Chicago Public Schools is facing the most severe challenges, arguably, of any school district in America.
Fiscally speaking, CPS is junk rated and teetering on the edge of financial collapse. Its most recent budget, “balanced” on the back of $150 million from the state that’s never coming, is Exhibit A of the kind of fiscal mismanagement that’s been on display for years.
Just 42% of CPS third-through-eighth-graders are proficient in reading, 10 percentage points lower than the state as a whole. Just 27% of those students are proficient in math, more than 10 percentage points below the state average, according to state data, and National Assessment of Educational Progress data shows CPS is behind other peer districts in both reading and math. And CPS just reported another enrollment decline: 11,537 fewer students this year, bringing the loss since 2010 to nearly 100,000 students. Oh, and too many kids are learning in near-empty buildings.
Enter the city’s first fully elected 21-member school board.
The race to fill these seats is a continuation of the fight that played out in 2023.
The 2023 mayoral election was a battle between the CTU and moderate Democrats. The moderates lost, and one of the CTU’s own sits behind the big desk on the Fifth Floor.
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Again, it’s a battle between CTU, its far-left allies and just about everyone else. The union is spending big money to try to claim another critical branch of government — the one with the power to rubber stamp things like the union’s next contract or, conversely, to serve as a roadblock for the union’s agenda. Opposing CTU, among others, is Michael Sacks, billionaire philanthropist and megadonor whose politics are far from conservative, and who has served as a moderating force attempting to keep the CTU’s growing influence at bay.
As the fight intensifies, even events as seemingly innocuous as back-to-school celebrations are not immune to controversy. Some Edgewater parents whose children go to Peirce Elementary School told WBEZ they were uncomfortable with Sacks-backed Common Ground Collective advocacy group hosting a table and paying for a DJ at their school’s Aug. 20 event. Common Ground defended its involvement, noting that its nonprofit, which is separate from its political arms, staffed the table and paid for the DJ. While handouts about the school board election directed parents to the group’s website, Common Ground said it did not post its school board endorsements until four days later.
CPS already has rules meant to keep political campaigning out of its schools. Good. Enforce them.
And enforce the principle consistently. That means outside advocacy groups shouldn’t use schools as campaign venues, and it also means CTU members who lead classrooms should leave their union’s politics at the classroom door.
Like it or not — and we certainly do not — CTU politics infiltrated the district long ago. That’s something we hope changes in the coming years.
Also standing in opposition to CTU in school board elections are other major labor unions. While CTU has gone all in on board president candidate Hilario Dominguez (a former CTU political director who cancelled at the last minute his presence at this week’s Tribune endorsement meeting), the Service Employees International Union is backing former CPS principal Jessica Biggs. So, too, is the Chicago Federation of Labor, which boasts CTU President Stacy Davis Gates as a member of its executive board. Given these unions’ immense power and influence, it’s unsurprising that Biggs and Dominguez are considered the frontrunners in the race.
Candidates have amassed over $3 million so far, with more money rolling in, inconceivable had the political stakes not been so high.
It’s worth remembering that this is a volunteer board, and members are unpaid. You’ve got to respect anyone willing to walk through fire to get a job this contentious without even the prospect of a paycheck to sweeten the deal. It’s also worth remembering that it wasn’t that long ago that all seven CPS board members quit, in the midst of a fierce power struggle between Mayor Brandon Johnson and his CTU allies versus former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. To call it a hostile work environment is to put things mildly, and the next wave of board members will need to be made of stern stuff.
As much as this is an election for a new board, it’s also a referendum on the job the CTU is doing, both on the Fifth Floor and in classrooms across the city. The outcome of these CPS board races will determine whether the district doubles down on its current approach, being led around on a short leash by a militant and unpopular union, or decides to get serious about addressing its serious fiscal and educational challenges.
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