Shifting the focus toward neighborhood schools was one of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign promises, according to ABC 7 Chicago. The Chicago Teachers Union called the plan a “step in the right direction” and that it supports a “long overdue” move toward supporting equity, according to NBC Chicago. 

“The Board’s resolution aims to guide engagement and development in partnership with the District on a new strategic plan with an emphasis on strengthening all neighborhood schools as a critical step toward supporting all students and closing opportunity and achievement gaps,” the district said in a statement.

“While CPS will work with the community and its City partners to co-design the strategic plan, the parameters call for a model that centers neighborhood schools by investing in and acknowledging them as institutional anchors in our communities and by prioritizing communities most impacted by past and ongoing racial and economic inequity and structural disinvestment,” it added.

The change in policy could remove the opportunity for Chicago students to test into selective schools. Some critics are saying the plan will reinforce inequities.

“The selective enrollment schools are one of the shining stars of CPS. They are actually something that CPS has done right,” Katie Milewski, a CPS mother, told NBC Chicago. “And it needs to be supported.”

“Neighborhood schools absolutely need help. No doubt about that. I’m not sure why those concepts are mutually exclusive,” she added. “Why neighborhood schools can’t be built up, at the same time of supporting selective enrollment and magnet schools?”

The plan will be approved by the Board of Education in the summer of 2024, while community engagement sessions will begin in February.