Jessica Biggs Turned Her Back on Urban Prep. Can Black Families Trust Her to Lead Chicago’s Schools?
When a school created to save Black boys fought for survival, where was Jessica Biggs? She served District 6B. Urban Prep was in her district.
Black boys were fighting to save their school. Their school board representative was nowhere to be seen. Biggs was on the board. She could have done something. She didn’t.
That is the question Jessica Biggs must answer as she seeks to become president of the Chicago Board of Education. When Urban Prep Academies, an institution created to change the educational destiny of Black boys, faced the threat of losing its campuses, what did Biggs do to save it? What did she say? Whose side did she take? Where was the urgency, the advocacy, the leadership?
The public deserves answers.
Urban Prep was not just another school. It was a bold response to a national educational crisis, a challenge to the assumption that Black boys were destined to fail. Its fight for survival should have been a defining moment for every school board member who claims to represent Black children’s interests. It was the only school of its kind in the nation to serve exclusively young Black males.
Yet the question remains: When Urban Prep needed an advocate, why wasn’t Jessica Biggs leading the fight?
Urban Prep: A School That Dared to Believe in Black Boys…
In 2006, a University of Chicago study exposed a devastating reality about educational outcomes for African American boys in Chicago. The study reported that only one in 40 Black boys in Chicago Public Schools would eventually graduate from a four-year university.
One in 40.
That statistic was a condemnation of an educational system that was failing far too many Black boys. It was also a call to action.
Timothy King answered that call by envisioning Urban Prep Academies, a school designed specifically to help Black boys succeed. Inspired by Morehouse College‘s traditions, Urban Prep established a culture of discipline, academic ambition, brotherhood, and leadership. Its message was unmistakable: Black boys could achieve, lead, and belong in college. Timothy King was URBAN PREP’s mastermind.
Students wore blue blazers, khaki pants, shirts, and ties. Dress for success. They were taught to carry themselves with confidence and to envision futures beyond the limitations society too often placed upon them. They were taught to look beyond stereotypes and their neighborhood.
Urban Prep became a national symbol of possibility. Its early college-going outcomes attracted national and international attention, and its mission resonated with families who wanted their sons to see college not as a distant dream, but as an expectation.
For many, Urban Prep represented what education could accomplish when Black boys were given a focused mission, a supportive environment, and adults who refused to accept failure as their destiny. Their motto, “I believe.”
This institution was put in jeopardy.
When Urban Prep Needed Help, Where Was Biggs?
In 2023, Chicago Public Schools moved to revoke Urban Prep’s charter amid allegations of administrative misconduct and sought to take control of its campuses. These were serious matters that required scrutiny. But they also demanded a careful consideration of what would happen to the students and the educational mission the school represented.
Jessica Biggs served on the Chicago Board of Education representing District 6B, which included communities such as Bronzeville and Englewood, where Urban Prep operated campuses.
She was not an outsider looking at a distant controversy. The school was in her district. The boys whose futures were at stake were among the students her board served.
The school for Black boys threatened closure.
So where was she?
Craig Wimblerly, executive director of the Coalition of African American Leaders, asked prominent attorneys James Montgomery and Victor Henderson to join the board of Urban Prep and help defend the school.
They stepped forward. They saved the school. In July 2023, Cook County Judge Anna Loftus ruled that the Chicago Board of Education had violated a state school-closing moratorium in its attempt to revoke Urban Prep’s charters and take over its Englewood and Bronzeville campuses. The ruling blocked those actions at that time.
Community advocates mobilized. Attorneys went to court. The legal system contested the school’s future.
But what did Jessica Biggs do?
Did she publicly defend the students’ right to a fair process? Did she challenge the district’s approach? Did she bring parents and community leaders together? Did she demand that the board exhaust responsible alternatives before threatening an institution created for Black boys?
If Biggs took meaningful action, she should put that record before the public. If she did not, she owes the community an explanation.
Silence from an elected representative during a fight of this magnitude is not a minor political footnote. It raises legitimate questions about priorities, judgment, and accountability.
Is This What Representation Looks Like?
The Black community knows what it means to fight for educational opportunity. It has watched schools struggle, resources disappear, and institutions serving Black children face threats that leave families wondering whether their voices matter.
Urban Prep was built to confront one of the most persistent failures in American education: the inadequate preparation and support of Black boys. Its mission deserves a serious hearing, not the automatic presumption that the institution should be sacrificed when controversy arises.
No school should be above accountability. Investigate allegations, scrutinize finances, and protect students. But accountability should not become an excuse to abandon a school’s mission or disregard the children who depend on it.
A responsible school board member should do two things at once: demand answers about alleged misconduct and fight for a fair process that puts students first.
That is leadership.
If Biggs believes she fulfilled that responsibility, she should explain how. If she believed Urban Prep should lose its charter, she should explain why. If she disagreed with the district’s actions, the public should know what she did about it.
She cannot reasonably expect the community to ignore the question.
This is not about assuming Biggs’ motives because she is White. It is about examining her conduct and demanding the same transparency expected of every public official.
The issue is not what she looks like. The issue is what she did. We don’t need a “Pollyanna attitude“, like Miss Ann, running the school system, missing life’s reality.
Why Should Black Families Trust Her With the Presidency?
Now Jessica Biggs wants to lead the very school board whose decisions can shape the educational futures of thousands of Chicago children. Some say to support Biggs because the union backs her. Well, unions haven’t been exactly equitable to Black people either.
With the union support.
Does that mean Biggs reports to, and is supported by, the unions more than parents and students? The presidency of the Chicago Board of Education is not a ceremonial prize. It is a position of public trust. It demands more than polished talking points and campaign promises. It demands evidence of leadership when the stakes are high, and the choices are difficult.
Urban Prep tested that leadership. Biggs failed with absenteeism.
These are fair questions. The community should ask them before handing her greater authority.
Black Boys Are Not Disposable…
Timothy King saw a problem and attempted to solve it. He looked at the grim statistics confronting Black boys and envisioned a school that would challenge those statistics rather than accept them.
Urban Prep gave that vision a name, a uniform and a community. It offered young men a model of discipline, ambition and possibility. Its story became part of a larger debate about what happens when schools deliberately invest in Black boys.
That legacy deserves an honest accounting, including scrutiny of the school’s challenges. But the boys who depended on Urban Prep deserved advocates who would insist that a political and legal battle not cost them their futures.
Jessica Biggs had a chance to show that kind of leadership in her own district. The public record and her own explanation should tell us what she did with it.
Until she answers those questions, her candidacy for school board president deserves tough scrutiny.
Black Chicago cannot afford a school board president who treats the educational future of Black boys as somebody else’s problem.
If Jessica Biggs wants the authority to lead Chicago’s schools, she must answer for her record on Urban Prep. She must explain where she stood when the school was threatened, what she did for the students, and why the community should trust her to do better in the future.
The question is no longer simply whether Urban Prep deserved to survive.
The question is whether Biggs has demonstrated the leadership Chicago’s children deserve.
Black boys do not need a president who merely occupies a seat at the table. They need a president who will stand up when their future is on the line. If Jessica Biggs cannot explain where she stood when Urban Prep needed help, why should Chicago trust her to lead its schools, particularly Black parents?
