¡Hola mi gente! It’s Roberta del Rio. Welcome back to Girl, I Guess, the only voter guide written by a fierce, hyper-caffeinated trans Mexican woman from the Northwest Side who is completely out of patience with the political machine.

Let me take you back for a second. Bitch, I grew up in the 1990s and 2000s. Being brown, different, and queer on the Northwest Side back then wasn’t just hard—it was a survival horror game. And do you know who made the rules? An unaccountable, mayoral-appointed school board that treated trans and immigrant kids like problems to be policed, suspended, and swept under the rug. In fact, from 1995 to 2001, the CEO running CPS into the ground with those exact punitive, corporate, zero-tolerance policies was none other than Paul Vallas himself.

So when people look at this historic 2026 election and ask if we're ready? BITCH, I KNOW we need an elected one. Here we go.

But of course, el viejito rancio Paul Vallas cannot take a hint. He and his billionaire-backed "Urban Center" PAC are trying to sneak a bunch of anti-union, charter-loving puppets onto our first-ever fully elected board. Paul, mi amor, you have lost every single election you’ve touched this century. It is time to step aside, get out of our city, and go rediscover your pronouns in the suburbs, because Chicago public education is officially none of your business.

Let’s scrub this ballot district by district and absolutely eviscerate every single candidate who thought getting a blessing from Chicago’s favorite runner-up was a good idea.

👑 Citywide Board President

This is the macro-boss fight for the soul of our schools. We have a community champion up against a corporate Vallas fever dream.

  • Hilario Dominguez: HELL YES. Hilario is a former CPS teacher, former CTU political director, and a brilliant progressive organizer. Este compa sí sabe. He wants to fully fund neighborhood schools and protect bilingual education. He is the exact antidote to the Vallas poison.
  • Sendhil Revuluri: ¡ÓRALE NO! Sendhil is a corporate education reform cheerleader who has the full, glowing embrace of the Vallas privatizer crew. Es un payaso. If your platform looks like a McKinsey spreadsheet, you don’t get the keys to our schools.
  • Jessica Biggs & Jennifer Custer: Shrug. Both are current board members representing polite, incremental institutionalism. Qué flojera. We need a revolution, not a subcommittee.
  • Victor Henderson: Ni al caso. A trial attorney with charter school ties who seems completely lost on progressive education policy.

🧭 The North & Northwest Side (Districts 1, 2, & 4)

District 1A

  • Ed Bannon: YES. A dependable incumbent who actually listens to the community.
  • Margie Luczak: NOPE. Margie is running on that classic "save our lawns, defund the schools" Northwest Side energy. She’s heavily backed by the Vallas crowd. Ay por favor, we don't need more anti-tax señoras ruining the board.

District 1B

  • Claudia Peralta: YES. A fantastic Latina advocate fighting for proper language access for migrant and bilingual families. ¡Así se hace!
  • Michelle Pierre: ¡GUÁCALA, NO! Michelle is the poster child for the charter-lobby push, drowning in Vallas dark money. If Paul Vallas thinks you have "great ideas," it means he wants to turn your local elementary school into a corporate tax write-off.

District 2A

  • Ebony DeBerry: HELL YES. Ebony is an incredible community organizer, a CPS parent, and an absolute powerhouse. She is a progressive rockstar. Vote for Ebony!
  • Bruce Leon: LOL, NO. Bruce is a wealthy business owner trying to buy a seat, backed by Vallas’s wealthy donor buddies. Un rico pendejo who thinks money equals policy. Next.

District 2B

  • Deborah "Debby" Pope: YES. A legendary retired teacher and CTU organizer who knows exactly where all the systemic bodies are buried.
  • Daniel Basco: LAUGHABLE NO. Daniel is out here collecting Vallas network endorsements like they’re tazos. Getting education advice from the Vallas camp is like getting cruise safety tips from the captain of the Titanic. No mames.

District 4A

  • Karen Zaccor: YES. A brilliant housing and education justice organizer in Uptown who understands that stable housing equals successful students.
  • Angel Alvarez: NO. Angel is trying to play the "moderate, common-sense alternative," which is Chicago political code for "Paul Vallas whispered sweet privatization into my ear at a fundraiser." ¡Sáquese!

District 4B

  • Ellen Rosenfeld: SURE, I GUESS. She’s running completely unopposed. Leave it blank if you want to be edgy, but she’s got it by default.

🧱 The West Side & Central Districts (Districts 3, 5, & 6)

District 3A

  • Normia Rios-Sierra: YES. A solid incumbent who has consistently voted for equity-based funding models.
  • Peter Gonzales: NO WONDER NO. Peter is a corporate-aligned vendido getting heavy nods from the Vallas network. We don’t need mandatory corporate synergy seminars on the West Side.

District 3B

  • Jason Dónes: YES. A phenomenal progressive leader with deep roots in West Side grassroots organizing.
  • Carlos A. Rivas Jr.: BYE. Carlos is incredibly cozy with the charter school infrastructure and carries the Vallas stamp of approval. If Paul thinks you're doing a great job, you're doing a terrible job for working-class families. Cero puntos.

District 5A

  • Aaron "Jitu" Brown: HOLY HELL YES. Jitu is a legendary, world-class civil rights icon with KOCO. He literally went on a hunger strike to save Dyett High School. Running against Jitu on educational equity is an incredible act of political delusion.
  • LaPamela Williams: NO. Backed by Vallas-adjacent interests to run against a neighborhood hero. Qué vergüenza.

District 6B

  • Brittany B. Kimble: YES. A solid, progressive voice focused on bringing actual mental health resources to students instead of more police.
  • Michael L. Neal: HARD PASS. Michael is deeply enmeshed in the old-school conservative machine networks. If your campaign platform sounds like a 2011 Tribune editorial on "fiscal discipline," your ballot line is disqualified.

🌳 The Southwest & South Side (Districts 7, 8, 9, & 10)

District 7A & 7B

  • Emma Lozano (7A) & Yesenia Lopez (7B): DOUBLE YES. Emma is a legendary immigrant rights icon and incumbent, and Yesenia is a progressive champion for Latinx youth on the Southwest Side. These women are las meras meras. Don't even look at their machine-backed opponents.

District 8B

  • Cydney Wallace: YES. A fierce advocate and organizer who speaks absolute truth to power regarding South Side disinvestment.
  • Juan Ignacio Gonzalez: ABSOLUTELY NOT. Juan is swimming in pro-privatization, Vallas-approved PAC money. Running a pro-charter campaign on the South Side while being cheered on by a suburban privatizer is a choice. ¡Mentiroso!

District 9A

  • Angel Luis Velez Rodriguez: YES. The current board Vice President who has been a steady, reliable progressive hand.
  • Brittany R. Bailey Preston: NOPE. She is the anti-union, corporate education reform candidate of choice for the Vallas crowd. Throw her literature directly into the nearest recycling bin. Puro cuento.

District 9B

  • Therese Boyle: YES. A current board member and former educator who actually understands school budgeting.
  • Katherine S. Dunneback: OH, HONEY, NO. Katherine is running on that standard, archaic "law-and-order" platform that Vallas absolutely drools over. It’s giving "I want to replace art class with tactical gear and metal detectors." ¡Qué horror! Pass.

District 10B

  • Rosita Chatonda: YES. A veteran educator and fierce defender of historic Black schools on the far South Side who will fight school closures with everything she's got.
  • Patrick C. Watson: THE HARDEST NO. Patrick is heavily funded by the exact pro-charter, Vallas-affiliated PACs that want to carve up the far South Side's public assets for private profit. He is a textbook Trojan horse. ¡Fuera!

Listen to Roberta, y'all: when you look at your ballot, if a candidate has Paul Vallas's fingerprints on them, treat them like a plate of spoiled mariscos. Don't touch it, don't vote for it, just throw it away. Let's protect our babies and keep our public schools public!