Aaron “Jitu” Brown is running uncontested in the city’s first elected school board for the 5th District, which covers Austin, Galewood, Garfield Park and Lawndale, along with parts of Humboldt Park, Pilsen and Little Village.
“I’m running to really push the City of Chicago to finally confront its ugly and then to do something about it, to actually put resources in the communities that have been so long ignored and give those communities a voice,” Brown told Austin Weekly News over the summer.
The first election of its kind in Chicago follows legislation signed by Gov. JB Pritzker in 2021 that changed the structure of the board. It expanded the school board from seven mayor-appointed members to 21 members.
Mayor Brandon Johnson will appoint 10 members and a board president. Chicago residents will appoint the remaining 10 members — including Brown, who is running in the 5th District uncontested.
“A board appointed by the mayor is not accountable to the public,” Brown said.
While five candidates filed nomination papers to run in the 5th District, Anthony Hargrove, Kernetha Jones and Jousef Shkoukani were challenged and removed from the ballot. Michilla “Kyla” Blaise dropped out of the race in early September, according to Chalkbeat Chicago.
That leaves Brown as the likely winner of the District 5 election.
Brown, 58, has lived in Austin since 2006. He said he’s advocated for education justice for over 30 years, at least 20 of those which he’s been advocating for an elected school board.
“I’m thankful that people have the right to run,” Brown said. “I’ve been on the front lines of the fight to have this right. I’ve been arrested for this right. I’ve been dragged out of school board meetings for this right.”
While Brown said he didn’t initially intend to run for school board, that all changed as he started collecting wins for community schools — while he saw the mass privatization of Chicago’s schools, leading to the closure of neighborhood schools and expansion of charter schools.
“We have to have people on those school boards, not only who understand community schools and understand equity, but also can be trusted behind closed doors,” Brown said.
Brown’s background
In 1991, Brown started volunteering for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, which convenes parents, students, teachers and community members to discuss and act on improving Chicago’s education system. In 2006, he became the organization’s education organizer.
For more than a decade, Brown has served as a local school council member and, in 1999, started training other council members.
Brown is a national director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, a group of organizations that advocates for alternatives to public school privatization.
Brown’s decades-long efforts have led to the creation of sustainable community schools, or hubs that serve as resource centers for the community beyond the school day.
“Now this model of education is spreading across the country. And Chicago has committed to becoming a sustainable community school district,” Brown said.
Brown’s goals for 5th District schools
Brown was raised on Chicago’s South Side, where he attended Chicago Public Schools. He now lives on the West Side, and his son goes to Kenwood Academy High School in Hyde Park.
Through his family’s and neighbors’ experiences, Brown has seen the lack of education justice in Chicago Public Schools.
“A baby that lives on Diversey and Ashland has a completely different educational reality. And it’s as simple as looking at course offerings [compared to] a child that lives in the Austin community or who lives in Humboldt Park,” Brown said.
To revitalize schools like Frederick Douglass Academy High School and Austin College and Career Academy High School — which ended the 2024 school year with respectively about 30 and 165 students, according to Chicago Public School data — Brown said the community needs to be involved in creating a vision.
He said the school board can do this by consulting with students and parents about what curriculum and wraparound support services they want.
“People will fight for what they help to build,” Brown said.
“I think there has to be a vision for public education,” Brown added. “In Austin, what is our definition of education? In Chicago? If you have a definition, then you can shape the institutions to align with that vision, but there is none.”
Brown’s ultimate goal for CPS is to have a world-class, pre-K through 12th grade system of education within a safe walking distance of every home. To do this, he said there would need to be a restructuring of the school district’s budget.
“You still have departments in Chicago Public Schools that are dedicated to privatization,” Brown said. “We have to re-allocate those resources towards neighborhood schools and towards making education easily accessible for every child within CPS.”