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In one year, Chicago voters will choose school board members for the first time. But first, state lawmakers have to finally agree on the voting map.

Activists who’d long opposed mayoral control over Chicago Board of Education appointments won a victory in 2021 when Illinois legislators voted to shift authority over the state’s largest school system to a board chosen by the people. Two years later, just before 1 a.m. on May 26 in the waning hours of the Senate’s session, many of those same lawmakers hurriedly passed an amendment extending ...

State legislators are responsible for drawing the 20 districts that will comprise Chicago’s elected school board. Advocates were dissatisfied with the General Assembly’s first attempt and say a revised draft made public Wednesday isn’t much of an improvement.

Districts for the soon-to-be-elected Chicago Board of Education must be drawn by July 1, but those who spoke at the latest public hearing said the newest draft is rushed.

An earlier version of the map was criticized for overrepresenting white Chicagoans, as white children are less likely to attend CPS.