District 6A covers much of the Near North Side and West Town. With just 14 public schools, this district has fewer schools than any other. It is represented by Anusha Thotakura, 28, an appointee of Mayor Brandon Johnson who is endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union. She is running for election in her own right and is opposed by Isaiah White, 28, a special education classroom assistant at CPS, and Brenda Lee Anderson, 34, an education consultant.
White, who ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary last spring for Cook County board, is endorsed by Common Ground Collective, a group that positions itself as a progressive alternative to CTU and is financed in large part by Michael Sacks, CEO of investment firm GCM Grosvenor.
Among Johnson’s appointees on the board, Thotakura has tried to chart more of an independent course than many others and is thoughtful about the many issues facing Chicago Public Schools. For example, she opposed Johnson and CTU’s push for the board to approve hundreds of millions in high-cost debt to plug budget gaps. We would have given her serious consideration but for her vote in July for an irresponsible and to our minds disqualifying fiscal 2027 budget that leaves a $150 million hole and expects state lawmakers to plug it during the November veto session.
Anderson, who has a Ph.D. in education, is an academic with good ideas about how to improve public schools’ performance and tells us voters in her district are getting text messages from a CTU-aligned PAC saying she’s in favor of school closures, which she insists she is not unless the community is in favor of closure.
But White is the best choice for this district. Based on his experience working for CPS, he tells us, “We’ve built a system without accountability, one where failing schools are allowed to keep failing.”
Amen to that, and we think White would have the stomach to set standards that could improve that sorry situation.
We endorse Isaiah White.
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