CTU May Day dispute

Chicago Public Schools families still do not know whether Friday, May 1, will be a normal school day, even after Interim Chief Executive Officer Macquline King told staff and parents on April 9 that her position is to keep classes in session. She also said the Chicago Board of Education could still change the 2025-26 calendar in a special vote, which means the answer is still not final. (cps.edu) The push to shut schools for the day is coming from the Chicago Teachers Union, which voted on March 11 to join a national May Day action built around “no school, no work, no shopping.” Union leaders want teachers and students in rallies, voter registration drives, labor history events and know-your-rights trainings instead of regular classes. (ctulocal1.org) (wbez.org) May Day is not a random date in Chicago politics. International Workers’ Day grew out of the 1886 Haymarket labor struggle in Chicago, so the union is tying a current school fight to one of the city’s oldest labor traditions. (apnews.com) (ctulocal1.org) The union is not just asking for teachers to stay home. It has argued that Mayor Brandon Johnson and the school board should treat May 1 as a “Day of Civic Action,” and it has pointed to an Illinois law that lets middle school and high school students take one excused absence each year for a civic event. (wbez.org) (news.wttw.com) That legal argument only goes so far, because an excused absence for one student is not the same thing as canceling school for a district with more than 300,000 students. That is why King’s April 9 letter was so blunt: she said every minute in the classroom is vital and said families need a clear answer soon. (wbez.org) (cps.edu) (apnews.com) The politics are unusually tangled because Mayor Brandon Johnson is a former Chicago Teachers Union organizer and one of the union’s closest allies in City Hall. Johnson has backed the broader May Day organizing while also saying his office wants a solution with no lost instruction time. (news.wttw.com) (apnews.com) That puts Macquline King in a hard spot only months into her tenure running the district. Block Club Chicago described the fight as an early leadership test because she is trying to project control while the mayor, the union and the school board all have leverage over the final decision. (blockclubchicago.org) The reason families are angry is simple: this is happening in mid-April for a school day on May 1. Parents need child care, students have assignments and activities, and schools cannot easily plan staffing if a large share of teachers decide to join a citywide protest. (apnews.com) (blockclubchicago.org) The union’s message is that public education, immigration policy and labor rights are all part of the same fight, and its March 11 resolution says members should spend May 1 in community action rather than business as usual. King’s message is narrower and more administrative: the approved calendar says school is open unless the board formally votes otherwise. (ctulocal1.org) (cps.edu) So the real question is no longer whether Chicago will have May Day protests on May 1. The real question is whether the city’s school system treats that Friday like a normal class day, a mass excused-absence day, or a last-minute closure ordered from the top. (apnews.com) (blockclubchicago.org)