Chicago’s Democrat Mayor Brandon Johnson nominated seven appointees to the city’s board of education early last week after the previous board collectively resigned in early October. The move stunned the city and the rest of the nation. The drama is the latest sad episode of Chicago’s downward spiral, thanks to its Democrat mayor and the teachers union.
The direct cause of the previous school board resignation was sparked by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) contract negotiation. With more than 30,000 members, the CTU is one of the nation’s most powerful teachers unions. The CTU’s current demands included “a 9% annual raise, 45 days off school each year, and a list of other benefits that could cost the city between $10.2 billion and $13.9 billion between 2025 and 2028.”
There are two significant problems with the CTU’s demands. First, how could the CTU demand a considerable pay raise when it has shown that it is neither capable nor cares about educating Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students? The CTU’s resistance to “reopen” schools after the Covid pandemic ensured the 355,000-student school district, the third largest in the nation, was one of the last to return to in-person classes, causing significant learning losses for its primarily black and Latino student body. Even the city’s then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, also a Democrat, became frustrated with the CTU and lamented in February 2021, “We’ve extended ourselves beyond measure. We need our kids back in school. We need our parents to have that option. It should not be
