The Chicago Teachers Union wants your kids in the streets, not the classroom
There was a time — not too long ago — when the Chicago Teachers Union pretended to be about, well, teaching. Those days are over. The CTU has completed its transformation from a labor union into something far more ideological: A political machine with a classroom attached.
And now, in what may be its most brazen move yet, it wants to recruit your children.
The occasion is May Day — May 1 — a traditional labor holiday. However, what the CTU is planning isn’t a history lesson. It’s a coordinated political demonstration. Teachers are being encouraged to walk out. Students are being encouraged to join them. And most astonishingly, the union is pressuring Chicago Public Schools to officially sanction the whole thing by excusing absences.
Let’s be clear about what this is: Not education, not civic engagement, but organized political activism — using minors as foot soldiers.
From teaching to training activists
The details are worse than the headline.
According to materials obtained by the Chicago Tribune editorial board, the CTU has developed a full curriculum for this “day of action.” And it’s not subtle.
Preschoolers — three- and four-year-olds — are to create protest signs about issues they think are “unfair.” High school students are to study a one-sided critique titled “Things Donald Trump Did This Year You Might Have Missed.” There are lessons on “youth organizing against authoritarianism,” complete with suggestions to create TikTok videos.
This is not teaching students how to think. It is teaching them what to think.
And if you think that sounds like indoctrination, you’re not alone. Even the Tribune — hardly a bastion of right-wing thought — called it out explicitly.
Imagine the reverse
Let’s try a simple thought experiment.
Imagine, for one moment, that the CTU had gone in the opposite direction. Imagine they had become a conservative union. Imagine they were organizing a May Day walkout in support of Donald Trump. Imagine preschoolers making pro-Trump signs and high schoolers studying a curriculum titled “Why Trump Was Right.”
The outrage would be instantaneous — and justified.
There would be emergency school board meetings. National media coverage. Demands for resignations. Lawsuits. Possibly federal investigations.
And yet, because the ideology runs in the “approved” direction, we’re told this is just civic engagement. Nothing to see here.
That double standard tells you everything you need to know.
Mission creep has become mission collapse
Public education has one core mission: to educate children.
Reading. Writing. Math. Science. History — taught honestly and in context.
Chicago Public Schools is already struggling mightily at that basic task. Roughly 40 percent of students are chronically absent. Proficiency rates in reading and math are abysmal. Parents are voting with their feet when they can.
And in the middle of this crisis, the CTU’s priority is… organizing protests?
This isn’t mission creep anymore. This is mission collapse.
Instead of closing the achievement gap, they’re widening the political one. Instead of preparing students for college or careers, they’re preparing them for demonstrations.
Authority, undermined
There’s another, deeper problem embedded in this curriculum.
When you teach children “authority” is something to resist — full stop — you don’t just create political activists. You create a culture of noncompliance.
Schools depend on structure, discipline, and respect for authority to function. Undermine those, and you undermine the entire system.
It’s no coincidence that chronic absenteeism is soaring. Or that classroom disorder is a growing complaint. Or that teachers themselves increasingly report a loss of control.
You cannot run a school system where authority is treated as illegitimate — and then act surprised when students stop listening.
Where is CPS leadership?
All of this puts the spotlight squarely on the new CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Macquline King.
She now has a three-year contract. She has job security. And she has a decision to make.
Does she run the school system — or does the CTU?
Because this should not be a difficult call. Schools should be open. Teachers should be teaching. Students should be learning. Period.
The longer she hesitates, the more it suggests that the answer has already been decided — and not in her office.
The bigger problem: Governance
But let’s be honest. This isn’t just about one day, one protest, or one curriculum.
This is about who runs the city of Chicago.
The CTU has become one of the most powerful political forces in the city. Its leadership — figures like Stacey Davis Gates — operate not just as union heads but as ideological organizers. And they have allies in City Hall.
That includes Mayor Brandon Johnson —“Mayor 6.6” — a former CTU organizer himself.
As long as that alignment exists, this kind of behavior will not just continue — it will expand.
Because from their perspective, this is success. They are shaping the next generation. They are embedding their worldview in the system. They are, quite literally, building a movement from the ground up.
Education or indoctrination: Pick one
At some point, Chicago parents, taxpayers, and voters are going to have to decide what they want their public schools to be.
Places of learning — or platforms for activism.
Institutions that teach critical thinking — or institutions that prescribe political conclusions.
Because you cannot have both.
And if this May Day push goes forward — if schools effectively sanction a political walkout organized by a union — it will mark a line crossed that will be very hard to uncross.
Enough is enough
The solution is not complicated, though it is difficult.
It requires leadership that is willing to stand up to the CTU. It requires governance reform that breaks the stranglehold of ideological interests over public education. And ultimately, it requires voters to demand something different.
Because what we are seeing now is not education.
It is indoctrination, dressed up as activism, paid for by taxpayers, and imposed on children. And it has to stop.
