The Trump administration opened an investigation Tuesday into Chicago Public Schools, alleging race-based discrimination related to the district’s recently released Black Student Success Plan.

Chicago’s next mayor Brandon Johnson, a former middle school teacher and union organizer, will be the first in recent memory with children in the Chicago Public Schools and the last with mayoral control of the district. [Alex Wroblewski / Getty Images]

Brandon Johnson took an unconventional path to becoming Chicago’s next mayor.

A decade ago, Johnson, 47, was teaching middle school at Jenner Academy of the Arts, which served mostly low-income Black students from the Cabrini-Green public housing complex. In 2012, he became an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, and in 2018, he was elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners. 

Now he will be the first mayor in recent memory with children in Chicago Public Schools and the last to have control of the school system before it transitions to an elected school board.