Long-awaited elected school board bill down — but not out

Photo at top: Chicagoans, including Aiyanna Allen (far right), wait outside a packed committee room to decide the fate of the elected school board bill. (Emily Olsen / MEDILL)

By Meredith Francis and Emily Olsen Lawmakers are no strangers to the waiting game, but the public is getting antsy. In a packed education committee room in the Springfield state house, parents, students and Chicago community organizers mobilized Nov. 16 to make a fundamental change to the way the nation’s third-largest school district is led — […]