The Chicago Teachers Union urged city leaders this week to cancel school on May 1 to allow students and teachers to join a nationwide protest against the Trump administration.
Some leftists are attempting to make May 1 a day of “no work, no school, no shopping” to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration and tax policy, and the Chicago Teachers Union wants public school students and staff to join in on the political demonstration.
“Educators say the president’s breaking of every rule mark a line in the sand for their students, school communities, and democracy as we know it,” the teachers union stated in a press release.
The teachers union is pushing to cancel school on May 1 as Chicago public schools continue to report dismal student proficiency rates. Only 43% of students between third and eighth grades in Chicago public schools read proficiently at their grade level, according to the 2025 Illinois Report Card. Meanwhile, 27% of students in those grade levels were proficient in math.
Last year, the Chicago Teachers Union helped organize protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement after Trump ramped up immigration enforcement in the city. When asked about its focus on politics while most Chicago students struggle, the Chicago Teachers Union directed The Daily Wire to a comment from its press release.
“Teaching our students what civic action looks like requires more than textbooks when the President sends federal agents to occupy our cities and the Governor chooses to continue giving tax breaks to billionaires instead of giving our students the school day they deserve,” said Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter. “If we still want to have democracy in the midterms this November, public schools that provide our students with quality education, and unions to defend workers’ rights, then it is up to every Chicagoan to stand up for what we believe in and show the authoritarian billionaire in Washington that when he breaks every rule, we will not go along with business as usual.”
Windy City residents are growing increasingly frustrated with the Chicago Teachers Union, according to a recent poll conducted by M3 Strategies in partnership with the Illinois Policy Institute. The poll, which surveyed 437 registered voters in Chicago in late February, found that just 28% of respondents had a positive view of the teachers union, while 54% disapproved.
Nearly half of registered Chicago voters also said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who accepted contributions from the Chicago Teachers Union, according to the poll. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose approval rating dropped to 14% last year, is also a member of the Chicago Teachers Union. He helped organize a teachers strike in the past. Johnson was endorsed by the teachers union for his mayoral run in 2023. In the 2023 mayoral election, the union was one of the biggest contributors, funneling millions to the effort to elect Johnson and apportioning $8 from each member’s union dues to arm its political action committees.
Mailee Smith, the vice president of policy and litigation at the Illinois Policy Institute, told The Daily Wire that the Chicago Teachers Union has long acted more like a political party than a voice for teachers and students.
“The Chicago Teachers Union is much more interested in pulling teachers out of school and pulling students out of school than it is focusing on the core curriculum,” Smith said.
“They are much more focused on progressive politics because that’s what they do,” Smith added. “They’re not a teachers union. They’re not in this for teachers and what’s best for them. They’re not in it for kids and what’s best for them. They have been focused, particularly since 2010, on being a political party.”
