With major financial help from the billionaire heirs of the Arkansas-based Walmart fortune, the PACs related to the Illinois Network of Charter Schools are aiming to become a political force in the upcoming Chicago mayoral and aldermanic campaigns.

The children and grandchildren of Helen and Sam Walton, founders of the Walton Family Foundation and Walmart, are donors to the nonprofit Illinois Network of Charter Schools and its two allied political action committees, either from the family foundation or individual contributions, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis revealed.

With the backing of the initiative, Benefit Chicago, a developer is already moving forward with two projects: converting a former Bronzeville elementary school into a business incubator and redeveloping a vacant Chicago Public Schools administration building in Englewood into a dormitory for City Colleges of Chicago.

The finance director “added that approximately half of the [villages’] money raised through property taxes goes toward pensions, including Social Security and the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.”