The Chicago Teachers Union told NR that the actions of the Trump administration make politicized education necessary.
Chicago Public Schools dedicated its 19th annual “Teachers for Social Justice” curriculum fair to encouraging teachers to use their positions to promote radical left-wing concepts around race, gender, and international relations.
This year’s event — “Fighting for our Futures: Teaching for Solidarity and Justice in this Crisis” — included 14 workshops with titles like: “Drop the ADL from Schools Chicago,” “Does My Curriculum Facilitate Genocide? Towards an Anti-Imperialist Social Studies,” and “The Fight for Liberatory Education.” Teachers earned professional development hours for attending the various workshops.
Left-wing activist groups Teachers for Social Justice (TSJ) and Education Workers for Palestine (EDW4P) coordinated the event. TSJ is dedicated to providing “a space for educators to collaborate, share knowledge, and resist injustice.” Through its programming, teachers “develop [their] understanding of, racial capitalism, heteropatriarchy, settler colonialism, white supremacy, anti-blackness, ableism and other forms of oppression as they show up in ourselves, communities, and global society.”
Presentation slides from the event, obtained by National Review, reveal a concerted effort on the part of the sponsoring organizations to villainize traditional education standards and radicalize teachers.
One slide presented during the “Does My Curriculum Facilitate Genocide?” workshop argues that teachers should shape their lesson plans to encourage their students to disrupt established systems of power.
“Traditional social studies education upholds a genocidal domestic & global status quo because it obfuscates how power operates in our society and the world. It, therefore, miseducates about the kind of action needed to change it,” it says. The slide suggests both reframing and reconceptualizing the modern social studies curriculum, through an “anti-imperialist” lens.
The lesson rejects American exceptionalism, explaining that the reality of the American system is that “exploitation & oppression are foundational to the creation and current operation of the US.”
Cyriac Mathew, a Chicago-based social studies teacher who authored the workshop, was listed as a member of the Chicago Teachers Union in 2014 and ran for the Local School Councils, the governing body of Chicago Public Schools. It’s unclear whether he’s maintained his membership. Mathew was also involved with efforts to remove school resource officers from area schools.
Asked about the overt politicization of public school curricula, the Chicago Teachers Union told National Review that the actions of the Trump administration make political activism a necessary part of education.
“Teaching our students what civic action looks like requires more than textbooks when the President sends federal agents to occupy our cities and the Governor chooses to continue giving tax breaks to billionaires instead of giving our students the school day they deserve,” the union said in a statement.
Another workshop encourages Chicago Public Schools to drop the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) program from its curriculum on the grounds that the organization uses false accusations of antisemitism to smear critics of Israel.
The workshop was created to “go over the false conflation of antisemitism and the work of the Palestinian liberation movement, and outline the danger that the ADL poses to CPS students, educators, and families of all backgrounds,” the introduction slide reads.
In the “frequently asked questions” section of the curriculum fair website, the organizers address safety concerns for the event.
“We are asking everyone to wear a mask (N95) during the curriculum fair, and will make careful decisions to use space in ways that reduce the risk for spread of illness. We will have extra N95/KN94 masks for those who need them, but please bring your own,” the directions read.
“We take seriously the safety of our whole community. Our team is working on developing a plan to address immigration enforcement concerns, as well as other potential security risks. There will also be restorative justice volunteers during the event available for potential needs.”
Chicago teachers’ unions played a key role in keeping schools in the city shut down for a year and a half after closing in March 2020.
The keynote speaker at the event was Dima Khalidi, the founder and executive director of Palestine Legal.
In March 2025, Khalidi wrote an op-ed in The Nation arguing that universities are denying students their freedoms by succumbing to the Trump administration’s threats over federal funding amid widespread protests against Israel on campuses across the country.
Khalidi wrote that universities must “challenge the McCarthyist tactics of right-wing and pro-Israel groups, which are using red-baiting and the politicized label of antisemitism to justify purging people who not only oppose Israel’s policies but also US support for them.”
Chicago-area schools and education leaders are continuing to spread their activist agenda beyond the recent curriculum fair.
Earlier this month, the Chicago Teachers Union sponsored a protest titled “Hands off Iran and Lebanon,” in the wake of the United States’ ongoing conflict in the region. The union was listed as one of the sponsors on the event’s promotional materials.
Photos from the March 7 event show a protester holding a sign with the phrase “Hey Siri Play Boom Boom Tel Aviv,” referencing a song whose lyrics describe destroying Israel.
“This is what you get for all your evil deeds. Boom boom boom, boom boom Tel Aviv. You brought this on yourself, it’s your time to bleed,” the lyrics read.
The CTU, per a resolution adopted at its March 11 meeting, is encouraging its members to take part in “collective action” by shutting down schools on May 1. The May Day resolution states students need “political education.” The union also denounces the current conflict with Iran and asserts the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is funneling dark money into Illinois elections on behalf of right-wing candidates.
“A recent poll revealed that over 50 percent of Chicagoans have an unfavorable opinion of CTU, and its actions over the last week have made it plain to see why that is,” Mika Hackner, director of research for the North American Values Institute, told National Review.
With the exception of the Chicago Teachers Union, none of the organizations or individuals named in this story — TSJ, EDW4P, Mathew, Chicago Public Schools, and Khalidi — responded to requests for comment.