Chicago Voters Elect 21-Member School Board With Narrow Pro-Choice Majority

Chicago has elected its first fully school board since the 1995 charter rewrite, with preliminary results favoring candidates backed by pro-school-choice groups.

More than 1.1 million Chicagoans cast ballots in the Tuesday night election, a turnout figure that will rise as the Chicago Board of Elections counts remaining precincts. That total represents approximately 200,000 more voters than the 2024 election, which covered only ten large districts before the city split them into smaller zones.

Jessica Biggs is set to become the board president, a role that grants her the authority to set the agenda for all 21 seats. Her campaign received a single contribution exceeding $1 million from billionaire Democratic donor Michael Sacks. Anthony Driver, executive director of the SEIU Illinois State Council, credited the union’s early support for her victory. Driver noted that his organization’s political action committee donated more than $200,000 to her campaign because they believed she possessed the ability to build a winning coalition.

The new board is expected to include 11 members backed by pro-school-choice organizations such as the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and the Urban Center. These candidates include Margie Luczak, Ellen Rosenfeld, LaPamela Williams, Isaiah White, Brittany Kimble, Angel Gutierrez, Juan Igancio Gonzalez, Brittany Preston, Therese Boyle, and Che “Rhymefest” Smith. The Chicago Teachers Union, which previously held a strong influence, is projected to secure nine seats if current leads in districts 3b, 5b, and 7a hold. The SEIU union backed ten of the presumed winners, reflecting a strategic split with the teachers union that began after a 2024 labor dispute over special education staffing.

Andrew Broy, president of the state charter network, stated that the citywide president race served as a bellwether for voter sentiment, while CTU vice president Jackson Potter argued that his union’s candidates performed well despite being outspent five to one. Potter admitted the union ran out of runway in recruiting candidates for the unpaid positions.

The incoming board faces immediate financial decisions, including how to handle a potential budget shortfall if expected state funding fails to materialize during the November veto session. A majority of the new members opposes automatically raising property taxes to the legal limit, though they may adjust this stance upon reviewing the district’s cash needs. The board has also pledged to ban AI-based tools for students and employees, a policy some members expect to refine after studying the technology’s impact on classroom operations.

Jennifer Custer, a former teacher and board member, suspended her campaign for president in August to support Biggs, citing a shared desire to prioritize student outcomes over partisan endorsements. The new board will convene to navigate these complex issues, with many members noting that their positions may evolve as they engage directly with the district’s daily operations.