Personnel is policy
Victor Henderson may have the best chance of handling the bully in the Chicago Public School (CPS) schoolyard. That bully is not a troublesome fifth grader. It is the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), an organization that long ago graduated from representing teachers at the bargaining table to attempting to dictate how the entire school system is governed.
Chicago voters will elect the president of the Board of Education (BOE) citywide on November 3rd, choosing among Henderson, Jennifer Custer, Jessica Biggs, Sendhil Revuluri and Hilario Dominguez. The office matters because the president can shape what the board debates, what reaches a vote and, ultimately, what kind of leadership runs CPS. The old maxim coined by Reagan administration official Scott Faulkner that “personnel is policy” applies perfectly here. Chicago doesn't merely need another education plan. It needs people willing to say no.That makes Henderson particularly interesting.
Henderson is a lawyer, former CPA and former managing partner of a major Chicago law office. He has served on the board of Urban Prep Academies, putting him in direct contact with the charter school world that CTU has frequently viewed with suspicion. He has emphasized financial accountability and academic outcomes rather than beginning with the proposition that every CPS problem can be solved by sending Springfield another invoice. Henderson has also put $500,000 of his own money into his campaign, helping establish himself as a candidate who cannot easily be starved financially by organized interests.
Most important, Henderson comes from outside the institutional CPS establishment. That could matter more than any individual campaign promise.
CPS is now proposing a $9.88 billion fiscal 2027 budget while carrying more than $9 billion in debt. The district itself acknowledges declining enrollment, higher labor costs, pension costs, aging facilities, and debt service among its financial pressures. Chicago has spent years pretending that maintaining nearly every building, job classification and program is synonymous with protecting children. It isn't.
CPS has made some anemic academic gains in recent years. The district has been among the upper half of urban systems in post-pandemic reading recovery. But recovery from a low point isn't the same as success. In 2024, only 19 percent of elementary students met state math proficiency standards, still below the 24 percent rate before the pandemic. Sorry, but no plaudits for that pathetic performance. Meanwhile enrollment continues to decline. CPS reports nearly 45,000 fewer students than prior to the COVID pandemic.
The union's institutional answer is remarkably consistent: More employees, more programs, smaller classes, greater job protections and more money. During the most recent bargaining cycle, CPS said one version of CTU's additional-staffing proposals contemplated roughly 5,000 new employees at an annual cost approaching $580 million. The eventual four-year agreement was far smaller but still estimated at about $1.5 billion and included raises, additional teachers, librarians and tighter class-size limits. How much more money is enough for these CPS employees? Their pensions are already bleeding Chicago taxpayers dry.
That is where CTU's political influence becomes troublesome. The union has increasingly acted not merely as an advocate for its members but as a political movement with positions on staffing, school closures, charters, budgeting, and city government. The danger arises when the organization receiving money from CPS simultaneously becomes powerful enough to determine who sits across the table representing taxpayers and students. That isn't collective bargaining. It approaches self-government.
The current presidential race demonstrates that Dominguez is an intelligent man, a former teacher, and an entirely illegitimate candidate. Electing a former CTU political official as president of the board that negotiates with, supervises and funds CTU employees would hardly represent a decisive break with the status quo. If you ripped off the mask from his face you would see Brandon Johnson staring at you.
Henderson is the father of four CPS graduates. His children attended Sutherland, Clissold, Whitney Young and Brooks College Prep. Jennifer Custer is a mother of three and a CPS parent at Locke Elementary. Jessica Biggs has a daughter attending a CPS magnet school. Sendhil Revuluri has two children attending CPS. Dominguez's son is not yet school age, but his parents say CPS is the plan.
This matters. None can easily be caricatured as someone who wants to dismantle public education from a safe suburban perch. They have entrusted, or intend to entrust, their own children to the system.
Custer deserves particularly kind words. She may be the most outspoken reformer in the field at this point. A former teacher, administrator, and union president herself, she has nevertheless demonstrated a willingness to challenge the orthodoxies surrounding CPS. CTU publicly attacked her after she supported allowing Acero charter schools to close, accusing her of choosing closures over educators' jobs.
More recently, she has acknowledged the uncomfortable reality that once the statutory school-closing moratorium expires in June 2027, consolidations may have to be considered. That takes courage in Chicago education politics. Custer understands something too many officials refuse to say: A nearly empty building doesn't become an educational asset merely because closing it would produce an angry rally.
Revuluri also deserves attention. A former CPS board vice president, math teacher and education executive, he has argued publicly that Chicago's children need a district that is both academically ambitious and financially sound. Definitely not the right person for the job. Biggs, a former CPS principal, brings considerable school-level experience and has the backing of SEIU Local 73, illustrating that organized labor itself isn't monolithic in this election. A sincere person whose biography is clearly the wrong one.
Henderson undoubtedly has the greatest potential to move the needle because he may be the least captive to the assumptions that produced the current system. A lawyer understands contracts. A PA understands balance sheets. A managing partner understands that organizations eventually fail when managers cannot control personnel costs. A charter-board member understands that “public school” need not mean only one bureaucratic model. More importantly, Henderson could bring different people into the room.
The next CPS leadership team should include people willing to ask impolite questions. Why maintain buildings operating far below capacity? Why should staffing formulas be insulated from enrollment? Why should successful charter or selective-enrollment models be treated as threats rather than evidence? Why should every budget gap automatically become an argument for more revenue rather than an invitation to slash spending? And above all: Who represents the children and the taxpayers who pay their freight when the adults negotiate? That is the central issue of this election.
Chicago has spent decades changing superintendents, governance structures, funding formulas and slogans. The one institution whose power has definitely grown is CTU. Yet families continue leaving the district, enormous achievement gaps remain, buildings are underused, and the financial demands continue.
There comes a point when a schoolyard bully succeeds not because he is especially strong but because everyone else has learned to surrender his lunch money.
Custer has shown that she is prepared to push back. She would be a credible reform president and the next best choice after Henderson. But Henderson offers something potentially larger: A chance to change the people making the decisions and therefore change the decisions themselves.
Personnel is policy. Chicago doesn't need a board president who wants a better relationship with the bully. It needs one willing to tell the bully that the schoolyard belongs to the children and the taxpayers.
Victor Henderson looks like the candidate most capable of doing it.
