Larry Sand’s latest article for American Greatness (amgreatness.com) discusses the horrific condition of public schools in Chicago and Los Angeles, most especially regarding the non-education given to these cities’ minority students (a reality which, it should be noted, could as easily be written about many other Democrat-controlled cities with large minority populations around the country).
Mr. Sand’s article begins this way:
When it comes to education, Chicago, America’s “Second City,” is nowhere near second. The kids aren’t learning despite piles of money being spent, and families are abandoning the system.
According to the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), just 15% of Chicago’s 8th-grade students are proficient in math, and 21% are proficient in reading.
Money is certainly not the problem, as Chicago Public Schools spend about $29,000 per student. So, a class of 20 students costs the taxpayer almost $600,000 per year. Additionally, Chi-town teachers aren’t suffering; a rookie teacher makes $64,000 a year and eventually can earn up to $122,000 per year—not including pension and healthcare perks.
A great deal of the reason for the poor education system in the Windy City can be laid at the feet of the Chicago Teachers Union. As with most teachers’ unions, especially those in big cities, its primary goal is to advance a left-wing political agenda. In fact, the Illinois Policy Institute reports that the union spent nearly three times more on politics in 2023 than the year before, and just 17% of its spending was on representing teachers.
As former Mayor Lori Lightfoot noted in 2021, CTU would “like to take over not only Chicago Public Schools, but take over running the city government.”
In fact, that actually happened. The recent recipient of the union’s largess, Brandon Johnson, a former CTU “legislative coordinator,” became Chicago mayor in May 2023.
One important CTU mission is to deny parental choice so that its monopoly can remain intact. In 2023, Illinois’ modest scholarship program was killed by Democrats in the state legislature, making it the first state to eliminate an established choice program. With a big financial assist from CTU, 9,600 low-income kids who tried to escape from their traditional public schools are being forced back into them. And, of course, the 20,000 plus on the waiting list now have no hope of a better educational experience.
What does that tell you about how the Chicago Teachers’ Union sees minority children?
If it doesn’t tell you the union wants them to be undereducated, dependent people, unprepared to lead productive lives, who are indoctrinated to become union-supporting Democrats, I will officially wonder if you read the same thing I did.
Now: when do the parents of these children decide enough is enough and, through their votes, do something about it?
In fairness, it almost happened this past mayoral election. Brandon Johnson – as stout a supporter of the Chicago Teachers’ Union (of which he is a member) as you will find, beat the more moderate/largely Republican supported Paul Vallas by just 52% to 48%.
Close. But no cigar.
Therefore, four more years of children, mostly among minority communities, dying on the vine in Chicago…but being instructed to perpetuate exactly the same teaching/governing philosophy that put them in this situation.
Maybe next time…
