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Backlash after Chicago schools delayed start of school over DNC, encouraging student participation

August 24, 2024 | | Print Article

The Chicago Public School (CPS) system is facing backlash for delaying the start of school by a week because of the Democratic National Convention.

The official reason for the delay is to help Chicago “accommodate an estimated influx of 75,000 visitors” to the city and allow “time for students to attend, volunteer, and participate in the civic process of hosting the Convention.”

Sounds sketchy, right? But it gets worse.

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) bussed students to Soldier Field on Thursday night to watch Vice President Kamala Harris accept the Democrat Party nomination.

Angela Morabito, a Fox News columnist, noted the hypocrisy of all this.

“It is hard to imagine that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) or the CTU would have been quite so accommodating for any other party,” she wrote. “Plus, such concern over a 75,000-visitor event seems suspect when the school district has no such concern over the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day festivities, which attract hundreds of thousands of revelers.”

Good points.

Critics also included Doug Mayer, the spokesperson for the Public Labor Unions Accountability Committee.

He said Thursday that CPS’ decision to delay school by a week for the DNC is a “clear example of what happens when the Public Sector Unions gain too much power.”‘

“Instead of prioritizing students’ education, decisions are driven by political agendas. This overreach harms our kids and underscores the dangers of allowing unions to dictate what’s best for our students,” he added.

Then there’s Illinois Rep. Darin LaHood, a Republican who noted how the leftists keeping kids out of school for a week are the same people who championed the COVID lockdowns that hurt children.

“The hypocrisy of Chicago politicians and the teachers unions to keep students out of class to appease their friends at the DNC is astounding,” he said. “Illinois students still lag behind because of [Democrat] Gov. JB Pritzker’s COVID lockdowns in 2020.”

Next is Corey DeAngelis of the American Federation for Children. He’s a school choice advocate.

“Chicago Democrats, owned by the control freaks at the teachers unions, continue allowing kids to be denied an education,” he said. “They always put politics before the needs of children and their families.”

“Parents should be able to take their children’s education dollars to schools that actually care about them. Only then will the school system have an incentive to do the right thing and cater to the needs of families as opposed to the other way around,” he added.

According to Morabito, the Fox News columnist, this isn’t the first time children have been kept away from school because of political reasons.

“The city’s public schools did not completely reopen from COVID-19 until late August 2021, a full year after many other districts had successfully brought students back into classrooms,” she noted.

“The CTU, an affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, called reopening efforts ‘rooted in sexism, racism, and misogyny’ in a since-deleted tweet,” she added.

The union’s rise in power has coincided with students getting considerably dumber.

“A five-minute walk away from the United Center [where the convention occurred] sits William H. Brown STEM Magnet School, where English Language Arts (ELA) and math proficiency rates are under 10%,” according to Morabito.

“At Robert Nathaniel Dett Elementary School, less than half a mile from the convention site, fewer than 1% of students are proficient in ELA and more than 60% are chronically absent. Just one mile north of where Harris and Walz will speak, proficiency rates at Talcott Elementary are below 30% in both key subjects. These schools are not one-off examples; reading and math proficiency rates are under 30% district wide.”

Vivek Saxena
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