Armed with signs calling for billion-dollar investments in the upcoming Chicago school board elections, board members, members of Congress and parents rallied outside the offices of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools on Monday. morning to report large donations made by out-of-state billionaires and present a proposal. for campaign finance reform.
Lawmakers have fought for years to write legislation to create an elected school board, but “there were a lot of things that were left on the table,” said state Sen. Robert Martwick. He called for legislative hearings to look at “different models of campaign finance reform.”
“We have to as legislators … to adjust 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 financial experts say any proposed campaign finance reform legislation would not affect school board elections in the short or long term. Illinois has a unique rule that funding caps can be raised when campaign contributions — through self-contributions or independent expenditures — add up to more than $100,000 during an election cycle.
There was an uninterrupted flow of outside special interest money before the November school run, Martwick said. That flow of dollars, both raised and spent, flows from both sides – the advocates of school choice, and the detractors, namely the Chicago Teachers Union.
According to state campaign data, the two super PACs that support school choice and charter schools—Illinois Network of Charter Schools Action Independent Committee and the Urban Center group—have spent nearly $1.6 million in the race so far. this year.
State campaign data also shows that CTU is just as invested. CTU candidates have raised about $1.3 million from committees whose biggest donors are the union. And union-affiliated groups spent nearly $2 million on school board candidates.
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 Cleopatra Draper, a Chicago public school parent. “It is already projected from the third grade that there is a pipeline to the prison. Now you want to buy my schools to miseducate my children. It is not for sale.”
Although 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 rejected if it passed, citing A recent law imposing a $500,000 limit on state judicial campaign contributions has been challenged in federal court.
Just because someone isn’t from Illinois doesn’t mean they can’t exercise their First Amendment rights to give money, Redfield said. But the school board race looks different from most of the nation, he said the entire school board resigned in early October and Mayor Brandon Johnson closely aligned with CTU, which brought him to office.
“Systematically, school board elections are usually pretty 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, although they can raise and spend unlimited amounts. 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 exceeded by any candidate in a district, all candidates in the district’s race can accept donations beyond the usual contribution 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 elections, the two defenders of the charter school and their opponents are both spending a lot, in the hope that their candidates will win a seat on the council.
In recent months, the INCS super PAC has received six-figure infusions from big-name donors, such as James Frank, founder of automotive leasing and fleet management company Wheels Inc.; siblings and heirs to the Walmart fortune Jim Walton and Alice Walton; Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings; and Chicago investment 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 donors about investing in INCS.
When asked about the idea of campaign finance reform, he said: “Democracy is a participatory sport, and we are engaged in the process because we care deeply about the future of the school district. . .. It seems hypocritical to me to try to close one of the roads in democracy.”
CTU did not respond to a request for comment on its political donations.
Increasingly, national politics seeped into the local race in Chicago, as seen in flyers and texts about school board elections that flooded voters.
It’s a trend that has grown over the past decade, said John Jackson, a professor of political science 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’re just remarkably polarized along national lines.”
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