Chicago School Board race surpasses $6 million in PAC spending

Published October 12, 2026 7:27 PM CDT

Chicago’s first fully-elected school board race is becoming a multimillion-dollar political battle.

School board race surpasses $6 million

The backstory:

New campaign finance reports filed over the holiday weekend show even more money flowing into contests that will determine who controls the nation’s fourth-largest school district.

So far, spending has surpassed $6 million. Common Ground Collective, backed by billionaire Michael Sacks, leads school board campaign spending with $2.6 million. 

Contribution limits have now been raised in 12 of the 21 school board races. 

What's next:

The school board will oversee billions of taxpayer dollars and make decisions affecting hundreds of thousands of students. The next campaign filing deadline is Oct. 15.

The Source: The information in this report came from campaign finance reports detailing spending and contributions in Chicago’s school board races.

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