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Every Year in Chicagoland

Chicago's school board election: the money, and what November 3 decides

Who is funding Chicago's first fully elected school board race, how much super PACs have spent, and how and when to vote on Nov. 3.

By Hellgin8 min read

If you live in Chicago, school board mailers are probably showing up in your mailbox along with the Halloween catalogs. Some praise a candidate and some attack one, and many come from groups you've never heard of. Here's why. On Nov. 3, Chicago voters will elect the whole Board of Education for the first time. Super PACs have spent millions of dollars to shape who wins. The winners will control a district of about 305,000 kids and its budget, its CEO and its schools.

What November 3 decides

All 21 seats on the Chicago Board of Education are on the ballot. That's 20 district seats, each chosen by voters in its own district, plus a board president elected citywide. Mayors appointed the board from 1995 until recently. Since January 2025 it has been a hybrid, with half the members elected and half appointed. The appointed members' terms end in mid-January 2027. After that, every board member will be someone voters chose.

Fifty-one people filed to run. Petition challenges cut the field, and the Sun-Times counts 41 candidates on the ballot plus four write-ins. Half the district members will serve four-year terms and half will serve two-year terms, and the terms switch starting in 2028. The president serves four years, and that term begins Jan. 15, 2027.

Three people are still campaigning for president: Jessica Biggs, Hilario Dominguez and Victor Henderson. A fourth candidate, Sendhil Revuluri, dropped out Sept. 30, but his name is still on the ballot.

The vote is Tuesday, Nov. 3, and polls are open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Early voting is already open downtown. According to a Stand for Illinois explainer on the law, there is no runoff. Whoever wins on Nov. 3 gets the seat, so there's no second round to fix a split vote.

What the board actually controls

The board makes real decisions. According to the Sun-Times, it:

  • sets the district budget and can raise local property taxes
  • decides how state and federal money gets spent
  • hires and evaluates the CEO
  • votes on opening and closing schools
  • approves contracts, including union and charter contracts

The district has about 305,000 students in more than 600 schools. Board members are not paid.

The money is already tight. A narrow board majority recently voted to cancel hundreds of layoffs. That plan assumes state lawmakers will send $150 million more than they've already set aside, and that money hasn't been approved. The new board will start out depending on it, so the budget fight will probably be one of the first things it handles.

The president also helps decide what goes on the agenda at each monthly meeting. Whoever wins that seat will have a big say in which questions the board even votes on.

The money so far

Before summer, the spending was large but limited. A WBEZ and Chalkbeat analysis counted more than $1.6 million in contributions to candidates from Oct. 1, 2025, through June 30.

Illinois has contribution limits for these races: $7,300 from an individual and $14,600 from a corporation or union. The limits come off for everyone in a race once a candidate puts more than $100,000 of their own money into it, or once a super PAC spends more than $100,000 in it.

The president's race lost its limits early. Henderson loaned his own campaign $500,000, which lifted the caps for every candidate for president. As of June 30 he had raised about $659,000.

The bigger spending started in mid-July. Chalkbeat reports that since July 15, four super PACs have spent at least $3.5 million:

  • Common Ground Collective
  • the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS)
  • Urban Center
  • Brighter Futures

That spending has lifted the limits in 12 of the 21 races. In more than half the city, a single donor can now give a candidate as much as they want.

For scale, the first school board election in 2024 drew more than $13 million in total spending. Reports filed before Election Day will raise this year's totals, and the biggest spending usually comes in the final weeks.

Who is paying

Most of the money comes from three camps.

Charter schools and anti-CTU donors. INCS's super PAC has about $5 million, according to its director, Andrew Broy, and he says up to $4 million of it will be spent in the final weeks. That figure comes from the group itself. Its biggest named donor is Jim Frank, who gave $1.75 million. So far the PAC has spent about $1 million supporting 13 candidates and about $89,000 against board member Karen Zaccor. Common Ground Collective has spent just over $2 million since July 15, including more than $500,000 against Dominguez. Chalkbeat reports that nearly all of its recent money came from Michael Sacks. Separately, the Sun-Times reported that Paul Finnegan, chairman of Madison Dearborn Partners, gave almost $1 million starting in April to seven candidates (including Biggs and Custer, who dropped out of the president's race in August) and to several groups.

The Chicago Teachers Union. Illinois Policy is a conservative think tank that often criticizes the union. Its count of state filings found the CTU had spent about $236,000 on eight candidates by Sept. 1, and $207,293 of that went to Dominguez. The union has endorsed 15 candidates. Chalkbeat separately reports more than $300,000 in in-kind help from the CTU, plus about $305,000 in late-September mailers for Dominguez from Our Schools PAC. Union members also voted down a dues increase of up to $800 a year that was meant to pay for political work. Almost 63% voted no.

SEIU. Brighter Futures Chicago is linked to SEIU, a union that also represents school workers. It had more than $1 million in early August and has spent just over $300,000 in recent weeks. SEIU's own PAC has sent at least $250,000 to candidates it endorsed.

The president's race

Each of the three active candidates is tied to one of these money camps or is running against all of them.

  • Victor Henderson is an attorney. He has no backing from major special interests and has mostly paid for his own campaign, starting with that $500,000 loan.
  • Hilario Dominguez is a former CTU political staffer and the union's pick. Most of the CTU's direct candidate spending has gone to him, and he's also the main target of Common Ground's attack spending.
  • Jessica Biggs is a current board member backed by SEIU, and Finnegan gave to her campaign.

Sendhil Revuluri raised more than any other candidate before he dropped out, over $700,000, much of it his own money. When he quit, he said special-interest money was drowning out ordinary voters. Voters will still see his name on the ballot. The current board president, Sean Harden, is not running.

The president matters more than one vote out of 21. The president helps set the monthly agenda, and that decides which budget, school closing and contract questions reach a vote.

How to vote and where to follow the money

  • Register: Online registration is open through Oct. 18. You can also register in person at your polling place, including on Election Day.
  • Vote early: Early voting started Oct. 1 at 137 S. State St. and 69 W. Washington St. Early voting sites in all 50 wards open Oct. 19, which gives you a couple of weeks before Halloween and the last days of the campaign.
  • Election Day: Tuesday, Nov. 3, 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
  • Follow the money: Campaign filings go to the Illinois State Board of Elections, and its online disclosure database lists contributions and spending for every candidate and committee. Since no runoff is provided for, the winners should be clear by Thanksgiving. The new board takes over in January.
Sources (13)

Photo: James Ward Public School, Shields Avenue and 27th Street, Armour Square, Chicago by Warren LeMay from Chicago, IL, United States, CC BY-SA 4.0.