Armed with signs of blown-up checks of billionaire investments in Chicago’s upcoming school board elections, aldermen, congressmen and parents gathered outside the Illinois Network of Charter Schools office Monday morning to denounce large donations made by out-of-state billionaires and introduce a proposal for campaign finance reform.
Legislators fought for years to draft legislation to create an elected school board, but “there were many things that were sort of left on the table,” said state Sen. Robert Martwick. He called for legislative hearings to look at “different models of campaign finance reform.”
“We owe it as legislators … to fine-tune this to make sure that the people of Chicago get what they bargained for and that the process is not corrupted by outside donors,” Martwick said.
But finance experts say any proposed campaign finance reform legislation wouldn’t affect the school board election, in the short or long term. Illinois has a unique rule that funding caps can be lifted when campaign contributions — through self-contributions or independent expenditures — add up to more than $100,000 during an election cycle.
There has been an uninterrupted flow of outside money for special interests ahead of November’s school board race, Martwick said. That stream of dollars, both raised and spent, is flowing from both sides — school choice advocates, and detractors, namely the Chicago Teachers Union.
So far this year, the two super PACs that back school choice and charter schools — Illinois Network of Charter Schools’ Action Independent Committee and Urban Center’s group — have spent nearly $1.6 million in the race since Oct. 21 according to state campaign data.
State campaign data also show that CTU is just as invested. CTU candidates have raised $1.3 million from committees whose biggest donors are the union.
Both groups argue for their vision of the school system.
“When I think about the fate of Black and brown children, as a mother of two Black boys, I cringe,” said Chicago Public Schools parent Cleopatra Draper. “It’s already projected by third grade that there’s a pipeline to prison. Now you want to buy my schools to miseducate my children. It’s not for sale.”
Though no specific legislation language was proposed Monday morning, Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois Springfield, said any bill would likely be thrown out if it were to pass, citing a recent law imposing a $500,000 limit on out-of-state judicial campaign contributions that was challenged in federal court.
Just because someone is not from Illinois doesn’t mean they can’t exercise their First Amendment rights to give money, Redfield said. But the race for school board looks different than most nationwide, he said, with the entire school board resigning in early October and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s close alignment with CTU, which buoyed him to office.
“Systematically, school board elections are usually quite local, and they don’t involve interest groups … and they don’t involve mayors,” Redfield said.
Super PACs, also called independent expenditure committees, cannot coordinate directly with candidates or donate to them, though they can raise and spend unlimited sums. They often spend money on mailers, ads or text messages in support of or in opposition to specific candidates. They receive contributions from wealthy individuals and billionaires — some who live out of state.
Once $100,000 is surpassed by any candidate in a district, all candidates in that district’s race can accept donations beyond the usual contributions limit, which often sends money pouring in at the end of a race.
The Board of Elections recently removed donation limitations from all but two districts. And about a week away from the historic election, both charter school advocates and their opponents are both spending big, in hopes of their candidates winning a seat on the board.
In recent months, the INCS super PAC received six-figure infusions from big-name donors such as James Frank, founder of the automotive fleet leasing and management company Wheels Inc.; siblings and heirs to the Walmart fortune Jim Walton and Alice Walton; Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings; and Chicago investment firm giant Craig Duchossois, according to state records.
Andrew Broy, president of INCS said the out-of-state donors all have a “very specific belief that charter schools can help equip young people with the skills to succeed in life.” Broy said he has conversations with the donors about investing in INCS.
When asked about the idea of campaign finance reform, he said, “Democracy is a participatory sport, and we’re engaged in the process because we care deeply about the future of the school district. … It strikes me as hypocritical to try to shut off one of the avenues in democracy.”
CTU did not respond to a request for comment about their political donations.
Increasingly, national politics has seeped into the local race in Chicago, as seen in flyers and texts about the school board election that have inundated voters.
It’s a trend that has grown over the past decade, said John Jackson, a political science professor at Southern Illinois University. School board elections have begun to reflect national party movements, he said, with significant financial involvement and ideological battles.
“We’re used to school board elections, and they were relatively quiet, and they certainly didn’t reflect national trends by any stretch,” Jackson said. “And now they are just remarkably polarized along the national lines.”
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