Where I stand
I bring the data, experience, and independence CPS needs to fully fund our schools, protect our most vulnerable students, and finally get results instead of rhetoric.
Get Our Students the Money the Law Says They Are Owed
Illinois' own funding law says CPS is owed roughly $1 billion more every year. Winning that money is the Board's most important job, and this Board has barely tried.
End the Annual Budget Crisis
This year CPS gave the public two weeks to review a budget full of cuts. That is no way to govern. I will fight for honest multiyear budgets that protect the classroom.
Face Declining Enrollment Honestly and Plan With Communities
CPS has lost about 20 percent of its enrollment in a decade. I will face that math honestly, plan years ahead with each community, and never support a surprise closure.
Focus on the Students the System Fails First
I am running for the kids CPS fails first. Students with special education needs, English learners, students hit by school closures, and LGBTQ+ students need a Board member who can find exactly where the system breaks and fix it.
Real Language Justice for English Learners
More than one in four CPS students is an English learner. Their families deserve translation they can count on and enough bilingual teachers for all students in all schools.
Mental Health Support in Every School
Every school needs enough counselors, social workers, and nurses to support the whole child. A child in crisis should meet care, not handcuffs.
Get AI and Technology Right for Our Kids
I lead data science and AI teams for a living, so I know what these tools can do, what they cannot do, and how to protect our students. CPS should leverage AI where it can help assist learning and set firm guardrails.
Fiercely Independent and Accountable to You
The CTU has endorsed one of my opponents. Charter school advocates have donated to the other. I am beholden to neither, and I refuse special interest money from both.
Get Our Students the Money the Law Says They Are Owed
Illinois' own funding law says CPS is owed roughly $1 billion more every year. Winning that money is the Board's most important job, and this Board has barely tried.
The current Board failed to pass a legislative agenda until after Springfield's session ended. Students pay for that kind of failure. I will push the Board to run a year round Springfield strategy and to build a coalition of parents, educators, community groups, and business leaders that comes to the capitol with one voice and one mission. I support new progressive revenue at the state level, including a millionaires' tax, because homeowners cannot carry this district alone and more than 60 percent of Illinois voters agree. I also support capturing recurring TIF surpluses from the city so public dollars reach classrooms instead of subsidizing developers. Until Springfield pays what it owes, the Board has to use every tool it has. I will treat every local tax dollar as a promise to show results.
End the Annual Budget Crisis
CPS has lost about 20 percent of its enrollment in a decade. I will face that math honestly, plan years ahead with each community, and never support a surprise closure.
This crisis did not have to happen. The Board saw it coming, did too little, and still plans one year at a time, so every summer becomes a scramble and families learn about cuts through rumors. I will push CPS to adopt true multiyear budgets with honest deficit projections that show families the real tradeoffs. Special education services, bilingual staff, counselors, and nurses should be the last things cut, never the first. Every major budget decision should come with published criteria and school level impact data before the vote, not after. One time fixes like high interest borrowing push today's problem onto tomorrow's students, and I will treat them as a last resort, never a habit. I have spent my career helping public institutions build exactly these systems. Families can handle hard truths. They cannot plan in the dark.
Face Declining Enrollment Honestly and Plan With Communities
CPS has lost about 20 percent of its enrollment in a decade. I will face that math honestly, plan years ahead with each community, and never support a surprise closure.
The surprise closures of 2013 hurt Black and brown communities most, and some neighborhoods never recovered. That must never happen again. But pretending enrollment decline is not real is not a plan either, because half empty buildings shortchange the kids inside them. I will push the district to plan five years ahead with each community. I will invest in what actually draws families back, including strong academic programs, bilingual services, pre-K, and safe buildings. If a community concludes that consolidation serves its students best, the Board should support that choice with years of notice, detailed transition plans, and investment that follows every child.
Focus on the Students the System Fails First
I am running for the kids CPS fails first. Students with special education needs, English learners, students hit by school closures, and LGBTQ+ students need a Board member who can find exactly where the system breaks and fix it.
CPS spent years under state oversight after investigators found it illegally delayed and denied special education services, and shortages of special education teachers and paraprofessionals persist today. The district has promised fixes for years. What it lacks is measurement and follow through. I will push for a standing public scorecard on IEP compliance, service delivery, staffing vacancies, and outcomes, broken down by school, so failures are visible before they become lawsuits. I will defend inclusive protections for LGBTQ+ students without apology. And I will insist that any facilities or enrollment decision include a written analysis of its impact on students with disabilities. Vulnerable kids need oversight with teeth. That is precisely the work I have done my whole career.
Real Language Justice for English Learners
More than one in four CPS students is an English learner. Their families deserve translation they can count on and enough bilingual teachers for all students in all schools.
Some CPS schools enroll more than 60 English learners for every certified bilingual teacher. That is not a service gap. It is a broken promise. I will fight to fund translation and interpretation as a core budgeted service, so families can enroll their children, attend an IEP meeting, and serve on Local School Councils in the language they speak. I will push to scale the bilingual teacher residency CPS already runs and help the paraprofessionals in our buildings earn certification, because the talent we need is already in our classrooms. I will require English learner service data to be published school by school, so a child waiting on services is visible to the Board instead of disappearing into a district average. Illinois also passed historic inclusive curriculum laws covering LGBTQ+, Asian American, Muslim American, and Native American history, but never funded implementation. I will push CPS to measure what is actually being taught and close that gap with community partners. The Board already has the authority to fix all of this. I am running to use it.
Mental Health Support in Every School
Every school needs enough counselors, social workers, and nurses to support the whole child. A child in crisis should meet care, not handcuffs.
The evidence here is clear. University of Chicago research found that removing police from schools did not increase disciplinary problems and did not make students or staff feel less safe. Investment in trusted adults improves both safety and learning. I will champion full implementation of the Whole School Safety framework and fund the restorative justice coordinators and counselors who make it work. I will fight for a crisis response protocol that sharply reduces unnecessary involuntary hospitalization, so a student in distress gets support instead of trauma. The school to prison pipeline is what happens when schools answer student need with punishment, and its costs fall hardest on Black students and students with disabilities. Chicago has started to break that pipeline. I will protect this staffing, monitor the results, and push further, because good policy is never finished.
Get AI and Technology Right for Our Kids
I lead data science and AI teams for a living, so I know what these tools can do, what they cannot do, and how to protect our students. CPS should leverage AI where it can help assist learning and set firm guardrails.
I am a data scientist, so I am pro-technology and pro-guardrails. CPS should set clear, evidence-based rules for AI, reduce screen time for our youngest learners, protect student data and privacy, teach AI literacy, and pilot new tools before scaling them. I will push for an updated district wide AI policy that better addresses procurement standards, student data privacy, academic integrity, and teacher training. No existing technology vendor or potential new vendor should be able to use our students’ data to make a profit. I will push to ensure these safeguards are in place to use AI responsibly and ethically. Technology should support instruction, never substitute for it.
Fiercely Independent and Accountable to You
The CTU has endorsed one of my opponents. Charter school advocates have donated to the other. I am beholden to neither, and I refuse special interest money from both.
I am not a politician. I have never run for office, and no political machine stands behind me. I pledge to refuse money from charter PACs and privatization groups, and I will not take special interest money from any faction. My donors will be public. So will my reasoning. I will publish the data and evidence behind every major vote so anyone can check my work, and I support publicly financed school board elections, because a multimillion dollar school board race serves the funders instead of the families. Independence also means listening as a system rather than an event. I will hold regular office hours and school visits across District 2B, partner with the Honorary Student Board Member, Local School Council representatives, and the CPS Student Advisory Council, and treat student and family feedback like the data it is by publishing it and showing what changed because of it. Even when you disagree with my vote, you will always know exactly how I got there. Results, not rhetoric.