Fueled by Chicago Teachers Union, campaign contributions in school board race reach nearly $2.5 million
CHICAGO (CBS) – Nearly $2.5 million in contributions have flowed into the coffers of 31 candidates vying for 10 Chicago school board seats.
Those 10 people will be the first elected members of the city's newly configured school board. Mayor Brandon Johnson will appoint the other 11 members, including the board president, before the new hybrid school board takes office in January 2025.
Last week Mayor Johnson named six appointees to the board, after all seven members of the current board announced their resignations. The exits came after months of tension in Chicago Public Schools over the fate of the district's CEO, Pedro Martinez.
Candidates hoping to win a seat on the board will eventually have a say in that issue and on the looming debt crisis facing CPS.
Some of those candidates are filling their campaign chests with big donations from CTU political action committees (PACs) or other PACs funded by CTU. Others are self-funded. And a few are backed by donations from INCS Action PAC – a charter schools political committee – and a wealthy investor who sits on the board of INCS, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools.
Here are the four biggest candidate fundraisers as of October 14. The information comes from candidate filings made to the Illinois Board of Elections.
- Anusha Thotakura, a candidate in District 6 has raised $258,896. $181,666 or 70% has come from CTU.
- Bruce Leon, a candidate in District 2 has $245,000. He is self-funded through loans to himself.
- Jason Dones, a candidate in District 3 has raised $230,000. 98% of which has come from CTU.
- Robert Jones, a candidate in District 10 has raised $229,188. 96% of which has come from CTU.
How do candidates who have raised much less compete with those big fundraisers?
"They don't," said Chris McCullough, an Education professor at DePaul University, who has served as a suburban school board president in the past. "An individual that doesn't have those kinds of resources could be shut out of the race because now what that individual has to do is to stretch their funds so much further."
Some school districts have received hundreds of thousands of dollars. The figures below are as of the first two weeks in October.
- District 1: Two candidates have received a combined $133,624.
- District 2: Four candidates have received a combined $555,595.
- District 3: Two candidates have received a combined $288,452.
- District 4: Six candidates have received a combined $192,609.
- District 5: One candidate has received $34,553.
- District 6: Three candidates have received a combined $327,995.
- District 7: Three candidates have received a combined $60,333.
- District 8: Two candidates have received a combined $276,069.
- District 9: Four candidates have received a combined $106,862.
- District 10: Four candidates have received a combined $491,719.
McCullough talked about the flow of money from special interest groups like CTU and charter schools.
"If you're not tied in with special interest, then unfortunately it's incredibly challenging to operate any kind of a competitive campaign and those doesn't matter if it's for school board or anything else," he said.
He added that he hopes whoever wins these 10 seats is focused on doing what's right for the students when tackling those key issues next year.
"There's a balance in providing the best for our children while being fair to our taxpayers," McCullough said.
