Teachers union aims for more control of Chicago schools with election

(The Center Square) – Chicago’s first school board election is coming at a time of turmoil for the city’s public school system.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s hand-picked school board president, Reverend Mitchell Johnson, resigned last week after it was discovered that he had made antisemitic posts on social media and supported conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. 

The mayor is a former Chicago Teachers Union operative. The union spent more than $2 million to support Johnson’s campaign for mayor. 

Ten Board of Education candidates are CTU-endorsed out of a field that includes 32 total candidates in the city’s first school board election Tuesday. In one district, a CTU candidate is running unopposed, while several districts have three or four candidates on the ballot.

District 7 candidate Raquel Don is facing Yesenia Lopez, who is endorsed by the teachers union, and Eva Villalobos. Don is not funded or endorsed by CTU.

“It is really disappointing and disheartening to see how heavily the union is getting involved with this election. It’s really taking away from what I have fought for, a fully-elected board, putting in people that are not even parents, have not been fighting, don’t have any knowledge about the system itself,” Don told The Center Square.

Johnson announced last month that he had appointed seven new board members, but only six of the seven remain after Johnson resigned.

Several of Johnson’s recently appointed board members and CTU-endorsed candidates have called for “fully-funded” schools.

The campaign organizations for several CTU-backed candidates did not respond to requests for an interview.

CPS currently spends $20,000 of taxpayer funds per student annually. Taxpayer funding of CPS has increased more than 50% since 2010, while enrollment is down about 20%.

Don said she is a two-time cancer survivor who was protective of her children when they first went to school, because she wanted to see who she was leaving her kids with.

As a former substitute teacher and member of several school and parent organizations, Don said individuals supported by the Chicago Teachers Union may not be prepared to serve on the school board.

“I think some of these candidates that haven’t been involved are in for a rude awakening should they be elected, because there’s gonna be some heavy lifting,” Don said.

After serving as a local school council member for 10 years, Don said she is not on board with CTU avoiding accountability.

“This ‘pass the buck’ with the accountability has been going on even pre-pandemic, and there’s even more pressure now because of the numbers that we have,” Don said.

According to the Illinois State Board of Education, reading proficiency scores for CPS students have dropped 63% since 2012. Math scores have dropped 78%.

ISBE’s 2023 Illinois Report Card found that Chicago Public Schools students have a chronic absenteeism rate of 40%. The statewide chronic absenteeism rate for public school students is 28.3%.

The Illinois Report Card measures absenteeism by the percentage of students who miss 10% or more of school days per year.

On Election Day, Nov. 5, Chicago’s precinct polling places and voting centers are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.