Mayor Johnson signals support for letting CPS students take a day off to push for school funding

Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday hinted strongly that he supports the Chicago Teachers Union’s call to officially sanction a one-day strike on May 1 that would allow students at Chicago Public Schools to miss a day of classes to make their case for increased school funding.

Johnson is a former middle school teacher and paid organizer for the CTU — whose mayoral campaign was buoyed by $5.6 million in campaign contributions and hundreds of foot soldiers provided by the CTU and its affiliates.

His decision to declare a record $1 billion tax increment financing surplus helped to rescue CPS and bankroll the new teachers contract.

Now the teachers union wants the mayor and CPS's hybrid school board still narrowly controlled by Johnson’s appointees to essentially sanction May 1 as a school holiday, which would allow students to participate in a “no school, no work, no shopping” day.

Appearing Monday on WBEZ-FM Radio’s “Ask the Mayor” program, Johnson said his longstanding push to tax major corporations and the wealthy Chicagoans to bolster school funding has so far gone nowhere — and it’s time to push the envelope by turning talk into protest action.

"People all over the country are tired. Working people have had to bear the weight of a sluggish economy while the ultra-rich continue to get richer. Our schools are woefully underfunded… People want more investment in our public transportation system,” the mayor said. “All of that requires a push from working people to challenge elected leaders.”

WBEZ host Sasha-Ann Simons noted that CPS students already will be off Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and will be off all next week for spring break and again on April 3.

Johnson said he's aware of that, but argued that CPS parents also "want their schools to be fully-funded."

“If we just believe that we can just sit on our hands and just hope and wish, that clearly has not worked. I’ve called for taxing corporations and I’ve had other elected leaders fight me who are also Democrats," he said.

Johnson said Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights icon who died last month at the age of 84, would never have achieved all that he did without “direct action and organizing.” He “literally had to protest to ensure that we have a right to vote,” a right that is now under threat, the mayor said.

“We are experiencing unprecedented levels of attack [on] the gains that our ancestors made. And if we believe for one minute that the way in which we’re gonna receive our God-given rights our is by just simply asking questions or having town halls — absent taking it to the streets — we are missing the moment,” the mayor said. “We have to push… government to do right by working people. And that will require protest.”

Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th), Johnson’s handpicked chair of the City Council’s Education Committee, has two grandchildren who attend Chicago Public Schools. Taylor said she does not believe the mayor should sanction students to skip classes, unless they learn something from it.

“Are they going down to Springfield? Are they coming down to City Hall? What work is gonna be done? There needs to be something else other than just taking a day off. I want young people to understand them taking the day off. Are we teaching them about May Day? Are we teaching them about workers rights? Are we teaching them to advocate in Springfield for themselves? What comes with it?” Taylor said.

"It has to be a day of action. Don’t ask me to let my kids take a day off of school so they can sit at home, because we know what they’re gonna do at home. They’re gonna be on the internet. They’re gonna be doing everything but what they’re supposed to be doing.”

The resolution approved by the CTU’s 730-member House of Delegates last week calls for CPS to join a national movement embracing a day of “no school, no work, no shopping.” Participants plan to call for higher taxes on the wealthy, better-funded schools, protections for immigrants and other reforms.

Union leaders cited several reasons for participating, including to demand that ICE gets “out of our cities,” referring to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and to push to “tax the rich to support our schools and vital services,” according to the resolution. It also says public education is facing attacks from “MAGA politicians” who support the policies of President Donald Trump and “corporate interests."

The union wants members and students to use the day to take part in “age-appropriate” civic education, labor history programming, voter registration and know-your-rights training, as well as rallies and marches.