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Within a few years Chicago’s Board of Education will be fully elected.

For now, though, Mayor Brandon Johnson appoints the city’s school board, which in theory should mean he is the decision-maker on important doings at Chicago Public Schools.

Yet Johnson learned last week that on the budget at least, it’s schools CEO Pedro Martinez and his board — and not City Hall — that are calling the shots. Martinez evidently has backing of the school board, every member a Johnson appointee, so much so that he rejected the mayor’s directives, independently drew up a budget that ignores some of Johnson’s priorities, and seems prepared to approve it at a meeting next week.

Read more at chicagotribune.com

David Greising is the president and chief executive of the Better Government Association, joining the BGA in 2018. For nearly a century, the BGA has fought for honest and effective government through investigative journalism and policy advocacy.