CTU demands partisan rallies so it can electioneer students
The Chicago Teachers Union’s 142-page list of demands includes codifying their most recent political rally. They took students out of class, hit them with propaganda and then marched them to the polls to vote.
The Chicago Teachers Union’s most recent “Parade to the Polls” would be the first of many under their new contract demands.
CTU’s 142-page list of demands includes that schools “shall designate a day of civic action to assist students who are of age to register to vote and cast votes.”
All Illinois high schools are already required to provide students with a one-page explainer for voter registration. CTU took it leaps farther when they partnered with proponents of a tax hike and groomed student voters as the union was investing $400,000 and lots of union manpower in the effort.
The email announcing the “student power forum” listed Bring Chicago Home as a partner billed to speak to students March 15. Bring Chicago Home was the chief advocate behind a referendum to boost the real estate transfer tax on sales of $1 million or more. No opponents were part of the rally.
One student said his teachers encouraged him to vote “yes” on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s real estate transfer tax hike, which Johnson said would help relieve homelessness. Students were then marched to the polls, with rally leaders chanting, “We will not give up the fight! Housing is a human right!”
The rally and electioneering when students should have been in class was the subject of a complaint that it violated the Chicago Public Schools code of ethics.
Encouraging students to participate in their civic duties is a positive – until you tell them which box to check. Voters rejected the tax hike March 19 as a drag on job creation and renters without clear plans to remedy homelessness.
If Johnson gives his former coworkers at CTU legal backing in a contract, expect CTU to hold student rallies every election. Negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and CTU are this summer, with CTU demanding an average teacher raise of $51,000 and a litany of environmental and social justice issues that appear to have little to do with traditional contract topics.