District 6A: Insiders See a Hotly Contested Race, But Voters Feel Shut Out

By Erika Hobbs

Debra Gittler knows Chicago Public Schools. Her daughter attends one CPS school, and she serves on the Local School Council at another. But less than a month before Chicago's historic school board election, she hasn't wrapped her head around the race in her own district, 6A, — one of the hottest on the ballot.

"Trying to figure out the school board stuff is impossible," Gittler said. "It's too big."

The campaign has left her soured. "It feels like it has nothing to do with our schools and kids," she said. "It's a platform for people to get into politics."

The race, marked by backroom infighting among progressives, feels less like a neighborhood election than a battle in the citywide proxy war between the Chicago Teachers Union and its foes.

Incumbent Anusha Thotakura, executive director of Citizen Action Illinois, faces Brenda Lee Anderson, an education policy researcher and lecturer, and Isaiah White, a special education classroom assistant in CPS who lost a 2026 Cook County Board primary.

Thotakura has CTU and SEIU endorsements, but Anderson has won support from local leftist luminaries like Stephanie Skora, founder of the Girl I Guess voter guide, and former congressional candidate Kat Abugazeleh. White has the support of Common Ground Collective, funded by billionaire Michael Sacks, who frequently supports Democrats and center-left causes.

With the progressive vote split, the money flowing to White gives him the edge, said Ridge Knapp, an independent writer who maps school board races through petition signatures. Knapp is also running for a police district council seat.

Following the Money; Picking Their Lanes

The 6A race has become one of Chicago's most expensive. State records show Common Ground's super PAC has spent more than $100,000, largely on ads, to support White — enough to lift contribution limits for all candidates. As of late September, his campaign had raised more than $68,500. Thotakura had raised $18,970 but can count on funds and volunteer canvassers from SEIU and CTU. Anderson had raised $7,240.

"If these political action committees can spend a million dollars funding candidates," Anderson said, "they could put that money into damn schools."

Anderson claims the far left lane. She completed the ALL Chicago Fellowship, a leadership training program for education advocates, including prospective school board candidates. Anderson wants to rethink the CPS budget through vendor audits and new revenue and to center teaching and learning. Her sole education advocacy endorsement comes from Leadership for Education Equity, founded by Teach for America alumni.

Thotakura carries Chicago's Democratic progressive establishment. A Palatine native who taught math for two years through Teach for America, Thotakura wants to improve reading and math instruction, fix aging buildings and spend tax dollars efficiently. She calls school closures "an absolute last resort." In 2025, she broke with the CTU to vote for a budget without high-cost borrowing. This year, she sided with the union on a budget that banks on $150 million more from the state — a move that cost her a Tribune endorsement. (White nabbed it.) She told Chalkbeat her record "shows that I am an independent-minded person."

White runs as a moderate Democrat. He wants communities to decide whether to close or merge schools and has vowed never to vote for an unbalanced budget. Besides Common Ground Collective, his backers include the political arm of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and the pro-charter Urban Center. White says Common Ground expects "literally nothing" from him. 

"Unlike CTU, they don't ask anything of you," he said.

Politics Ain't Beanbag: Ballot Challenges

Moneyed special interests went deep long before many voters tuned in. Over the summer, two objectors filed three challenges to nominating petitions — two against Anderson and one against Thotakura. No one challenged White.

One objector, David Jones, challenged both, then dropped his case against Anderson. Michael Kasper, a registered lobbyist whose firm counts Common Ground as a client, was among Jones' lawyers against Thotakura. 

White has said he had no role in the challenges. But Common Ground's PAC paid On the Ballot LLC, a petition consulting firm managed by Matthew Moeller, $35,363 for work for 16 school board candidates, including $1,669 for White, state records show. Board Rule summer intern Isaiah Pinzino saw Moeller at the Chicago Board of Elections office when 6A petition signatures were being examined, but his role in the process was not clear.

Ed Mullen, the lawyer who defended Thotakura against Jones, represented Joshua Hyochul Lim in the other challenge to Anderson, which the Election Board threw out. Anderson alleges Thotakura was behind Lim’s challenge. "I was being challenged by Anusha," she said.

Thotakura did not respond to repeated requests for comment. At a September forum, she told Board Rule, "I'll reach out if I have anything to say to you." She did not respond by press time.

The challenges cost Anderson and Thotakura thousands of dollars, but the CTU subsidized much of the cost under a ballot-access pledge made after a May Supreme Court decision gutted the Voting Rights Act.

Residents Board Rule spoke with said they question the money and the candidates' commitment to the district's students. All three moved to Chicago in recent years, and none have children.

"Ideally for me, I would have liked a parent who has a student at a local school in my district … and who has actually been involved in the schools in some way," said JP Paulus, a Local School Council member in Bronzeville whose child attends public schools. (Paulus resides in District 6B but has stayed abreast of issues across both subdistricts since they were created in 2024.)

Ruth Keyes, a River North resident and School of the Art Institute student, knows the candidates only through YouTube ads.

"A lot of people are running for power and running for visibility, running for money," Keyes said. "Everyone wants to say they're for children or they're for education, but a lot of people have their own agenda."

Events

Today! Wed. October 7: School Board Candidate Forum, MBK Forum Southside Regional Meeting, featuring the presidential candidates plus candidates from districts 6B, 9A, 10A and 10B, 10:45 a.m.-1 p.m., Olive-Harvey College, 10001 S. Woodlawn. Register here.

Thurs. October 8: Focus on Chicago School Board Elections, panel discussion with Joe Ferguson (Civic Federation), Board Rule's Maureen Kelleher, and Jane Charney (Jewish United Fund and CPS parent). 6:30 p.m. in Lakeview. RSVP for details here.

Fri. October 9: 5A/5B Candidate Forum, sponsored by the Parent Engagement Institute Chicago Coalition and other groups, 10 a.m., Kehrein Center for the Arts, 5628 W. Washington. RSVP here.

Sat. October 10: District 7A/B and Presidential Candidates Forum, sponsored by the Coalition for a Better Chinese Community, 10:45 a.m. doors open, program 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Pui Tak Center, 3rd floor.

Wed. October 14: School Board Presidential Candidates Forum, sponsored by Chalkbeat, Hyde Park Herald, and South Side Weekly, doors 5:30; forum 6 p.m., Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th St.

Thurs. October 15: District 2B Candidate Forum, sponsored by Indivisible Lincoln Square, 6-8 p.m., Oakwood 83, 1959 W. Montrose Ave. RSVP here.

And, looking ahead to life after Election Day, don't miss Pathways to Possibility: The State of Higher Education Summit, Thursday, November 12, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Jackson Blvd. Register here.