3) School board holds referendum on Mayor Brandon Johnson

The school board races were also seen as a referendum on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who rode to victory in 2023 with support from the Chicago Teachers Union.

In the 2023 mayoral runoff elections, Johnson single-handedly won majority-black districts on the city’s South and West sides and parts of the North Side.

But many parts of the city that favored Johnson were split between school board candidates backed by CTU, school choice and anti-CTU groups, and independent candidates.

According to WBEZ’s analysis, 40% of the districts won by Johnson in last year’s mayoral runoffs were won by CTU-backed candidates in this year’s school board races, compared to 42% run by independent candidates. Only 18 percent of those districts were run by school choice-backed candidates.

4) How did voters who were not affiliated with KPSS participate and which candidates did they prefer?

Among the wild cards heading into school board elections was how various segments of Chicago voters would participate and vote in the races. Of particular interest were those without direct connections to the city’s public schools, such as childless voters and individuals whose children are enrolled in private schools.

Some education advocates have also expressed concern about how elections would be affected in communities where a significant portion of public school parents are not eligible to vote because they are not citizens.

To capture how parts of the city are participating in school board races and gather their preferences among school board candidates, WBEZ analyzed precinct-level election results as well as demographic data on Chicago census tracts. Lands are designated according to certain characteristics and aligned with regions to determine which areas are within the boundaries of lands with exactly the same characteristics.

Generally speaking, participation levels in school board races among voters were generally comparable. But there were huge differences in how some precincts would actually vote. For example, census tracts where most adults have college degrees collectively posted voter turnout rates nearly 24 points higher than those in census tracts where most adults do not have college degrees. But nearly four in five voters who cast ballots in both districts participated in their respective school board races.

Meanwhile, voter turnout was collectively about 11 points lower in areas with the highest proportion of noncitizens among the voting-age population than elsewhere. But the turnout rate in these areas was actually four percentage points higher than in other parts of the city.

Independent school board candidates saw the widest swings among the city’s diverse districts. In areas where at least three in four school-age children attend public schools, CTU-backed candidates received 40.9% of the vote, while anti-CTU candidates received 39.4% of the vote, while independent candidates fell far behind with just 19.7%. But in areas where less than 75% of students attend public schools, independent candidates received the most support at about 38.6%, while anti-CTU candidates received about 33.5% and CTU candidates received 27.8%.

In districts with median annual household income figures of $70,000 or higher, anti-CTU candidates performed slightly better than CTU candidates (38.4% to 36%, respectively). Meanwhile, in districts where the median household income was less than $70,000 per year, CTU candidates were favored more often than anti-CTU candidates (36.9% to 31.7%, respectively).