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Brandon Johnson is just a talker
After the Civil War, the descendants of slaves demanded five essentials: education, housing, health care, transportation, and fair-paying jobs. Mayor Brandon Johnson has added a sixth — environmental justice. “Tell me how much you love Black people,” he said. “Don’t ask me how we’ll celebrate Black History Month if you’re not talking about funding public accommodations.”
Let’s take Johnson at his word and measure his record by his own test.
Education: Abandoning standards and choice
From his first day in office, Mayor Johnson’s education agenda has mirrored the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) platform — opposing standardized testing, homework, and school choice. While union leaders exercise their own choice — over 30 percent of CPS teachers, including CTU president Stacy Davis Gates, send their children to non‑CPS schools — the mayor’s appointed Board of Education has moved to dismantle the district’s systems of standards and accountability and restrict both public charters and private options for families trapped in failing schools.
Standardized testing and school performance rankings have been derided as “junk science” that supposedly harms Black children. In practice, that means a return to social promotion, passing students regardless of performance, and removing accountability for teachers and schools alike. The district has even stopped ranking schools by test scores. Unsurprisingly, CPS now touts record graduation rates for Black students — 84 percent — while only 10 percent meet SAT reading standards and just eight percent meet math benchmarks.
Mayor Johnson and the CTU also led opposition to the “Invest in Kids Act,” ending scholarships for more than 9,000 low‑income, mostly minority students to attend better schools. Meanwhile, CPS spends roughly $8,600 less per pupil on charter students than on district students — despite both being publicly funded. Those charters serve more than 54,000 students, 98 percent of them Black or Latino, and 87 percent from low‑income families.
Affordable housing: Where’s the beef?
Johnson’s housing rhetoric far outpaces results. Years of cumbersome permitting, inflated building costs, and heavy regulation have choked development. He promotes a $1.25‑billion “Green Social Housing” bond as transformative, but progress has been negligible — and the policies risk making housing more expensive.
In a since‑deleted X post, Johnson claimed the city “invested $11 billion” to produce 10,000 affordable units — an implausible $1.1 million per unit. However, Chicago issued only 4,039 residential permits in 2024, including a mere 321 single‑family homes. By contrast, Houston issued 52,000. Thus far, only 505 affordable units have emerged from $324 million in city subsidies — many to well‑connected developers.
The Chicago Tribune revealed an added barrier: Developers must prove that no partner in the project profited from slavery before the Civil War. That requirement, though well‑intentioned, creates costly documentation delays and has frozen new construction.
Health care and public safety: Nothing new — and students don’t count
The mayor’s health agenda mostly repackages existing programs kept afloat by fading federal pandemic funds. His proposed “Treatment Not Trauma” ordinance revives prior violence‑interruption efforts launched under Lori Lightfoot. Despite bold promises, only five of the 12 community mental health centers closed under Mayor Emanuel are have been reopened.
Violence remains Chicago’s greatest public health crisis. Johnson touts slight declines in crime, but those drops mirror national trends. Chicago still leads all major cities in murders, youth homicides, and mass shootings, with more than 65 percent of violent crimes being Black‑on‑Black. Abandoning the ShotSpotter detection system has cost lives — 68 people, overwhelmingly Black, were shot in former ShotSpotter zones where no 911 call was placed.
The toll on youth is devastating. Under CTU leadership — Johnson among them — CPS classrooms stayed closed for 78 weeks during COVID despite scientific consensus on safe reopening. The result was a 50 percent increase in school‑age murders and shootings. Since Johnson took office, 504 have been shot who are 17 or under, and 107 killed — including 23 under the age of 12.
Transportation: The mayor has more security than CTA
Chicago’s transit system has become unsafe and unreliable. CTA ridership remains stuck near 70 percent of pre‑COVID levels, with nearly half of riders reporting they feel unsafe. This hits working‑class Black residents hardest: 38 percent of riders are Black, most earn under $50,000 a year, and over half are women. Drivers — mainly Black — face daily harassment and threats, fueling absenteeism and delays.
Although ridership today is 40 percent lower than a decade ago, violent crime on the CTA is double what it was then, and violent incidents per passenger trip have tripled since 2015. A crime now occurs on CTA property roughly every three hours. City Hall’s main response? Ticket smokers instead of restoring real safety.
Only 135 full‑time CPD officers patrol the entire system — about the same as the mayor’s personal security detail. The city relies on unarmed, minimally trained private guards to cover 79 stations, 146 platforms, 335 trains, and 129 bus routes. That’s dangerously inadequate.
Good‑paying jobs: Long‑term stagnation
Mayor Johnson’s economic policies tax, regulate, and discourage small businesses — especially minority‑owned ones. His proposed “Bring Chicago Home” tax, framed as a mansion levy, would have extracted over 90 percent of its revenue from sales of commercial and multifamily properties. Expanded leave mandates and a higher tipped minimum wage further strain small firms.
Though the City Council stopped his $33‑per‑employee “head tax,” it approved 20 new taxes and fees, mostly on businesses — including a jump in Chicago’s already highest‑in‑the‑nation cloud‑computing tax, from 11 to 14 percent. Combined city and county taxes now give Chicago the highest commercial property burden among major U.S. cities.
The result: Near‑zero growth. Chicago ranks last among the 25 largest metro areas for real GDP — under one percent annually. The “Chicago Business Barometer” shows 23 straight months of declining economic activity through October 2025, driven by high taxes, crime, and population loss. Suburbs, meanwhile, are seeing modest growth.
Environmental justice: No justice at all
Environmental justice in Chicago remains largely rhetorical. More than 412,000 lead service lines still deliver water to homes, and PFAS “forever chemicals” contaminate drinking water citywide. Replacing pipes alone won’t eliminate exposure to carcinogens linked to birth defects and immune disorders.
Health statistics lay bare the inequity: Chicago has the nation’s widest life‑expectancy gap. In 2023, Asian/Pacific Islander residents averaged 86.8 years of life, compared to 71.8 for Black Chicagoans. In the Loop, life expectancy was 87.3 years; in West Garfield Park, 66.6. Environmental neglect, poor public health services, and unsafe streets drive this 20‑year disparity.
In the interval, Johnson’s “progressive” budgets keep squeezing taxpayers. He approved $472 million in property‑tax hikes for CPS and diverted $922 million more through TIFs. In 2025, the city issued over 4 million traffic‑camera tickets, raising $350 million and bankrupting thousands of low‑income Black and Latino families.
City Budgets: Higher taxes, misplaced priorities
Despite “progressive revenue” rhetoric, Johnson’s budgets rely on regressive taxes and fees. Beyond property‑tax hikes, City Hall generated $350 million from red‑light, speed‑camera, and parking tickets — punishing those least able to pay.
At the same time, his sanctuary‑city policies have redirected hundreds of millions away from struggling Black neighborhoods. Chicago alone has allocated nearly $400 million to migrant services, while the state added $800 million for housing and nearly $1 billion for health care. CPS has spent between $212 million and $400 million on education for migrant students. The CTU even demanded an extra $2,000 per migrant student during contract talks — fortunately declined.
Black Chicagoans are voting with their feet
Between 2000 and 2020, Chicago lost 265,000 Black residents — mostly working‑ and middle‑class families with children. The city’s Black child population fell 49 percent, compared to a 14 percent decline among adults. Families are fleeing unsafe neighborhoods, failing schools, and crushing taxes. Johnson’s policies only accelerate that exodus.
Mayor Johnson is failing his own report card. Resorting to racial rhetoric, blaming predecessors, and chanting “tax the rich” may energize a base — but it doesn’t educate children, build housing, or keep streets safe. Chicago doesn’t need symbolic gestures. It needs accountable, results‑driven leadership that works for all communities.
