West Cook News

Maywood elementary teacher Gina Harris is a hopeful player in what education and taxpayer policy experts say is an alarming trend of union members and sympathizers sitting on both sides of the table in teacher contract negotiations.  

Harris, who teaches at Emerson Elementary, is running for school board in the adjacent Oak Park River Forest (OPRF) High School D200. She also works as a liaison officer between two powerful state and national teachers’ unions, the National Education Association (NEA) and its affiliate, the Illinois Education Association (IEA). And she has represented the IEA in Springfield.

“The practice of electing not only teacher union members but retired superintendents and family members to school boards is becoming a common practice in Illinois,” Lennie Jarratt, project manager at the Center for Transforming Education at The Heartland Institute, told the West Cook News. “And it presents a very high conflict of interest in board decisions and negotiations. Not only does it encourage above-normal pay increases and benefits, it allows corruption and nepotism to flourish.”

Classroom

Harris, who describes herself on the liberal Crowdpac political fundraising site as “a restorative justice practitioner and peacemaker,” is one of six running for three open seats on the OPRF board. The election is April 2, and new board members will inherit district finances that are already strained.

State Rep. Margo McDermed (R-Mokena), a strong charter school advocate, says that taxpayers need to be more attuned to who is running for school boards.

“There’s a disconnect going on,” McDermed said. “Voters don’t understand what’s causing their property taxes to keep going up. I tell them go talk to their school boards. Start asking questions about compensation for teachers and superintendents, and why the number of school administrators has increased exponentially over the last few years. That’s where your property tax money is going.”

State law forbids teachers from running for school boards in districts where they teach. Former state Rep. Jeanne Ives, a Republican of Wheaton, says it might be time to amend the law to ban union officers from running for school boards.

“There is an inherent conflict of interest going on there,” Ives said. “Even when they are serving on a separate school board, they have a strong financial interest to support one another. Union money is fungible.”