(The Center Square) – Paul Vallas, the current front-runner in the 2023 Chicago mayoral election, shares his plans for Chicago Public Schools.
Polling by Fox 32 Chicago shows Vallas as the current leader, with Chuy Garcia in second and Lightfoot in fourth place behind Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson.
Chicago Public School system is the largest in the state and third largest in the nation.
Vallas on Thursday laid out his plan to fix issues within CPS, which includes extended hours.
“The first order of business is to open our campuses through the dinner hours, open our campuses on the weekends, open our campuses on the holidays,” Vallas said.
Vallas wants to give students a place to go and feel safe while also providing career services.
“We need to invite these organizations onto the campuses to bring their programs onto the campuses, so we are offering our students safe and secure places,” Vallas said. “So that we are offering our students opportunities for academic support, sports recreation, and mentoring.”
Vallas said Chicago Public School buildings should be available for all members of the community.
“The contractors that the city does business with, the developers that receive lucrative city subsidies will be required to offer paid work study jobs to our young people,” Vallas said. “We can do something. Our schools can become arcs, become sanctuaries for our kids, a place where they can go and feel safe and secure and where they and their families can access additional resources they need.”
Johnson said his plan for city schools includes upgrades in funding and the use of job and hiring programs for students.
Candidate Chuy Garcia said in a statement to Chalkbeat Chicago that Vallas’s history dealing with schools had been a failure.
“His entire career, he has gone from city to city ruining the school systems that children and families depend on, while he made hundreds of thousands of dollars and gave questionable contracts to politically connected firms,” Garcia said.
