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The 45 candidates vying for 10 seats in Chicago’s first school board elections this November have raised more than $400,000 collectively for their campaigns, new campaign finance filings show.
The money is a mix of small donations from candidates’ friends and family, sizable personal loans, and in-kind and financial support from existing political and labor groups, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of state campaign finance records.
The political fundraising arms of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which has $3 million on hand, and the Chicago Teachers Union, which has around $175,000, are holding their fire for now, putting off making major donations to candidates. That’s not surprising: Many candidates are still sorting out challenges to their petitions to get on the ballot, and spending is likely to pick up once a clearer picture of the most competitive races and candidates emerges.
School board races in other cities such as Denver, which saw $1.9 million raised for three open seats in 2023, and Los Angeles have drawn major spending by outside groups in recent years, often pitting national teachers unions against supporters of charter schools and school choice more generally.
That money tends to start flowing later in the race, said Jeffrey Henig, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College and co-author of a recent book on school board campaign finance. Chicago, often seen as a bellwether on national education trends, could be a magnet for such spending.
“These groups don’t want to back losers — or sure winners,” Henig said. “The big money tends to hold back strategically.”
More than a dozen candidates either have reported zero contributions or have not yet filed campaign finance disclosure paperwork with the Illinois State Board of Elections. Candidates do not have to file disclosures until they’ve raised $5,000 in a 12-month period, according to the Illinois Board of Elections.
Chicagoans will elect 10 school board members on Nov. 5 — one from each new school board district. The mayor will appoint 11 members. On Jan. 15, 2025, the new 21-member school board will be sworn in. The board will transition to a fully elected body in 2027.
Campaign contributions vary across district
More than $438,000 has flowed into the coffers of Chicago’s school board candidates between January 1 and June 30, but it is not evenly distributed across the city’s brand-new school board districts.
District 10, which stretches from Soldier Field to the Indiana border, has seen the most money — with more than $130,000 flowing from Jan. 1 to June 30. But $70,000 comes from personal loans Che “Rhymefest” Smith and his partner gave to his own campaign, campaign disclosure documents show.
Adam Parrott-Sheffer, a former Chicago principal and district parent also running in District 10, said his goal is to run a campaign that’s as lean as possible. His political committee has brought in just over $50,000 in contributions, according to campaign finance records. He said candidates are running to oversee a district with a budget of almost $10 billion at a time of tighter finances, so disciplined campaign spending is key.
Parrott-Sheffer also said he believes voters are looking for candidates who are not indebted to special interests — “somebody nobody sent,” a reference to a phrase ubiquitous in Chicago politics first made famous by the late former Congressman Abner Mikva.
“The key question is, ‘What’s the right way to get the word out?’” Parrott-Sheffer said. “We don’t need to spend money on something that’s not essential.”
Kate Doyle, a District 2 candidate who is one of the top fundraisers so far, said she takes pride in drawing mostly individual contributions, with a total of $38,790 raised as of June 30.
“I think that shows the community is seeking someone qualified, independent, and progressive,” said Doyle, a district parent, former educator, and business leader. She added: “There’s a lot of concern about the board becoming politicized.”
She said her campaign will spend the cash to buy a voter contact directory from the state’s Democratic Party to help with canvassing and other outreach as well as mailers in English and Spanish and advertising later on in the race: “It’s all about getting the message out there, and in this big district that can be really costly.”
Karen Zaccor, a candidate in District 4 who recently retired after 28 years teaching in CPS, raised $3,233 in donations as of June 30, with about half of that from Zaccor herself, campaign finance records show. Zaccor told Chalkbeat she’s received more support in the last two weeks, for a total of roughly 40 donors who donated between $25 to $1,000.
Zaccor has long advocated for an elected school board and has received donations from people she’s worked with in her neighborhood and from members of the advocacy organization Northside Action for Justice, which endorsed Zaccor, Zaccor said. She’s also been endorsed by the CTU.
“People I know from other community work, even from many decades ago who no longer live in the city, have donated to my campaign so far,” Zaccor said. “I can’t honestly say we’ve done a full-court press at this moment, but people who know I’m running, who we’ve talked to about, ‘Hey, come to the launch’ or something like that, have donated to my campaign.”
Teachers union, charter supporters hold off
Both the Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools have influenced elections and donated to candidates in Chicago elections in the past, including for mayor and aldermen.
The Illinois Network of Charter Schools’ two political committees have more than $3 million on hand as of June 30, records show. Most of that money comes from a few wealthy individuals: business executive James Frank, Walmart heir Jim Walton, and businessman and philanthropist David Weinberg and his wife, attorney Grace Allen Newton.
The majority of the money — $2.8 million — is in an independent expenditure committee, sometimes referred to as a Super PAC. These committees cannot give directly to or coordinate with candidates, but can influence races in other ways, such as through ads about certain issues.
Some of that money will go toward state senate and other races, but much of it will support pro-school choice school board candidates in Chicago, said Andrew Broy, the advocacy group’s president.
However, save for small donations to a couple of candidates, the group’s political action committees should start spending a “substantial” amount later this summer, once the ballot is finalized and the election outlook is clearer, Broy said. He said it’s hard to speculate how much will go toward the races in the long run.
“The stakes are enormous for every meaningful policy decision that CPS is about to make,” he said. What makes the race unique is the lack of incumbents, he said: “The race is wide-open, with in some cases, four or five qualified candidates.”
The Chicago Teachers Union’s political committees have a collective $175,000 in the bank, some of which has come from member dues. The union has sharply criticized the charter school advocacy group for amassing a large war chest to back political candidates.
Last month, the union voted to endorse the following candidates: Jennifer Custer, Ebony DeBerry, Jason Dónes, Karen Zaccor, Jitu Brown, Anusha Thotakura, Brenda Delgado, Yesenia López, Felix Ponce, Lanetta Thomas, and Rev. Robert Jones.
The charter committee also gave a modest amount to another political action committee affiliated with The Urban Center that could be active in the school board elections and supports school choice. Former Chicago schools chief and former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas and former charter school chief Juan Rangel are listed as its officers. Rangel recently worked for Empower Illinois, a scholarship-granting organization for the state’s sunsetting tax-credit scholarship program.
Rangel said The Urban Center political action committee is on the lookout for independent-minded candidates who are supportive of selective enrollment, magnet, and charter schools — and of allowing local school councils to decide whether to station police officers on campus.
“We are strong believers that parents should have a voice in the education of their children,” Rangel said.
Campaign finance records show the group has a little less than $2,000 in the bank as of June 30, but Rangel said they’re in the midst of fundraising. But he said he hopes to offset some of the CTU’s influence on the election, saying it has a “self-serving agenda.”
Zaccor, the candidate in District 4 on the north side with around $3,000, said she wouldn’t accept funds from INCS or The Urban Center.
“Not that they’re going to offer me any,” Zaccor said. She hopes she’ll get funding and boots-on-the-ground support from the teachers union and other groups that endorse her.
Henig, the Columbia University expert and author of the book “Outside Money in School Board Elections,” said teachers unions are especially good at summoning ranks of motivated educators to volunteer and provide in-kind support, such as door-knocking or handing out yard signs. Illinois campaign finance rules require candidates to report in-kind contributions.
He said it makes sense to hold off on ramping up campaigns during the summer months, when parents — a key constituency — aren’t as engaged as they are during the school year. But candidates would want to get their message out by mid-October at the latest, or risk losing the name recognition battle, Henig said.
“Early money can be helpful, and really late money — which is when outside money sometimes comes in — can be less than helpful,” Henig said.
School board races across the country have attracted big money and outside influence, including from conservative groups, such as Moms for Liberty, supportive of restricting how schools teach about race and sexuality, among other issues. But they do not yet appear to be donating to Chicago school board candidates, a Chalkbeat review of campaign disclosure documents indicates.
School board candidates will have to report donations and campaign spending again in mid-October, ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Reema Amin contributed.
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.
Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.
