Entire Chicago school board to resign over teachers union dispute with Dem mayor: 'Deeply alarming'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The entire Chicago Board of Education have announced their resignations after reportedly resisting a pressure campaign from the city’s Democrat mayor to fire the public schools CEO during contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union.
Sources tell Fox32 Chicago that several of the board members grew agitated by an effort from Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office for them to get rid of Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and approve a high-interest, short-term loan aimed at plugging a budget gap and paying for a new teachers union contract.
"It would be disappointing and irresponsible for Mayor Johnson to push for such a risky move just to lower the city’s own deficit. There is nothing progressive, transparent, or accountable about such a move," 40th Ward Alderman Andre Vasquez wrote on X Friday after the seven board members said they would quit.
"The fact that this pressure would lead to an entire board -- all of which were appointed by the mayor -- to resign is unprecedented and deeply alarming," he added.
Earlier this week, Johnson said, "I didn’t ask anybody to do anything," and "The only thing that I’m requiring in this moment is leadership that’s prepared to invest in our children," according to WBBM Newsradio.
Then in a statement on Friday, the mayor’s office said, "Mayor Brandon Johnson and members of the Chicago Board of Education are enacting a transition plan which includes all current members transitioning from service on the Board later this month.
"With the shift to a hybrid elected and appointed Board forthcoming, current Board members and Mayor Johnson understand that laying a strong foundation for the shift is necessary to serve the best interests of students and families in Chicago Public Schools," the statement added.
The powerful Chicago Teachers Union said in its own statement that the resignations are the "latest instability caused by the CEO in our district.
"We finally have a mayor that is moving the district away from cuts and furloughs and leading us toward a transformed school system that provides for its students and their families, and provides stable quality education in our communities. To date, this CEO has told him ‘no,’" the CTU said on its website.
Martinez wrote a column in the Chicago Tribune in late September in which he said, "I remain against exorbitant, short-term borrowing, a past practice that generated negative bond ratings for CPS and that would likely lead to additional bond rating cuts and higher borrowing interest rates."
The new 21-member hybrid elected and appointed board will come into office in January, according to Fox32 Chicago.
Johnson’s office says he will announce seven new appointments to replace the outgoing members on Monday.
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Martinez will be fired because "I remain against exorbitant, short-term borrowing, a past practice that generated negative bond ratings for CPS and that would likely lead to additional bond rating cuts and higher borrowing interest rates."
Chicago is the end state of progressive government. A one party autocracy where corruption is so endemic to the system that reason is powerless against it (as Martinez shows). The teachers union (who leader's kids go to private school) call the shots and they want more money for their employees, public finances be damned. So the autocrat in charge pressures his first group of lackeys, who were appalled by this insanity, to resign so even bigger group of doormats will come in and borrow hundreds of millions of dollars for kickbacks to the union.
This is what Chicago Education means and why teacher union leaders send their kids to private schools. The district exists to fund patronage jobs and make teachers happy, so their union will bankroll politicians who cater to the union. Teaching kids isn't even a blip on the radar:
The mayor, of course, screams racism and blames all the usual suspects, but even before they get the golden goose of a new contract from a city staggering with debt problems, the school district spends over $29,000 per student. The national average is about 16,000.
Brandon Johnson will not be re-elected. He is very unlikeable. His "end game" may be a black majority city, but thats not going to happen.
The progressive autocrat working the demagogic magic that appeals to Progressives: