The new board will have a different feel than in past years when consultants, lawyers and bankers filled many of the seven seats. Only one of Johnson’s appointees is a lawyer, and she runs a legal aid organization.
My impression is that Lightfoot was continuing a lot of the neoliberal policies of Rahm. She was already picking fights with the CTU in her "first" term and gearing up for another big round of school closings when the moratorium expired. She was stocking the school board with bankers and charter school proponents. It makes sense that Johnson needs to clean house of all of these people if he doesn't want them to continue to pursue the same policies Rahm and Lightfoot were pushing.