After a decades-long struggle to have a direct say in Chicago Public Schools, voters will decide Tuesday for the first time who will represent them on the city’s school board.

The election is an important moment for the many activists and parents who pleaded with selfless school board members to listen and gathered petitions to prove Chicago wanted this opportunity. After 30 years, Chicago Public Schools will no longer be controlled by the mayor.

Many hope this will usher in a new era in which the school district is more responsive to the parents and children it serves. But some fear that the new board – which is expected to increase from seven to 21 members – is too big, too top-heavy and too consumed by politics to achieve better results.

The race attracted a diverse group of candidates, from a longtime activist who fought for the elected board, to former directors and a Grammy Award-winning rapper. There are also parents frustrated with their children’s experiences, and private school parents who say they want to ensure that CPS families can choose whether their children attend the neighborhood school or a charter school or in another type.

Thirty-one people run to represent 10 geographic districts. The electoral districts are large, with around 275,000 inhabitants each, spread across several different neighborhoods.

But the races are near the bottom of the municipal ballot, so lower turnout is a concern. Candidates and community groups have faced a lack of awareness that these elections are being held for the first time, with many voters confusing them with local school board elections.

Still, Tuesday’s results will begin to shape the new makeup of the Board of Education, which will increase to 21 members. The mayor will continue to appoint 11 members, including the president, until 2027, when the board will be fully elected.

Election night will also help determine how many of the 10 elected members will be aligned with Mayor Brandon Johnson and his Chicago Teachers Union allies, how many will come from the movement that supports charter schools and other “school choice” options and whether strongly opposes it. the union – or how many will be independent of both.

The CTU endorsed and financially supported candidates in each of the 10 districts. One of them, longtime activist Aaron “Jitu” Brown, is largely assured of a seat because he is the only name remaining on the ballot. District 5which covers the West Side. He has two registered opponents.

The CTU, through its political action committee and several others, spent $1.6 million to promote their candidates – including several CPS mothers, a teacher and a pastor – and attack their opponents with negative ads linking them to the school privatization movement and former President Donald Trump. The powerful CTU had a natural advantage in the campaign, with nearly 30,000 members, many serving as ground troops, knocking on doors to win over voters.

But the most conservative school choice supporters who oppose the CTU believe the time has come to put a check on the union’s power and prove that the union has lost popularity.

The battle between these two movements took place in several races, and most aggressively and most strikingly in the 3rd district on the near northwest side, 4th district on the north side, the 7th And 8th districts of the southwest side and 10th district on the south side.

THE recent controversies — mayor pushes for unpopular loan to deal with budget deficit that CPS CEO Pedro Martinez refusedthe mayor set the stage to fire him, then the entire school board became unhappy and resigned – put the school board race in the spotlight.

The Illinois Charter School Network and Urban Center Action are among the groups hoping to capitalize. They spent more than $3 million not only to build support for their candidates, but also to run negative ads against CTU-backed candidates, who they warned would be controlled by the mayor and the union. .

“Mayor Johnson’s political agenda is causing chaos in our public schools,” read a flyer sent to many districts by the Illinois Charter School Network super PAC.

The majority of board members will still be appointed by the mayor, but INCS President Andrew Broy said he would be happy to win at least a few seats. There is a “major difference between having 19, 20 or 21 board members aligned closely with the mayor and the CTU and having a ‘caucus’ of members with opposing policy ideas,” he said. declared.

INCS does not have a target for how many candidates it can put on the board – it says it backs hopefuls with realistic odds.

“We’re here to win races, not just spend resources,” Broy said.

The union and progressive groups have criticized INCS and Urban Center Action for taking big money from millionaires and billionaires, some of whom don’t live in Illinois.

U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Chicago), a CTU ally, said the school elections represent a “crossroads” for the future of public education in the city.

“The same people who did everything in their power to block an elected, representative school board in Springfield are doing it again,” Ramirez said. “This time what they are doing is trying to buy the election.”

In six constituencies, there are also independent candidates who are not allied to any group. Although they are outdated, some say voters appear to be looking for people who are not attached to either the teachers union or their opponents.