Chicago school board election. Charter money pours in.
The badly designed plan for an elected Chicago school board is resulting in what many of the early supporters - including me - have feared.
State legislators divided the city into 10 school districts and voters will elect one board member from their district, while the mayor will select a second person from the same district, to make up 20 members.
The mayor will also appoint another person to be board president.
The legislator’s plan has opened the door for deep pocketed corporate and charter school advocates to buy seats on the new board. The election is November 5th. Early voting has already begun.
All caps on contributions have been lifted and the privatizers of public education are taking full advantage.
Andrew Boy, the executive director of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, was reported in Chalk Beat as saying that the group is backing candidates who support charter schools and what he calls “fiscal responsibility”.
Their financial resources appear unlimited.
The group’s expenditure committee is funded by huge donations from Chicago and out of state billionaires.
The Chicago Teachers Union is also backing candidates and have invested heavily in support of their candidates.
The union’s donations, while hefty, pale in comparison to the dollars that charter school privatizers have ponied up.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the CTU were vocal supporters of this faulty plan for an elected school board.
More than $4 million has been poured into the races, according to the Sun-Times. That's about the same as was spent on the Cook County state's attorney primary, the Trib reported.