chicago — A tangled political battle over whether Chicago public schools will continue may day It has come to the point of confusing tens of thousands of students and parents.
The influential teachers union, an ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson, wants teachers to participate in protests in the country’s third-largest city on May 1, coinciding with labor rights marches around the world. But the newly appointed leader of Chicago Public Schools rejected the idea of canceling classes.
The standoff has created uncertainty for the families of more than 315,000 students.
Here’s what to know about Chicago’s fight over having school on Labor Day.
Labor Day demonstrations are usually strong in union-friendly Chicago. The roots of this day, also celebrated as International Workers’ Day, go Again more than a century To a turbulent and pivotal time in the history of work.
This year, US labor groups plan to boycott work, shopping and schools to fight the Trump administration’s agenda. In some places, including North Carolina, unions are encouraging teachers to cancel work on May 1.
The Chicago Teachers Union wants the nation’s fourth-largest school district to cancel classes for everyone, arguing it allows teachers and students to protest at a time when education Under threat. Unions are demanding more funding for schools, higher taxes on the wealthy, and so on Immigration campaigns.
More than 70% of the district’s students are low-income; Most of them are black or Latino.
“What our students need, and what history teaches us is the only thing that works, is teachers, labor unions and community groups standing together to stand up for each other and our democracy and demand that the government put our families before theirs,” CTU said in a statement.
This week, McCullen King, the district’s newly appointed CEO, said she had no plans to cancel the semester.
“As a professional educator, I believe every minute in the classroom is vital for our students,” she said in a statement, adding that the district’s school board could override it by vote. Their next regular meeting is April 23.
The union says it will use May 1 as a professional development day for teachers, instead of a scheduled June 5, the first day of summer break for students. The union filed a complaint in this regard.
The uncertainty of more than 500 school closures is creating headaches for parents worried about finding child care or canceling test prep.
A district survey showed that 113 schools, nearly one-fifth of the district, planned activities for May 1 including field trips, sporting events and makeup tests for Advanced Placement classes. Another 100 said they had other activities including prom and night out that day, according to a memo from King to school board members obtained by The Associated Press.
“The disruptions will directly impact academic testing and milestones for students, especially for graduating seniors and eighth graders with limited ability to retake or reschedule these experiences,” King wrote in the memo.
Maryam Hafezi, the mother of a middle school student on Chicago’s Northwest Side, said she supports learning civics and would not oppose student-led strikes. But she indicated that these demonstrations were led by adults.
“It’s a teachable moment without them being out of school,” she said. “It would be wise to spend some time in class explaining the strike generally.”
The conflict over a single day off from school shows a difficult dynamic for Mayor Johnson in his first term and potential 2027 re-election bid.
Johnson supports the May 1 demonstrations. But he has been less clear publicly about whether classes should be cancelled. His office did not respond to an email on Friday.
Johnson, a former CTU organizer, was elected in 2023 with the union’s support. That relationship she has It created tensionsespecially last year In the middle of contract negotiations and the dismissal of then-CEO Pedro Martinez.
After an arduous search for a replacement, the board appointed King, an area insider, who served as interim CEO. Last week, the Board of Directors approved her 3-year contract.
The dispute also provided a preview of politics in the city’s newest Democratic body. Chicago is phasing out its mayor-appointed school board to become a fully elected board in November.
Currently, the 21-member body is made up of a mix of elected and appointed members who clash frequently.
“Calls to keep students out of school are reckless,” board member-elect Jennifer Custer wrote on Facebook. “They are hurting working parents, disrupting classrooms, and setting our children back — all for the sake of politics.”
But Emma Lozano, a longtime immigrant rights activist who was appointed by Johnson, disagreed.
She believes it is important for students to participate in May 1 parades, which in Chicago have drawn hundreds of thousands of people in past years.
“We are not just receiving education in classrooms,” she said. “We are learning in the world and we have to learn how to fight for our rights.”