Chicago Schools are sending students to a May Day protest

Imagine a parent in Chicago. Their child is in third grade and still cannot read at grade level. They have been told, repeatedly, that the district is working on it. They have been told every minute in the classroom counts. Then they find out that the teachers union spent weeks pushing to cancel school entirely on May 1 so that educators and students could join a coordinated national protest. And when the superintendent held the line and said no, the mayor pressured her to reverse course, the board maneuvered around her, and the union went ahead and posted its victory lap on Facebook before the ink was even dry. This story is shocking enough, but I can’t imagine how angry I would be if I were one of the Chicago Public School parents.

What has unfolded in Chicago over the past two weeks is not a labor dispute. It is a case study in what happens when a teachers union stops serving students and starts serving a political movement.

Before an official agreement was reached, the Chicago Teachers Union went ahead and posted its win anyway. In a public statement on their Facebook page, the union declared: “On May 1, 2026, we take action, together. Through our collective bargaining, we secured the ability to stand united on May Day with No School. No Work. No Shopping.”

The phrasing matters; it was framed as an achievement. The union secured the ability to shut down schools so its members could participate in a coordinated political action. Meanwhile, Superintendent Dr. Macquline King was telling parents and the board that the school would remain open. Parents across Chicago had no idea what was actually happening because the union had already declared victory over the head of the person legally responsible for running the district. Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU organizer and close ally of the union, publicly backed letting students and teachers miss school.

On April 17, CPS and CTU reached an agreement. School technically stays open.

But here is what that actually means in practice. One hundred schools will be provided with district-supplied buses and bag lunches so that students can attend the 1 p.m. May Day rally at Union Park. If CPS cannot line up enough buses, the city will supply free transit cards to make sure students get there. Teachers can go too. The district will not penalize any student or staff member who attends. And the CTU described the purpose of the day in its own statement as transforming the school day “to one focused on civic engagement, student voice, and standing up to the White House’s attacks targeting our school community.” They are not even pretending this is neutral civic education.

And perhaps the most revealing concession of all. CPS agreed to designate May 1, 2028, as a teacher-directed professional development day, meaning no school for students, and they will create a “May Day Taskforce” to create curriculum and school-based activities in honor of the day.  The CTU called the overall agreement “monumental news.”

I was a middle school teacher. I know exactly what it takes to manage a classroom of 30 kids in a controlled environment. A large, politically charged downtown protest in Chicago is not a controlled environment. Middle school students require careful, consistent supervision under normal circumstances. Put them in a crowd of thousands of adult protesters carrying signs, chanting, and demonstrating against the federal government, and the supervision demands multiply significantly.

Who exactly is supervising these students at this massive rally downtown? The agreement says schools must follow normal field trip procedures, but it also says staff cannot be penalized for participating in civic activities themselves. So if a teacher decides to join the rally as a participant rather than a chaperone, who is responsible for the children? Is there a formal supervision plan, or are students effectively on their own in a crowd of thousands of adult protesters? The agreement is silent on this. Parents deserve a direct answer before their child is put on a bus headed to Union Park.

Chicago parents also deserve to understand exactly what kind of day their children are being bused to celebrate. May Day is not a children’s holiday. It is not a civic education tradition. It has nothing to do with K-12 curriculum.

May Day originated from the 1886 Haymarket Affair in Chicago, when a bomb was thrown at police during a labor rally, killing officers and civilians alike. In 1889, a federation of socialist parties in Europe designated May 1 as International Workers Day specifically to commemorate that event and amplify the cause of labor organizing. The United States does not recognize May Day as an official holiday. America has a deliberate, separate alternative to May Day: Labor Day, arguably because May Day carries the baggage of anarchist politics and socialist organizing. The distinction was intentional.

May Day has always been a very adult political and radical left labor movement day. It was designated by socialist parties, built around strikes and work stoppages, and celebrated most prominently in communist and socialist countries throughout the 20th century. Repackaging it as a K-12 field trip destination is not civic education. It is political recruitment dressed up in school letterhead. Might as well get the kids some shirts with hammers & sickles while they are at it.

Chicago Public Schools is not a high-performing district, taking a brief pause for civic reflection. It is a struggling district diverting time from students who are already running out of it.

According to the most recent Illinois Report Card data, only 43 percent of CPS students in grades three through eight are reading at grade level. In math, just 27 percent meet the standard. Forty percent are chronically absent, meaning these kids are already missing enough school on their own. These are not numbers that suggest a district with instructional time to spare.

The students most behind in Chicago are disproportionately low-income, Black, and Latino. Fewer than 35 percent of low-income CPS students met reading proficiency standards in 2025. The union claims to fight for these kids. But busing them to a political rally against the White House on district-funded transportation, with taxpayer dollars, while 57 percent of their classmates still cannot read at grade level, is not fighting for them. It is using them.

Source: https://capitalresearch.org/article/chicago-schools-may-day-protest/