(Bloomberg) -- Chicago Board of Education President Mitchell Johnson stepped down on Thursday, one week after taking the oath of office, following revelations about controversial social media posts he’d made.
Calls for Johnson to resign had come from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, as well as from aldermen and local community leaders after posts about the Israel-Hamas war came to light that were viewed as antisemitic, as well as others that were seen as misogynistic and some that spread conspiracies about the 9/11 terror attack.
“Today, I asked Chicago School Board of Education (BOE) President Reverend Mitchell Johnson for his resignation, and he resigned, effective immediately,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said in an emailed statement. “Reverend Mitchell Johnson’s statements were not only hurtful but deeply disturbing. I want to be clear: antisemitic, misogynistic, and conspiratorial statements are unacceptable.”
Bloomberg wasn’t immediately able to reach Johnson for a comment, while an online message left with him wasn’t immediately returned.
It’s the latest controversy this year plaguing the governing board that oversees the fourth-largest public school district in the US. The mayor replaced the entire board over the last month amid disagreements between him and the chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools over how to pay for pension contributions and costs coming from a new teachers’ contract.
“My administration is committed to upholding the mission of transforming our public education system,” the mayor said in his statement. “It has become clear that his continued participation in the BOE would hinder the important work we need to accomplish for our schools.”
The upheaval comes right before the school district is set to start shifting from a seven-member board appointed by the mayor to one with 21 elected members. Ten members will be elected next week and the remaining 11 will be appointed by the mayor for now. The transition to fully elected will be completed in 2027.
All this is also occurring during what is turning into a challenging budget season for the first-term mayor, who is breaking a campaign vow by proposing a $300 million property tax hike to help close next year’s nearly $1 billion budget shortfall. He needs 26 of the 50 aldermen to vote for the budget to pass it by year-end.
“Each controversy or situation like this is affected by the budget situation,” said Joe Ferguson, president of the Civic Federation. “There needs to be a decision on whether to expend institutional capital on things that may draw down support he needs for the budget.”
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