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Chicago’s school board elections
* Sun-Times…
Two groups that support “school choice” and charter schools and are critical of the Chicago Teachers Union have amassed $3.6 million from prominent business leaders — including a few billionaires — looking to shape the city’s first-ever school board elections.
While the groups haven’t yet reported any spending on the school board races, their coffers represent, by far, the biggest expected infusion of money supporting and opposing candidates. It’s more than six times the cash that all 32 candidates have brought into their election campaigns and 20 times more than the teachers union’s political action committees reported holding at the end of June.
One of the independent expenditure committees, Urban Center Action, was formed earlier this summer by Juan Rangel, who recently worked for a private school tax credit program and previously was fired amid controversy from UNO Charter Schools, a large network he founded. Paul Vallas, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO who lost against Mayor Brandon Johnson in last year’s mayoral election, is also affiliated. The group has raked in $671,000 in less than two months, state election records show. […]
The Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which advocates for privately managed, publicly funded schools, is operating the other big-money fund that sits at nearly $3 million, records show. The group reported a $100,000 contribution last month from California-based Reed Hastings, the billionaire co-founder and chairman of Netflix, and a whopping $986,300 in June from James Frank, an automotive fleet leasing and management executive who serves as chairman of the Intrinsic Schools charter network in Chicago. Frank, who reported a suburban Des Plaines address, is an INCS board member. […]
Traditional political action committees have limits on donations of $13,700 for individuals and $24,700 for companies. But independent expenditure committees like the ones for INCS and Urban Center are set up like super PACs so they can accept an unlimited amount of money from donors to run ads, send fliers and provide other indirect campaign support without contributing directly to or coordinating with candidates. They can oppose candidates, too.
$553,230 has been raised by all candidates for Chicago’s elected school board.
* Tribune…
Since filing their nomination paperwork in June, 15 candidates have fallen out of the running in Chicago’s historic school board election this November. […]
How they and others have been spending their money as candidates have been knocked off the ballot likely won’t be apparent until the next round of disclosures are due Oct. 15.
CTU said it has endorsed grassroots candidates running against campaigns “funded by Walmart heirs, Netflix billionaires, charter school operators, and corporate education ‘reformers’ like Juan Rangel and Paul Vallas, who will continue to pour millions into these races.”
Since the start of the year, Walmart heir Jim Walton has contributed $350,000 to Illinois Network of Charter Schools PACs, and Netflix Chairman Reed Hastings has contributed another $100,000, according to state elections board data.
Vallas, the former CPS CEO who lost his 2023 bid for mayor, and Rangel, former head of the UNO charter school network, which disbanded after the Securities and Exchange Commission investigated Rangel for fraud, co-founded the Urban Center PAC in March. The committee supports school choice, according to its website, and contributed a cumulative $3,000 to two school board candidates, Andre Smith and Eva Villalobos, as of the Urban Center’s most recent disclosure, which also includes a $5,000 contribution from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools’ INCS Action PAC, Illinois State Board of Elections data show.
Click here for Chalkbeat Chicago’s updated list of Chicago school board candidates.
posted by Isabel Miller
Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 11:18 am
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==20 times more than the teachers union’s political action committees reported holding at the end of June.==
IFT and AFT will insert themselves into the election soon enough. Randi’s not going to sit on the sidelines for this one.
Comment by City Zen Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 11:23 am
If they can get BJ elected they certainly can stack a school board.
Comment by 44 Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 11:26 am
It’s truly outrageous that Rangel is popping back up. This article from 2014 highlighting the corruption, nepotism and waste involved with him running UNO charter schools was prescient: “ UNO can’t count on more largess from the State of Illinois, at least until the inevitable political amnesia sets in.” https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/february-2014/uno-juan-rangel/
Comment by Chicago Blue Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 11:44 am
A big money battle between millionaire school choice advocates and the CTU. Exactly what opponents of the elected school board feared. And so it will be for the next decade or two — until a scandal or crisis of some sort occurs and a politically competent mayor convinces the legislature to ditch the whole thing.
Comment by Telly Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 12:04 pm
Yep, that is the ever increasing trend. Politicize our schools as much as possible. The amount of money thrown into this by both sides is not good for our educational system.
Comment by Mason County Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 12:06 pm
Rightly or wrongly seeing the name Vallas pop up peobably does not help the cause — be it pro charter/ANTI CTU. Oh wait that is probably the same
Comment by Annonin' Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 12:23 pm
I think the lion’s share of the contributions have yet to be made. We probably won’t know for sure who is receiving money from whom until the campaigns start spending it.
Comment by 47th Ward Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 12:28 pm
=Politicize our schools as much as possible. =
Steve Bannon says…”hello.”
Comment by JS Mill Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 12:30 pm
I think with the CTU members and people willing to work precincts will overcome money. Will be interested to see how many people don’t bother to vote in these races just skip after voting up ballot
Comment by DuPage Saint Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 12:37 pm
CPS school board members will become a paid position very shortly IMO
Comment by Two Left Feet Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 12:49 pm
Two Left Feet, that’s going to depend on the actual workload, like how often the boards meets and what it does. If it is the equivalent of a full time job then it should be compensated. Otherwise you wind up with a board full of wealthy do-gooders (not that that’s bad, but it’s not particularly good either) instead of a more mixed bag of concerned citizenry. Basically it’s the same reason I oppose unpaid internships, they give preference to people who have resources.
Comment by cermak_rd Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 2:26 pm
Lotsa people with opinions about the Chicago Teachers Union
Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 2:29 pm
People acting like this is new lol. The GOP has been attacking public education for half a century.
Comment by Bob Friday, Sep 6, 24 @ 3:18 pm