The Chicago Teachers Union has been on quite a winning streak. In 2019, it secured a historic $1.5 billion contract following a strike. Last year, it got one of its own elected mayor in Brandon Johnson. Now, with Johnson and his progressive allies leading the city, the ultraprogressive union finds itself in a position of strength.

But politics often resembles a pendulum. And it could start swinging in the other direction, ironically because of one of the CTU’s triumphs: the adoption of an elected school board. At least that’s the hope of the union’s critics. They see the November board election — Chicago’s first ever — as an opportunity to chip away at what they view as the CTU’s powerhold on the schools by getting their own ideological allies elected to the board, which until now had been strictly appointed by the mayor. There’s plenty at stake, not least the current board’s plan, backed by the mayor and the union, to shift Chicago Public Schools away from the “school choice” model of selective enrollment and magnet schools to neighborhood schools, transforming education in the city. It all adds up to what’s become a familiar battle in Chicago politics: the union against its opponents.

How did we get here? The CTU has long advocated for an elected school board, like those throughout the rest of Illinois, particularly after an appointed board closed 50 CPS schools in 2013. Legislation creating an elected body here — 21 members from 10 newly drawn districts — was passed by the state in 2021. For the initial transitional board, though, the law laid out a hybrid plan: Voters would elect 10 members, and the mayor would appoint another 10, plus a school board president.

At first, the union objected to having any mayor-appointed board members. At that time, CTU adversary Lori Lightfoot was mayor. But in late 2023, when Illinois Senate president Don Harmon introduced an amendment calling for a fully elected board from the start, both the union and Johnson, who was by then in office, pushed for keeping the maiden board’s hybrid structure. (Harmon subsequently backed off.) They pointed to the rushed nature of overhauling a plan to be set in motion only months later. But it wasn’t lost on CTU critics that the power of these initial 11 appointments now belonged to the union’s staunch ally.

Ahead of the November 5 election, those critics are getting organized. Juan Rangel, a former charter school leader (he resigned from that post amid scandal, later settling SEC fraud charges without admitting wrongdoing), is the executive director of the Urban Center, a new nonprofit colaunched by former CPS CEO and mayoral candidate Paul Vallas. Rangel says the group’s PAC intends to throw its support behind candidates who are “willing to look at budgets and hold the system accountable” and who support school choice. It has already helped collect signatures for two candidates.

Rangel views the election as part of a broader fight against what he sees as the union’s overreach: “If the focus is children and not politics, that would be a really good start. But that hasn’t happened, and certainly as the CTU becomes more of an entrenched power, they seem to be less interested in accountability and results for children and families.”

Similarly, Thomas Day decided to run in District 4, which includes parts of Uptown, Lake View, and Lincoln Park, in part to check the union’s power. Day, a substitute teacher whose child will soon be a CPS student, takes issue with the scope of CTU activism: “We should not be assigning disproportionate influence to folks who are off organizing rallies and introducing some rather shrill rhetoric into our dialogue.”

The union’s president, Stacy Davis Gates, rebuffs such characterizations: “What we have at CTU is the absolute opposite of a machine. Our members have to live in the city of Chicago; they teach and live in every ZIP code of the city. We don’t have a whole bunch of money; we have people committed to working with coalitions to make things happen.” The union, she reminds critics, championed and welcomes an elected board: “It’s going to force us to have more conversations with more people in Chicago, and it’s going to force us to engage in that discussion in a more intense manner.”

Still, the CTU recognizes the chance to elect new allies. It is endorsing candidates in all 10 districts, though as of the end of July, its political committees, which have $175,000 in their coffers, had not yet donated to any campaigns. While the CTU’s political might lies with its organizing efforts, its opponents have deeper pockets. The political arm of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which has promised to support candidates who back school choice, had $3 million on hand at the end of June.

One of the candidates the CTU has endorsed is Ebony DeBerry. The former CPS teacher, who is running in a district that covers Rogers Park, Edgewater, Uptown, and Lincoln Square, is understanding of the union’s unapologetic activism. “Advocacy is a huge part of the union, and we definitely have to be aggressive about the funding streams for schools,” she says. “I think that we can come together to demand more for our students.”

Maggie Cullerton Hooper, who is running against DeBerry, thinks an elected school board will be more dialed in to the needs of students, staff members, and teachers than appointees are. She points out that her own experiences as a CPS parent and Local School Council chair led her to a greater sense of empathy with teachers. And though she does not have CTU’s endorsement, she sympathizes with the union. Still, she thinks a balance of power would be healthy and might even ease tensions: “We have a very CTU-aligned mayor right now, so an all-appointed board would be one side of the table. [With elections] you’re going to get a much more nuanced and student-centered framework. I’m optimistic: I think that this body could be unifying.”

Whatever the election results, the real test for the new structure will come in January, when new board members begin their two-year terms. Can a 21-person board govern efficiently? Will the body be unduly influenced by campaign support? “Democracy can be a little bit messy and unpredictable,” says state representative Ann Williams, who sponsored the law that created the elected school board. “I’m hopeful that the people who end up on the board, both through election and appointment, put the families, CPS kids, and communities first. They are supposed to be the voice of those communities.”