rating from its own families? 

Here's the answer. Because if you get education, everything else gets fixed. I choose Chicago, not only as a homeowner, because you can be a renter too. If you want to fix the streets, you fix your schools. If you want to fix bike lanes and safety, fix your schools. Do you want to improve the economy? Invest in schools. Infrastructure? Schools. Stopping the pipeline to the prison system? Get kids in school. you have got to make the pie bigger, and you have to get kids in school. It is not a sexy answer. For some reason, in this country, we have an issue getting kids into school, and feeding them and giving them clothes and showing them love. And I'm going to do the job for free. And I’ve got a husband on an airplane trying to get home with a kid on my hip and another at the table.

You want to increase their property values and have sidewalks at work? You want to bike to the park and have businesses come? Do you want jobs to pay well? Just get kids into really good schools. 

And we're going to do it. 

There is an amazing quote by a person I can’t remember. The world gets changed by really fed-up, tired moms. And so here we are; let’s do it. We’re going to take over the School Board and make it better.