To help inform voters on who’s running for Chicago’s elected school board, the Chicago Tribune education team posed a series of questions to the candidates in each district. These questions ranged from basic information on their background and campaign platform to their stance on several issues facing Chicago Public Schools.
See the answers from Kate Doyle, candidate for elected school board in the 2nd District, below.
About the Candidate
Name: Kate Doyle
Age: 35
Neighborhood: Lincoln Square
School District: 2
Education: Certificate in education finance, Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy; Master of Education in special education, Long Island University; Bachelor of Arts in African and African-American Studies, University of Michigan
Current Job: CEO of KindWork, a workforce development nonprofit
Previous Political Experience: None.
Questions and Answers
In the interest of transparency, the candidate’s responses shown here are published as written and have not been edited by the Tribune.
Did you attend Chicago Public Schools or is anyone in your immediate family a CPS student? No.
Have you worked at Chicago Public Schools or another school? What is your background in education?
My experience in education is broad, deep, and suited perfectly to bring fresh perspectives to Chicago’s public school system, to bring data-driven analysis to the Board of Education’s decision-making, and to bring the consensus-building skills to help move a 21-person Board with diverse perspectives and goals to consensus around advancing equity, improving student outcomes and bringing accountability for both through greater transparency.
Although I have not been a CPS employee, I am about to be a CPS parent who will send my son to our CPS neighborhood school, and I have been an attentive CPS observer (in virtual attendance at 10+ recent CPS Board meetings) informed by the expertise I’ve developed working on the front lines of big-city public education.
I have worked as a special education teacher (and proud American Federation of Teachers member) in a high-needs high school in the New York City Public Schools; I have worked in corporate communications and social impact; and for the last seven years, I have been running KindWork, an award-winning nonprofit organization I launched to help low-income young adults break through barriers to prepare for and enter careers in tech industries.
Nobody else in this race has the mix of experience in teaching and education entrepreneurship, experience in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors, and experience conceiving, creating, and managing an organization focused on education and job training.
Through these experiences, working with hundreds of young adults, I have become increasingly concerned about the many shortfalls in our K-12 system that create barriers to real post-secondary success. As a school board member, I am committed to using all of my diverse experience to advocate for CPS students.
Why are you running for a seat on the Chicago Board of Education?
First and foremost, I am running for the Chicago School Board because every child deserves access to a high-quality education from pre-K through 12th grade, and every family should be able to rely on their neighborhood school to deliver that. Families should also have the choice to send their student to specialized programming best suited to their needs outside of their geographic boundary. All our schools must be fully funded, thriving, and equipped to provide students with daily learning experiences that prepare them for success after graduation. As a soon-to-be CPS parent, this mission is personal to me—I’m running for all of our kids.
I am also running because our system isn’t working the way it should. CPS is facing significant fiscal challenges, and we need leadership that can make the most of available resources while fighting for the funding our schools need. It’s not enough to have strong policy ideas; we need board members with operational expertise and consensus-building skills to ensure our district runs efficiently and effectively. With my business and nonprofit experience, I bring that knowledge to the table.
We need a responsible and independent voice who will advocate for our students above all else. As a working mom to a future CPS student and a former special education teacher in high-needs public schools, I understand the real challenges our schools and families face, and I am ready to bring that perspective to the Board of Education. Further, I am not beholden to any group with a stake in School Board decisions other than the students of Chicago and their families. I envision CPS as the top-performing large school district in the country, where every student feels welcomed and supported.
I believe in strong governance, transparency, and the need for clear, actionable plans to improve our schools. I will be a responsive leader who listens to the community and works tirelessly to ensure every student’s needs are met. Our students and families deserve that kind of leadership; our City’s businesses deserve public schools that provide a high quality, skilled labor pool from which to fill good jobs, and everyone deserves the proven benefit of a quality public school system in reducing crime and improving the quality of life in every neighborhood of the City.
How would you describe your district?
District 2 is uniquely diverse, racially, ethnically, and religiously. It is home to more languages spoken by students and families at home than nearly all, if not all, other districts. It is also a progressive district, with a desire for independence; though progressive candidates consistently win majorities in District 2, progressives tied to CTU or other special interest groups do not whenever there are other progressive options.
I am running to be a voice of the people of my district, as an independent, progressive, equity-focused candidate.
How would you describe your campaign platform?
I am running as an independent, progressive candidate. I am running to bring experience and expertise as an educator, a communicator, and an education policy professional to the CPS Board, but I am not, and will not ever be beholden to any special interest group, whether that be CTU, the charter school lobby, machine politicians, or anyone else. I support public schools, including and especially neighborhood schools, while also believing we should not cut selective enrollment and other school choices like magnet schools.
The number one priority in our schools needs to be addressing the deep inequities in the district, particularly in communities of color, English language learners, and among LGBTQ+ students – and everything I do on the school board will have this focus in mind. We must work to increase student outcomes across all student groups and do more to publicly measure the district’s progress toward student achievement goals.
What is the single most important issue facing CPS students?
The largest issue, and also my top priority, is the achievement gap (and closing it). To close the achievement gap, we must close the opportunity gap; this is particularly evident in third-grade reading scores when students transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”. This milestone is an indicator of future success, and right now, most students are not meeting it, nor are they at grade-level proficiency in math. Furthermore, the disparities in proficiency by zip code and race are staggering and show that there is a massive opportunity gap within CPS.
Improving achievement for ALL students requires directing funding equitably to ensure learners who need extra support receive it. Students with disabilities must receive their full-service minutes and the education they need to thrive. We must strive to be a district that can confidently say we are doing right by ALL our students, especially those furthest from opportunity.
Provide three to four key points you want voters to know about your campaign.
My top priorities are Improving Student Achievement, Improving Special Education, and Enhancing Post-Secondary Pathways.
We must close the opportunity gap, especially as it becomes clear in third-grade reading scores—when students transition from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” This critical milestone is a key predictor of future academic success.
To improve achievement for all students, we need to allocate resources equitably, ensuring that those who need additional support receive it. Students with disabilities, in particular, must receive their full service minutes and the education they need to thrive.
As a district, we must be able to confidently say we are doing right by all students, especially those furthest from opportunity.
On the post-secondary front, we must create clear pathways for success. Whether students choose to attend a four-year college, pursue unionized careers in the skilled trades, or engage in other meaningful post-secondary opportunities, they must be fully prepared. Enhancing work-based and service-based learning opportunities for high school students will give them the real-world experience they need to excel in their chosen paths, contributing to their success and strengthening our community.
Given this year’s budgetary problems and disagreements on how to solve them, what do you propose for the district’s funding in future years? Would you support the district in taking on any loans in future years to fund the annual budget?
Budget increases since 2021 have been due to rising operational costs, investments in critical support services, and essential staffing. Increases were necessary to address urgent needs, such as expanding mental health support, hiring more counselors, providing resources for English Language Learners (ELLs), and improving access for students with Individual Education Plans. Additionally, pandemic-related federal relief funds were used to implement learning recovery programs, which increased the overall budget but have been crucial in addressing the learning gaps exacerbated by COVID-19.
At this time, the pandemic funding is phasing out, but the learning gaps created by the pandemic persist. Continuing to improve the education and support services provided to our students, and the additional staffing required to ensure continued improvement and high quality, will take revenue, and simply finding “administrative fat” to cut from the budget, while worthwhile, will not be enough, and anyone who claims that new revenue will not be an absolute requirement is being disingenuous at best.
That said, property taxes are stretched to the limit, and raising enough to fund CPS needs through the property tax not only will strain overburdened local taxpayers, but will require legislation in the General Assembly to allow CPS to exceed the cap on property tax increases in State law (35 ILCS 200/18-185).
That means that the State of Illinois needs to step up and fulfill its responsibility under Article X of the State Constitution as the agency with “the primary responsibility for financing the system of public education.” According to the State’s own Evidence-Based Funding model, Chicago’s school system only has 81 percent of the revenues it needs to educate our children. It is up to the State to close the gap; with pandemic resources being phased out and needs growing from the arrival of a large number of new English language learners, the gap will only grow if not addressed.
It is up to the CPS Board to help make the case for CPS’s needs alongside the case that CPS’ resources are being well-managed. But then it is up to the State to find the additional revenue.
Illinois is hampered in no small part by its dependence on an income tax limited by the State Constitution to a flat rate; with this constraint, the State income tax can’t raise enough without severe pain for the middle class as well as those just getting by. That is why Illinois still needs to join 30 other States, the District of Columbia and the Federal government in adopting a progressive income tax, so the State can fully fund public schools in Chicago and throughout the State. The CPS Board has an important role in urging the General Assembly and Governor Pritzker to make another attempt to pass a Constitutional amendment to end the flat tax, and in urging voters to support the amendment as well.
Loans to cover operating expenses is never a wise fiscal approach, particularly when CPS’ bond rating is poor and interest costs are high. However, when all responsible savings have been wrung from the CPS budget, property taxes have been raised to the legal limit, and the State of Illinois is still not closing the funding gap, CPS is faced with a choice to borrow in hopes of paying off the loans when revenues are better, or short-changing our children. I understand Mayor Brandon Johnson’s desire to keep our children’s education from being short-changed, but at the same time, I don’t believe that a confrontational approach is the best way to make the case to State legislators, voters and taxpayers. As a member of the CPS Board, I want to be a leader in improving CPS’ communication with the State government and the voters and be an effective advocate for our students and their families.
Non-traditional revenue sources should be considered as well; in those parts of the City where student enrollment has declined due to declining population, underutilized school buildings could be used to co-locate other community-facing government services and agencies so that operating costs can be shared with other units of government while keeping neighborhood schools in their neighborhoods. Physical improvements to these buildings to ensure the security of our students and to separate the non-school functions in the building from the schools could be offset by the savings from shared costs for utilities, maintenance and security.
The Chicago Board of Education recently adopted a new 5-year Strategic Plan. Which aspects do you support and which would you change, if any?
I support the goal of providing rigorous, joyful and equitable learning experiences for all CPS students by improving neighborhood schools and emphasizing holistic learning, academic success and emotional well-being over narrow metrics that focus solely on academic achievement without regard to the development of the whole child. I am also encouraged to see important goals outlined including reducing chronic absence and improving the participation of students with disabilities across CPS programming. I also agree with the continued investments being made in social-emotional learning across all schools, which I believe is the cornerstone to setting CPS students up for success in their futures.
That said, I am concerned that the emphasis on neighborhood schools at the expense of high-performing selective enrollment and magnet schools will short-change many students who need and can benefit greatly from schools that offer what neighborhood schools, with their focus on serving all students, cannot.
I believe selective-enrollment and magnet schools are vital to the fabric of CPS, offering high-quality options for students who excel in specialized areas. These schools have a proven track record of preparing students for success, and they should be celebrated and fully funded. However, we must do more to ensure that access to these programs is equitable and that the student body reflects the diversity of CPS.
Our priority must be strengthening neighborhood schools, while maintaining high standards for accountability across all school models. Our neighborhood schools must be able to offer a level of academic rigor that will prepare any student who wishes to attend higher education the opportunity to do so and to succeed in that setting. We must also enhance onramps to other postsecondary pathways like the skilled trades and bring our Career and Technical Education in line with the jobs of the future.
Strong neighborhood schools with strong school choice options within the public school system helps to ensure that all students can be served by the public school system wherever they are academically or socially, in skill development or emotional development; but it is our job to make sure that school choice enhances equity of educational opportunity, rather than creating greater inequity. Meaningful school choice starts with strong neighborhood schools that provide a viable option for students and their families, but it doesn’t end there.
As thousands of migrant families settle in Chicago, how should the District handle the influx of English learners? What more should be done to ensure consistent bilingual education is provided and funded?
With the influx of new arrivals and the finding that roughly 20 percent of Chicago’s English learning students are not reaching English language proficiency, it’s clear that the resources for providing ELLs are not sufficient and are not being distributed equitably. I will advocate for greater investment in Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) and Dual Language programs, as well as for providing proper staffing and teacher training to schools with large and growing populations of English language learners. We must also work to incentivize additional bilingual certifications for our current teachers to enhance flexibility in our staffing. We can work with teachers, parents, and community members to make sure that new arrivals and existing English as a Second Language (ESL)/bilingual students are not falling behind, and that begins with ensuring that educators are trained, certified, and prepared to provide the instruction that these students need.
Do you believe the district has historically underinvested in South and West side schools? Yes.
If yes, what solutions would you propose to address inequities and opportunity gaps in the school system?
The most important thing to address the historical harms within Chicago Public Schools is to keep them from recurring.
It is imperative to ensure equitable distribution of resources and the importance of making sure that every student in every neighborhood has access to the same quality educational opportunities.
Repairing historical harms requires an understanding of the harms that have come from under-resourcing schools in communities of color. Poor educational outcomes and differences in achievement resulting from historical inequities have harmed entire communities. This is only one piece of an entire culture of systemic racism that has created pervasive inequalities far beyond the educational sphere. Inequalities in economic or cultural opportunities stem in no small part from inequalities in educational opportunity, but the ability of CPS to address those consequences for former students is limited. We have a responsibility as a society to address systemic racism, and as a school district, it is important to focus our efforts on the pieces of that responsibility that we are best suited to address.
Since his election, Mayor Johnson has indicated a desire to move away from school choice and bolster neighborhood schools. This was recently reinforced by in the District’s 5-year Strategic Plan. Do you share this position? Why or why not?
I do not. While my vision for CPS includes every student being able to get a quality education at their neighborhood school, there is absolutely a place for school choice within the public school system, including and especially selective enrollment. For some students with unique talents and interests (particularly academically gifted students, who often have unique social-emotional needs and require greater academic rigor than is suitable for their age cohort to keep them engaged) , selective enrollment and magnet schools are the only way their educational needs can be met. I strongly oppose budget cuts to selective enrollment schools, as well. I would encourage making the process more accessible so that the selective enrollment student body matches the diversity of CPS as a whole. This may include increasing the distribution of information regarding selective enrollment in lower-income and majority Black and Hispanic schools on the South and West sides.
What solutions do you propose to provide busing for students at selective enrollment and magnet schools?
Studies have shown that student attendance is directly correlated with access to transportation to and from school. We must bring busing back for all schools, including special education and selective enrollment. This is something I am very passionate about, and I am proud to be endorsed by CPS Parents for Buses.
We must restore busing as an option for all students. As we improve other transportation infrastructure, the need for busing will hopefully decrease.
My proposed solutions to improve busing include: I would call for a thorough audit of CPS transportation spending including the impact of vendor caps on our ability to provide reliable transportation services.
Prioritize our families with the greatest need by renewing the $500 per month stipend for low-income families without access to transportation services.
Call for a routing software analysis and potentially a RFP for enhanced routing software that would allow us to identify the most seats for students in the most cost-effective manner.
This could also enhance the “hub” model that has been proposed (though with few details) by CPS.
Raise bus drivers’ pay beyond just keeping pace with inflation, and increase sign-on bonuses for new bus drivers. I would also insist that the board review a monthly progress report on hiring goals and hiring activities including attendance at recruitment fairs.
Please share your thoughts on how the District and the Chicago Teachers Union can settle on a new 4-year contract.
Teachers are charged with caring for our children for a large chunk of each day, and with educating them and helping them develop into responsible adults prepared to contribute to society. That incredibly important work demands that teachers be compensated with a living wage that allows them to afford to live in the communities they serve. With that bedrock goal recognized, the question becomes, how can that goal be realized within the revenue constraints faced by CPS?
The best answer is to find ways to break through those constraints, and I would look forward to working with CTU leadership to make the case for additional revenue to legislators and to the community. But that is not likely to happen quickly enough to allow CPS to provide everything that teachers deserve within CPS’ means.
To settle on a new contract, CPS and CTU will need to cooperate to find solutions that provide the best compensation package and work rules that can be constructed in the short term while encouraging cooperation to develop new revenue sources in the long term. That may mean a shorter contract term coupled with a renewed focus on generating the revenues needed for a more generous contract in a shorter time horizon.
Ultimately, increased public funding will depend greatly on the ability of CPS and CTU to convince State legislators and the public that taxpayer investment in CPS is an important and beneficial use of public resources, and that will require building a relationship of greater cooperation and trust between the CPS Board and CTU leadership, while at the same time convincing legislators and the public that the CPS Board is providing responsible stewardship and oversight of the Chicago Public School system and exercising judgment independent of CTU in the administration of our schools.
In 2024, Chicago Public Schools’ average literacy proficiency rate was 31%, an increase from pre-pandemic years. However, these rates were lower for students from low-income families, English learners, and students with Individual Education Plans (IEPs). How should the district seek to improve literacy rates going forward?
At the most macro level, this comes down to fully funding our schools. Our schools need to be adequately resourced to support students of diverse backgrounds and needs, such that every student’s needs are met equally. This is especially critical for low-income students and families and English learners, including having resources for translation, along with ensuring that school activities and meetings are scheduled around family members’ work schedules; most CPS parents do not have the luxury of being able to just leave work during the day to do things at their child’s school.
I would prioritize expanding high-quality, evidence-based literacy and numeracy programs and support research-backed interventions tailored to meet the specific needs of each student, including English learners and students with disabilities. Students who are behind their age cohort in reading or mathematics are entitled to the extra care, attention, and resources we need to bring them up to grade-level mastery.
As a former special education teacher I feel strongly that we must also do more to support our diverse learners and ensure they are receiving all of their mandated services. The pandemic further exacerbated underlying issues in our special education services across the district, from incomplete evaluations to more students with disabilities being separated from their general education peers for the majority of the day. Improving special education services, including having specialized literacy programs for students with disabilities that relate to literacy, will help to improve literacy rates.
What is your position on expanded funding and renewal terms for charter schools?
When evaluating the future of charter schools, we need to take a student-centered approach. I oppose expanding charter schools. As we fully fund neighborhood public schools, and families have an easier choice in sending their student(s) to a well-resourced neighborhood school, the demand for charter schools will lessen. However, we need to consider the short-term impact of closing charter schools in large numbers. Some charter schools are very high-performing, and those should stay open. This will help to bring us closer to equity for low-income students of color without bringing back discriminatory programs like the expired Invest in Kids tax credit program that diverted taxpayer money to private schools.
Poorly performing charter schools, on the other hand, drain resources without providing any benefit in the short- or long-term and should be held accountable for their performance; if they do not improve they should close. It is possible that demand for high-performing charter schools may lessen when neighborhood schools across the City are equitably funded and performing at a higher level than today.
Please provide your thoughts on how to keep Chicago Public Schools as safe havens for students to learn and flourish fear of violence. How do you propose the district approach this?
This issue is personal to me. During a period of my childhood, when my family was victim to domestic abuse and the subsequent loss of our house, school was my safe haven. My teachers and counselors got me through this difficult period in my life, and I am forever grateful to them for that.
So many students face violence getting to and from school each day, as well as within school and in between school days. We need to bring strong mental health resources into our schools, ensuring each school has at least one nurse and at least one social worker, to serve as resources for students. Teachers should be trauma-informed so they can help students process the traumas of their day-to-day life, as is needed to support them in their day-to-day lives. Furthermore, we should institute stronger violence prevention programs, and have more after-school activities for students, to provide safe places for them to spend time, explore their passions, and connect with their peers. The more resources we bring into the neighborhoods where violence is taking place, the safer students will be.
Originally Published: October 26, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.
