* [Note from Rich: I would disagree that CTU picked up four seats. District 1’s apparent winner Jennifer Custer was, indeed, endorsed by CTU, but she criticized the mayor numerous times and, by extension, the union. She won’t be an automatic CTU vote.] Tribune…

Chicago voters have rejected Mayor Brandon Johnson’s education agenda as only four of 10 candidates endorsed by the powerful teacher’s union will hold seats on the city’s new hybrid Board of Education.

Though the races began as sleepy provincial contests, they quickly became a referendum on Johnson and his closely allied Chicago Teachers Union. The new mayor, whose 2023 campaign was bankrolled by the CTU, has struggled to retain control of the nation’s fourth-largest public school district and drawn criticism for plans to take out a high-interest, $300 million loan. […]

CTU spent at least $1.7 million in direct contributions to candidates as of Monday, largely in-kind contributions for field staffing, polling, advertising or voter outreach. In all but two races, the CTU-backed candidate had raised the largest sum. Spending caps were also lifted on nine of the races.

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools Political Action Committee had devoted nearly $2.3 million to either supporting or opposing school board candidates during that same time period. A second pro-school-choice PAC, the Urban Center, had devoted another $770,000.

Districts 1, 9, and 10 have yet to be called. Click here for the up-to-date totals.

* Sun-Times…

Three races didn’t yet have a winner, and two of them remained neck-and-neck — the 1st District on the Northwest Side with a union hopeful with a small lead, the other in the South Side’s 10th District with an independent candidate slightly ahead. Another independent led in the 9th District by a wider margin.

With the union failing in six districts, a school system that has been under mayoral control for 30 years now looks likely to have a caucus of board members for the first time who aren’t in the mayor’s corner. Some of the groups that opposed the CTU in these elections called that a victory against Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former organizer for the union that vaulted him into office last year and remains a strong ally. […]

Candidates who received financial support from anti-CTU corners won in the 3rd, 4th and 8th Districts — Carlos Rivas Jr., Ellen Rosenfeld and Angel Gutierrez, respectively.

CTU-backed Yesenia Lopez won in the 7th District, adding to the wins by Brown and DeBerry. Jennifer Custer, another candidate endorsed by the CTU, held a small lead in the 1st District but hadn’t yet been declared the winner by the AP.

* Chalkbeat Chicago…

At a union election watch party Tuesday night, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates led the crowd in a chant of “Whose Schools? Our schools!”

She framed the election, which the union advocated for well before Johnson’s election as mayor, as a success: While not all union-endorsed candidates prevailed, Johnson, a close CTU ally, still gets to appoint 11 out of 21 members of the new, partly elected board.

“You all created an expansion of democracy in an entire society that’s toying with the idea of fascism,” Davis Gates said.

She decried an influx of large checks, including some from out-of-state billionaires, in support of pro-school choice candidates.

* Sun-Times…

A pair of candidates running for spots on the first elected school board in Chicago said they were surprised at the level of political attacks against them during the campaign.

“The amount of attack ads from the Chicago Teachers Union was crazy,” Carlos Rivas, running to represent District 3, said at a Chicago Democrats for Education election party in River North on Tuesday night.

Rivas said some were comparing him to Republican former president Donald Trump, which made no sense.

“I’m a gay Latino man raised in the neighborhood,” he said.

* More…

* Sun-Times | Ellen Rosenfeld wins in North Side District 4 Chicago School Board race: Chicago Public Schools staffer Ellen Rosenfeld pushed past five other candidates — and fellow CPS parents — to become the Chicago school board’s member from the largely wealthy North Side District 4, according to results from the Associated Press. […] Two groups that Rosenfeld did not coordinate with spent $321,000 supporting her or opposing Zaccor. The groups, Urban Center Action and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools Action, can raise and spend without limits but they can’t coordinate with candidates. They both support charter schools and oppose the teachers union.

* WBEZ | Che “Rhymefest” Smith leads in South Side District 10 Chicago School Board race: Smith was gracious when reached Tuesday night. He said all the candidates in District 10 were solid and he learned a lot from his competitors. At more than $500,000, Norington-Reaves had, by far, the most in financial support. Some of it was spent on behalf of her campaign and not coordinated with it, and some was given to her campaign fund. She was supported by two anti-Chicago Teachers Union, pro-charter school super PACs — the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and Urban Center Action.

* Axios | Results: Chicago’s first elected school board: he board is only partially elected for now. Mayor Brandon Johnson will appoint the other 10 members, one from each district, and the board president. The 21-member board will start in January and faces a looming budget gap, a CEO at odds with the mayor and an unsettled teachers union contract.

…Adding… INCS Action…

INCS Action Congratulates Newly Elected CPS Board of Education Members

CHICAGO – INCS Action congratulates the newly elected members of the CPS Board of Education and extends its best wishes as they prepare to take office in January. INCS Action is the political and advocacy arm of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS), an advocacy organization focused on the improvement of public education by establishing high-quality charter public schools.

The INCS Action-backed members of the Board include:

District 3: Carlos Rivas
District 4: Ellen Rosenfeld
District 8: Angel Gutierrez

In addition to the three INCS Action-endorsed candidates who won outright, three other independent candidates secured victory last night, meaning that six of the nine contested races went to candidates who will center students ahead of adult interests in making policy decisions for our state’s largest school district. One of the winners, Carlos Rivas in District 3, is a graduate of the INCS Action campaign school and fellowship program, a program designed to prepare the next generation of elected officials.

“I’m proud to have this opportunity to serve not only the families of District 3, but across Chicago,” said Carlos Rivas, a charter school educator. He noted that his win, “is an example of a candidate thinking for themselves and not being defined by outside groups.”

“The election of these candidates who center school quality, rather than school type, reflects a new beginning for Chicago’s education agenda,” said INCS Action President Andrew Broy. “Despite CTU’s best efforts, independent candidates prevailed because Chicagoans know students are more important than politics. Now that campaigning is over, we look forward to partnering in good faith with all CPS Board members to advance the interests of our city’s school children.”

These Board members will serve Chicago’s 325,000 students, including 60,000 charter students and their families. Charter students, 96.4% of whom are students of color and 85% of whom receive free or reduced lunch, are just as much a part of CPS as their counterparts in district-operated schools. It is our hope that the Board will continue to value these students as they do any other child in our city, and the charter community stands eager and ready to support the Board’s commitment to educational equity.

INCS Action has proudly been politically active in city and state elections since 2014.