As this article confirms, the real winners in Tuesday’s 220 Board of Education elections were unions
Voters across the Chicago suburbs and around the state turned back attempts to pull local school boards to the right in Tuesday’s elections, though conservative candidates had pockets of success, winning enough seats to take control in some districts.
Typically low-cost, low-interest school board races have become national political proxy fights following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Chicago suburbs have become a key battleground.
Efforts by conservative groups pushing national Republican talking points about “parental rights,” “gender ideology” and “critical race theory” were met in Illinois with an unprecedented pushback from the state Democratic Party, which pledged nearly $300,000 to oppose candidates it labeled “extremists.” Teachers unions also took a more active role in campaigning this spring.
While mail-in ballots are still arriving and being counted, Democrats and teachers unions this week were declaring victory, with the state party boasting a 72% success rate and the Illinois Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, touting that nearly 90% of its recommended candidates won.
From Oswego to Barrington to Downers Grove to Lyons Township and beyond, organized slates of conservative candidates backed by right-wing groups such as Awake Illinois, Moms for Liberty and the national 1776 Project Political Action Committee saw defeat, according to unofficial election results.
At the same time, conservatives appeared poised to take control of school boards in places such as northwest suburban Huntley and in tiny Fairview School District 72 in Skokie.
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