Mayor Johnson sacks school’s chief for his teachers' union funders
Chicago’s machine politics is legendary, but the power play now unfolding in the Windy City would make the late Richard J. Daley blush. On Friday, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s handpicked school board voted 6-0 to fire Chicago Public Schools (CPS) CEO Pedro Martinez — without cause. The move clears the way for a costly new contract with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), throwing gasoline on an already smoldering fire of fiscal instability.
The irony here is as rich as it is infuriating. Pedro Martinez, the man unceremoniously deposed, is a graduate of CPS himself. Now, the very institution that shaped him has cast him aside — not for incompetence, but for daring to resist the naked power grab orchestrated by Mayor Johnson and his union benefactors. Martinez’s crime? Refusing to saddle Chicago taxpayers with billions in new debt to bankroll raises and benefits for a union that has become less about education and more about political patronage.
The backlash was immediate and ferocious. Chicago City Council members openly opposed the mayor’s maneuver. Alderman Andre Vasquez called Johnson’s leadership “dysfunctional.” Alderman Silvana Tabares bluntly told the school board:
“There is still a difference between right and wrong, and you know this is wrong.”
Tabares is right. The CTU, under President Stacy Davis Gates, is demanding the moon — raises, perks, and pensions galore — despite a CPS budget shortfall of more than $500 million this year alone. Martinez, to his credit, refused to rubber-stamp the mayor’s proposed $300 million short-term loan, a desperate attempt to cover the gap while sinking the district even deeper into debt. Standard & Poor’s has already hinted at a credit downgrade for the city, yet Johnson barrels ahead.
The irony doesn’t stop there. While the bishops and knights of the old Chicago machine are being dragged through the courts for their petty corruption — parking meter scandals and shady land deals — those sins pale in comparison to this blatant sellout of taxpayers. What the old machine did in the shadows, Johnson and Gates now flaunt in broad daylight, treating Chicago’s financial stability as collateral damage in their quest to entrench union dominance.
For proof, look no further than the numbers. Only 17 cents of every dollar in CTU funds are spent on teacher representation. The rest fuels a political apparatus that props up politicians like Johnson and expands the CTU’s influence far beyond the classroom. Meanwhile, Chicago's teachers — the supposed beneficiaries — continue to deliver some of the worst truancy and performance rates in the nation.
Martinez was a rare voice of fiscal sanity in a city long accustomed to budgetary delusion. Nearly 700 Chicago principals and assistant principals backed him in a letter to the board. Twenty-one aldermen urged his retention, calling him the best choice to lead CPS through these turbulent times. Their pleas fell on deaf ears.
Adding another layer of absurdity, Johnson — aware of Martinez’s popularity and legal protections — is now proposing a co-CEO arrangement. One can only imagine the chaos of two superintendents tripping over each other, with the new figurehead acting as a marionette for the CTU’s demands. Martinez, refusing to go quietly, has filed a lawsuit seeking injunctions against his firing. Legal discovery could expose the ugly underbelly of Johnson’s deal with the CTU, and individual school board members might face personal liability. Their insurance excludes coverage for dishonest, fraudulent, or criminal misconduct — an ominous prospect for those who rubber-stamped this decision.
What’s clear is that the CTU isn’t just negotiating for its members; it’s consolidating political control. Johnson and Gates want a “blowout” contract to fund their machine, leaving taxpayers holding the bag for decades to come.
Chicagoans deserve better. They deserve schools that prioritize students over politics and leadership that values fiscal responsibility over union patronage. Instead, they are watching in horror as the city marches toward financial ruin, led by a mayor who seems determined to outdo even the most infamous chapters of Chicago’s machine history.
Mayor Johnson may have scored a victory for his union allies, but at what cost? If the lawsuit against Martinez succeeds and the courts weigh in, Johnson’s power play could backfire spectacularly. For now, though, Chicago’s taxpayers are left wondering how much longer they can foot the bill for a system rigged against them.
Citizens of Chicago: Now is the time to rise up and overthrow this corrupt regime. The vibe has shifted, the tide is turned. The presidential election showed that people are no longer being cowed into accepting absurdities for fear of being labeled as bigots. In fact, some of the most vociferous critics of the current Chicago regime are the very people it purports to advocate for: people of color, as they say. They are taking none of this “as a black man” excuse making that the mayor is fond of using. They throw it right back in his face from their neighborhoods in Englewood and Woodlawn and elsewhere that are the principal victims of his lawless, feckless, amoral policies.
It is increasingly apparent for anyone with eyes to see that Chicago has become a battleground between two unions: The teachers union which is grabbing not only a larger share of the pie but more than the pie, gluttons that they are, and the police union which is losing badly.
The outcome of this struggle, regardless of one's personal sympathies toward the unions and personnel involved, is existential for the city. Teachers cannot control their own classrooms in the CPS much less control what happens on the streets of our city. For that we rely on the police. Law and order is the sine qua non of civilization. Translation: Without law and order there can be no city. There can be no schools. There can be no businesses and citizens to tax to enrich the coffers of the CTU and its members.
So even the teachers and their corrupt union should understand that their victory in this struggle will be merely pyrrhic, that is, a massive defeat masquerading as triumph.
Chicagoans proved that they can rise up against the Preckwinkle machine when they elected our new State’s Attorney, Judge Eileen O'Neill Burke, over her hand-picked, Soros-style prosecutor pick, and when they nearly elected a qualified mayoral candidate unheard of in recent decades, one Paul Vallas. It can be done — all it takes is for people with a modicum of common sense to show up at the polls and put a stop to the madness that is threatening to return this once great city to the swamp land from which it came.
This is Chicago's very own project 2025. The time to start organizing is now as elections are coming up that can help us take this city back from those who either knowingly or unwittingly are in the process of tearing it down so that no stone stands atop another.
Yes, indeed the times are changing, and it doesn't take a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing in Chicago.
It's a hard, cold wind mayor, and it's coming for you.
