Are you concerned that the torrent of leftist rhetoric making President Trump out to be an authoritarian, a tyrant, and a fascist is legitimating political violence? Well, what if a major American city were to spend a week or so preaching about Trump’s supposed fascism to its hundreds of thousands of students, afterwards gathering them at political rallies to protest the Trump administration, . . . oh, and to celebrate a famous socialist holiday as well? Too partisan? Too dangerous? Too extreme? Won’t happen. Sorry, welcome to Chicago 2026 and the bottom of the slippery slope known as “action civics.”
The semi-insane plans of the socialist-friendly 30,000-strong Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) to do all of the above this May Day drew national attention early last month. The controversy largely faded from national discussion, however, when Chicago Public Schools (CPS) refused to suspend classes for political rallies on May Day. In truth, however, after tough negotiations, the teachers’ union has won. Technically, classes will be held on May 1. But the agreement struck by the CTU and CPS requires CPS to provide food and transportation for students from at least 100 schools to attend anti-Trump rallies on May 1. Many thousands of students are expected. What’s more, future May Days are to be set aside for “teacher professional development” — meaning classes will be out, and teachers will be able to lead students in leftist political demonstrations, as CTU plans to do.
Dueling press releases by the CTU and CPS have obscured the truth and tamped down the public response. But the fact is that a socialist-friendly teachers’ union has managed to set aside May Day and its run-up for years to come for the partisan political indoctrination of students. In addition to leveraging its bargaining power, the CTU has cleverly co-opted a new state law allowing students one day off a year to “engage in a civic event.” What was initially billed as an ideologically neutral opportunity for “civic engagement” is being used by a radical union to turn students into partisan foot soldiers.
Ten years ago, Illinois became the first state to mandate “action civics” (political protest or lobbying as a required project for civics class). In the decade since, the state has enacted many more laws and standards, turning “civics” into teacher-assisted student political practice. The new state law allowing one school day off for protest is the culmination of that process.
Chicago’s teachers have been the political force behind the action civics train in Illinois. Their destination is now clearly visible. It looks a great deal more like the Soviet Union’s old Marxist-Leninist student indoctrination program, the Young Pioneers, than like authentic American civics. Instead of the free exercise of political judgment by well-educated adults, we have partisan propaganda delivered to a captive audience of children. Ideologues with no regard for America’s tradition of liberty cannot be presumed to respect the political independence of their students.
The CTU has consistently spoken of the planned May Day demonstrations as partisan protests against the Trump administration, as well as commemorations of May Day’s historic significance (its socialist character very much included). The CTU’s March 11 resolution calls for a “day of civic action” and attacks “MAGA politicians” for their policies on issues like immigration and the war in Iran and for their supposed “authoritarianism.” The resolution also goes after supposed “right-wing authoritarian donors,” like the pro-Israel AIPAC and the free-market, fiscally conservative Americans for Prosperity. Using the language of action civics, CTU calls for “civic education” and “civic engagement” leading up to May Day, adding that teachers owe their students a proper “political education.”
The nature of that political education is evident from the May Day prep curriculum guide recommended by the CTU. It includes links to an interview with a leftist historian who praises May Day as a time to get Americans thinking about “political revolution” and “socialism.” There’s also a link to lessons crafted by the leftist Zinn Education Project (which helped to formulate the CTU curriculum guide). One Zinn Project lesson, for example, tries to get students to compare the U.S. Constitution unfavorably with the Black Panther Party’s 10-Point Program.
The most striking thing about the CTU’s curriculum guide, however, may be its “Youth Organizing against Authoritarianism lesson,” with accompanying materials on the Trump administration. Students are to describe examples of fascism and authoritarianism, and they are then provided with myriad jaundiced descriptions of Trump administration policies — how “the Trump administration continues to corrupt the public record and whitewash the history of this country,” for example, or how “President Donald Trump has dragged the United States into a needless war with Iran.”
This naked, school-sponsored political partisanship has set off blowback, even in liberal Chicago. After hiring a lawyer, a group of parents held a news conference at which they demanded that the city stop using their children as “political pawns.” For the first time that I am aware of, a group has made a detailed legal argument against an instance of action civics.
Here is a brief excerpt from the letter sent by William J. Quinlan, of the Quinlan Law Firm, in protest of the May Day agreement struck between the CTU and CPS:
[School] Board policy provides that ‘student instruction must aim to be neutral by providing diverse perspectives. Learning activities should elevate and examine students’ perspectives without establishing any particular viewpoint.’ By permitting or encouraging both students and their teachers to attend political events — most prominently a political rally to protest the current federal administration — and by committing District resources (bus transport and bagged lunches) to encourage student attendance via field trip, the Board and/or District establishes a particular, preferred political viewpoint.”
Precisely.
Quite possibly because of the threat of legal action, CPS Superintendent Macquline King has belatedly begun to emphasize that instruction regarding May Day must remain politically neutral and ideologically diverse. CTU head Stacy Davis Gates, however, has energetically pushed back, claiming that the city is now backing away from its May Day agreement. Gates denies that principals have the authority to review and reject any May Day curricula teachers may choose to work from. At this point, as teachers have already begun to prepare their students for May Day using the CTU curriculum guide, it’s tough to see how the district can pull things back. Even if it could, subsidizing a massive anti-Trump rally sends an unmistakably partisan message.
The important point is that a 30,000-member teachers’ union has succeeded in pressuring one of the largest school districts in America to subsidize a partisan leftist political rally on the most important socialist holiday. The real problem with action civics has always been not official school policies but a politically biased teacher corps, large sections of which care nothing for the principle of public school political neutrality. Once political demonstrations and lobbying, as such, have been authorized, determined teachers have many opportunities to quietly subvert official neutrality.
The original call for suspended classes and an anti-Trump, anti-conservative partisan rally on May Day came from the CTU’s House of Delegates, a 730-person body whose members represent every individual school in the city. The vote count for the original May Day resolution isn’t known, but if there was any internal CTU opposition, there is no public indication of it.
The liberal journalist and author James Traub has defended action civics by arguing that, in practice, even left-leaning teachers respect the principle of political neutrality in the classroom. I’ve already rebutted that claim with a close examination of Traub’s case. Remarkably, most of Traub’s evidence comes from Chicago. Well, we’ve just seen the true state of action civics in Chicago. It’s appalling and confirms every warning flag that critics of action civics have waved.
It’s true that when it comes to politicized teachers’ unions that care nothing for classroom neutrality, Chicago is the worst of the worst. But let’s say that a school district has only two-thirds as many radical teachers as Chicago, or one-half, or one-third, or even only 10 percent. Action civics under such circumstances would still be too much of a risk. As the objecting Chicago parents say, nobody’s children should be used as political pawns.
It’s time to stop the action civics express and the spread of state laws that give students days off for political protest. That train has gone off the cliff and now lies shattered for all to see at the bottom of the slope.