Members of the council are elected except in the case of teachers, staff and student representatives, who are appointed by the Board of Education after non-binding polls are taken and conduct monthly meetings which the public can attend.
[1] Second, in November 1987, William Bennett, President Reagan's Secretary of Education, stated that Chicago public schools were the worst in the nation.
[2] The Reform Act was a product of grass roots work to improve Chicago public schools through decentralization.
The Reform Act put strong faith in the ability of parents, community members, and educators to govern their children's school.
Nevertheless, with most of the school-level authority left intact, Chicago remains the most decentralized big-city educational system in the nation.
Parents must pass a criminal background check and they cannot be employed by the Board of Education to run for representative.
Parents do not need a college or high school degree nor must they be a legal resident of the United States to run.
After election, all new LSC members are required to complete an 18-hour training program within six months of taking office.
Nearly 17,000 candidates ran for local school council in 1989, but numbers have decreased over the years despite major recruitment campaigns for parents and community members.
According to the Designs for Change report, “Chicago’s Local School Councils: What the Research Says,” LSC members are significantly better educated than the average American.
63% of LSC members hold a bachelor's degree or have completed some college compared to only 48% of Americans and 41% of Chicagoans.
The African American and Latino LSC members represent the majority of elected minority officials in Illinois.
In accordance with the reformers intention, Designs for Change have found evidence that corruption on Chicago's LSC is extremely rare.
[citation needed] Chicago's LSCs are placed under the strictest ethics and conflict of interest policy of any elected official in the state.