Mayor Johnson vs. Donald Trump? In CPS School Board races, big money defines messaging, voters’ choices.

Jennie Jiang is still deciding who’ll get her vote in Chicago’s 3rd District school board race on the Near Northwest Side. But as she looks for information ahead of Tuesday’s election, she’s found herself “annoyed at the messaging and the politics.”

One ad she received claimed a candidate would raise her property taxes 40%. Another claimed the opposing candidate was supported by former President Donald Trump and would gut the public schools.

“This has nothing to do with schools in my community,” said Jiang, a Humboldt Park mother of two Chicago Public Schools students. “I thought we were having school board members really focused on community issues, and what people need, and youth and parents.”

When advocates pushed for years to create an elected school board, they wanted parents to spur robust conversations about their children’s educations, potentially get elected and be accountable to their communities. Some of that bread-and-butter education talk is taking place at forums and when candidates knock on doors.

But based on what’s been landing in many voters’ mailboxes, texts and on their television screens, it would be hard to blame them for thinking they were choosing between Mayor Brandon Johnson and Trump.

At a highly divisive time in local and national politics, the messaging in these nonpartisan school board races has turned expensive, aggressive and, according to some, misleading — a far cry from the local, grassroots campaigns most had wanted. The elections have morphed into a battle between Johnson’s allies at the Chicago Teachers Union and those who oppose them.

And the races in the 10 voting districts have attracted big money.

More than $7 million has been raised so far. This includes individual contributions to campaigns, as well spending by political action and independent expenditure committees, or super PACs.

Two groups that advocate for charter schools and are highly critical of the CTU have spent about $3 million, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. The teachers union has spent $1.6 million on its endorsed candidates through its own political action committees and at least eight other affiliated PACs.

In the 8th District on the Southwest Side, music teacher Felix Ponce is backed by the CTU and other progressive organizations. Angel Gutierrez is supported by the more conservative Illinois Network of Charter Schools and anti-CTU Urban Center Action. Each hopeful has a slew of other endorsements, but the differences in their biggest backers have been most apparent.

“Donald Trump and out-of-state billionaires are pulling the strings of Angel Gutierrez,” reads a campaign flier that depicts Gutierrez as a puppet. The flier tells voters to “expect Angel Gutierrez to dance to Donald Trump’s Project 2025 agenda.” That’s a far right plan for the federal government under Trump if he’s elected president.

Fliers supporting Gutierrez, meanwhile, show Johnson’s picture next to statistics about CPS student achievement. “In Brandon Johnson’s Chicago Public Schools 3 of 4 students CAN’T READ at grade level.”

“Angel Gutierrez will say NO MORE to Brandon Johnson!” the flier reads.

Another from Urban Center Action quotes former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas, who’s tied to the super PAC, telling voters “Don’t be fooled! Felix Ponce is Brandon Johnson’s candidate!” and noting Ponce is endorsed by the CTU.

In the 1st District on the Far Northwest Side, an attack ad against Michelle Pierre, paid for by the CTU PAC, warned voters “if Trump Republicans and out-of-state billionaires get their candidates — Michelle Pierre — elected,” they would “crush our public schools.”

Not all the spending has gone for attack ads. Much of it has also been spent on positive ads that focus on a candidate's qualifications and why they are running, and some candidates have said they appreciate the support.

Some billionaires, such as California-based Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, and Arkansas resident and Walmart heir Jim Walton, have shelled out six-figure sums to INCS and Urban Center Action. So have Chicagoans philanthropist Helen Zell and entrepreneur Joe Mansueto. The union has argued that those individuals and groups have the same interests — privatizing public education — as Project 2025.

But some campaign ads have falsely portrayed candidates as endorsed by Trump. Johnson also hasn’t endorsed any candidates, though his close allies at the CTU have.

INCS President Andrew Broy said the group’s anti-Johnson and anti-CTU messaging is valid because the candidates they’re opposing are endorsed by the union. He said there’s “no basis” for the CTU calling candidates puppets of Trump.

“It’s a cynical ploy to mislead voters,” Broy argued.

INCs has also criticized CTU for funding multiple political committees under different names, obscuring the extent to which they are supporting candidates.

Graciela Guzman, a CTU ally who’s running for the state Senate’s 20th District on the city’s Northwest Side, said the progressive education movement is “defending public education.”

“We refuse to let outside billionaires and special interests hijack the school board that our communities fought so hard to create,” she said last week at a news conference about big outside money.

It’s not surprising that Chicago has attracted big money from both inside and outside the city, said Jeffrey R. Henig, political science professor emeritus at Columbia University who wrote the book “Outside Money in School Board Elections: The Nationalization of Education Politics.”

Henig said the local business community is likely stressed about the loss of mayoral control of the school system, where they might feel it’s easier to interact with and influence City Hall and the school board.

“I don't imagine that they think that they can get back to mayoral control, at least not quickly,” he said. “But they would want to put some limits on the extent to which a mayor can shape the school board in ways that will undermine some of what they've historically seen as appropriate emphasis on closing underutilized schools and being too responsive to union demands.”

Henig said school board races used to be small affairs with low attention and low turnout. But under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, education became a more national issue and school board races started attracting national attention.

“The reformers — those pushing mayoral control, charter schools and test score accountability — began to realize that local school boards can affect whether reforms take root or whether they're resisted,” he said.

The super PACs run by INCS and Urban Center Action, which are behind a lot of the fliers landing in people’s homes, are prohibited by law from coordinating directly with campaigns — rules that are often flouted and hard to enforce.

Some candidates, including Ellen Rosenfeld in the North Side’s 4th District, haven’t appreciated the support. In a statement, Rosenfeld said she’s a lifelong Democrat who strongly opposes Trump and Project 2025. She has been endorsed by several Democratic organizations, liberal groups and establishment Democrat politicians.

“In recent days, texts, campaign ads and endorsements have surfaced in support of my candidacy for the school board from various organizations and individuals, including former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas, the Illinois Policy Institute and the Chicago Republicans,” Rosenfeld stated. “Let me be crystal clear: I did not seek, solicit or request these endorsements.

She went on to say the mayor and CTU shouldn’t have influence over the school board.

“It is clear that these conservative organizations see me as the only candidate capable of defeating Mayor Brandon Johnson and the CTU-backed candidate in District 4, and they have jumped on my bandwagon without an invitation,” she said.

Other candidates who are benefiting from the spending are somewhat bewildered by it. Miquel Lewis, who is running in the 9th District on the far Southwest Side, also said he’s a lifelong Democrat, even as some mailers link him to Trump. At the same time, there’s been about $426,580 spent by super PACs trying to convince voters to support him or claiming his opponent is a pawn of the mayor.

“Any outside spending in this race is outside my control,” Lewis said. “I am a parent and a public servant, I’m focused on knocking on doors and talking to families across the district.”

Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on X @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter. Nader Issa covers education for the Chicago Sun-Times.