WBEZ Chicago9%
CTU and SEIU back different candidates for school board president, widening rift between staff unions 47%
By Sarah Karp20%
7/23/2026, 11:35:09 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 21 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Appeal to Emotion, and False Dilemma, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 24.1% saturation with 162 hits. Analysis detected 1,117 faulty-reasoning hits from 672 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 48.6% and a BS Rank of 47% (11,694 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 53.40% of the article peer group.
In yet another public break with the politically powerful Chicago Teachers Union, the second-biggest union representing Chicago Public Schools workers announced Thursday that it is endorsing Jessica Biggs in the race for the first elected school board president.
By declining to back the CTU’s pick and getting behind a candidate the teachers union slammed on social media hours earlier, the Service Employees International Union continues to drift apart from a union that was once its close ally.
Now, as parents head to the polls in November, they might be torn over whether to support the candidate recommended by their child’s teacher wearing the red CTU T-shirt, or the one supported by their special education classroom aide and bus monitor wearing SEIU purple.
Both unions have considerable financial resources , a state and local presence and tens of thousands of workers who can knock on doors.
SEIU represents about 16,500 CPS employees and more than 160,000 workers across the state.
CTU has 30,000 CPS members, and its president, Stacy Davis Gates, also leads the Illinois Federation of Teachers with more than 100,000 members.
In both of these unions, members can choose to deduct money from their paychecks to go to political committees, in addition to their dues to support union activities.
The CTU has endorsed its former political director, Hilario Dominguez, in the race for school board president.
The other candidates are Jennifer Custer, a current school board member and former educator; Victor Henderson, an attorney and board member of the charter operator Urban Prep; and Sendhil Revuluri, a former math teacher appointed to serve on the school board by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
In a news release, SEIU officials praised Biggs, a current school board member and former CPS principal who is now working for the nonprofit Southwest Organizing Project.
They described her as a “builder of coalitions” and someone who has worked in “classrooms, hallways and communities.”
“She doesn’t just talk about equity, she’s built it, school by school and block by block on the Southwest Side,” said Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Local 73, the chapter that represents most of SEIU’s CPS employees.
The SEIU and the CTU used to work together to protest budget cuts, school closings and other actions that affected workers.
SEIU was one of the biggest backers of CTU organizer turned mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson, and its related PACs contributed more than $4.6 million to his campaign.
But a rift formed after the CTU attempted to get some of SEIU’s members reclassified so they would be under CTU.
SEIU officials accused the CTU of raiding its members.
Ever since, the two unions have stood on opposite sides of several issues, including the debate last year over how the school district should balance its budget.
Their interests sometimes still align.
SEIU and CTU endorsed four of the same school board candidates.
Also, workers from both unions are losing their jobs due to the CPS budget deficit and subsequent cuts, and the unions have lobbied state lawmakers to spend more on education .
The CTU, in its Wednesday social media post, characterized Biggs as the candidate supported by the “architects of the destruction of Chicago’s Public Schools.”
The teachers union pointed to donations made to Biggs’ campaign by supporters and appointees of former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whom the CTU despises for closing 50 schools.
Biggs responded on social media by saying that she spoke out as a CPS principal against the privatization of custodial services and special education budget cuts while Emanuel was in office.
“I’m proud of my progressive record, both in practice and in the Board room,” she wrote in the post.
“And I’m eager to fight for what’s in the best interest of Chicago’s students, families and educators, and CPS staff alike.”
Here’s who’s running for Chicago’s first-ever elected school board president
CTU endorses 15 school board candidates
CTU proposal leads to labor dispute with SEIU, one of biggest allies
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