Education

Chicago Appears Set for Divided Board of Education After Historic Election

Chicago appears set for a divided school board after residents elected a new president for the first time and a handful of Chicago Teachers Union-backed incumbents were defeated in Tuesday’s election.

While the results are not yet finalized, it appears the CTU — which had supported a majority of the Board of Education’s 21 members heading into the election — may lose that advantage, potentially dealing a blow to the powerful union and Mayor Brandon Johnson.

That begins with the election of Jessica Biggs, a current board member whom the union strongly opposed, as the board’s new president. She scored a decisive victory over the CTU’s former political director Hilario Dominguez and will replace Sean Harden, Johnson’s handpicked president who opted not to run for reelection.

“Families are tired of chaos and uncertainty,” Biggs said after declaring victory Tuesday night. “They want stability, and they want this board to turn its focus back to our students. They want schools they can trust, teachers who are supported, and leaders who put kids first. Starting in January, this new, fully elected board will answer to the people of Chicago. And I will never forget who I work for.”

The board currently remains split between 10 elected and 11 mayoral-appointed members. But Tuesday marked the first time that all 21 seats were on the ballot, and beginning in January, Chicago will have its first-ever fully elected school board.

That new board will be tasked with addressing Chicago Public Schools’ massive budget shortfall, finding ways to secure necessary funding from Springfield, confronting shrinking student enrollment and deciding whether to close any Chicago schools. 

Three CTU-endorsed incumbents — Ed Bannon (District 1A), Aaron “Jitu” Brown (District 5A) and Anusha Thotakura (District 6A) — appear to have lost their seats, based on unofficial results, while another union-backed candidate, Jason Dónes (District 3B), was holding a slim lead over incumbent Carlos A. Rivas Jr. on Wednesday morning.

Bannon and Thotakura were both appointed to their seats by Johnson — himself a former teacher and union organizer who was swept into office thanks in part to the CTU’s support — while Brown ran unopposed in his 2024 election.

Biggs was backed by the SEIU Local 73, which represents around 15,000 CPS school support employees.

Once longtime allies, the union has been embroiled in a bitter fight with the CTU over which labor organizations some Chicago Public Schools employees, including tutors and recess monitors, should belong to.

After backing Johnson during his successful 2023 mayoral run, the SEIU recently endorsed Alexi Giannoulias as he seeks to unseat Johnson in February’s election.

Aside from Biggs, it appears the board could be split 10-10 between candidates supported by the CTU and those who are not, as it currently stands.

The union slammed Biggs as the handpicked candidate of billionaire Michael Sacks, who donated around $1 million to her campaign, while saying Dominguez “ran a campaign this city should be proud of.”

Chalkbeat Chicago reported that campaign spending in the historic board races soared past $10 million, with anti-CTU organizations greatly outspending the union.

“They threw millions at a special education teacher and union organizer, and he (Dominguez) never stopped telling the truth about what our students need,” the union said in a statement Wednesday. “The issues he ran for won’t end with this election.”

While Dominguez and the CTU have staunchly opposed closing any schools — Chicago Public Schools’ moratorium on closures ends after the current academic year — Biggs has expressed an openness to doing so if residents are in favor.

Noting the upcoming end of that moratorium, the CTU on Wednesday said its members “will be in the room to protect our neighborhood schools.”

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