You didn’t know the gnomish head of the American Federation of Teachers was on the ballot, did you?

What’s actually going on in Randi’s mind: “Now that I have the mayor of Chicago in the palm of my hand, I will have even more power and influence!! And more money to donate to the Democrats!!” https://t.co/QpYwk5K35I

— Priscilla Lo (@Priscilla__Lo) April 5, 2023

Oh, yeah, she was. That Brandon Johnson guy – the one whose name people checked the box on the ballot by? He is owned – lock, stock, and a barrel full of cronies – by the unions. Particularly, the teachers’ unions, which is not surprising, being a well-fed, well-compensated creature of those dens himself.

…The subject of education’s future in Chicago is more nebulous, though just as consequential. Johnson, who cut his teeth in politics thanks to the teachers union, will surely attempt to shake up a system that he has decried as inequitable.

…Johnson has also pledged to fight to increase state funding to CPS and to shift from an enrollment-based to a needs-based model for determining how much each school gets. He called for a host of investments such as fully staffed bilingual and special education programs and to house the district’s nearly 4,000 homeless students, but critics have said those goals are financially unrealistic for the cash-strapped district.

Though he has waffled when it comes to specific solutions for the toughest problems facing the schools district — including how he would make selective enrollment applications fairer or relieve reliance on standardized testing — one thing is certain: Johnson will no longer be a member of the CTU come Inauguration Day, he has promised.

The CTU is the Chicago Teachers Union and they own this man. Not only was he “employed” by them for over 5 years in a clearly questionable arrangement, ethically.

…For at least the past five years, Johnson has been on the union payroll and taken in over $390,000 as a “legislative coordinator,” according to documents CTU filed with the U.S. Department of Labor. At the same time, he was also earning a salary as a Cook County Board commissioner.

When he dropped his hat in the ring, all the previous CTU rules and strictures applying to funding political candidates came flying off, like the Hulk exploding out of rubber bands. Those member handbook rules regarding dues “not being used for political purposes”?

SO LAST WEEK, NOW SHOW US THE MONEY, PEASANTS

…To date, the Chicago Teachers Union and its political action committee have funneled nearly $2.3 million to Johnson, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. That is almost eight times more than the $291,000 it put into Toni Preckwinkle’s failed mayoral bid in 2019.

…CTU representatives voted March 8 to use $8 per month of each member’s dues through June in support of Johnson’s mayoral bid, pledging up to $2 million to land the union’s lobbyist in the city’s top office.

And that $8 from every last teacher in the district, plus the additional funds they pumped in, plus the “parent” unions (and guess who that means)…

This is the DeVos model:
✏️Starve public schools of resources
✏️Criticize them for their shortcomings
✏️Erode the trust in public schools by stoking fear & division
✏️Replace public schools with private, religious, online, & home schoolshttps://t.co/UhgGTahTpC

— Randi Weingarten 🇺🇦🇺🇸💪🏿👩‍🎓 (@rweingarten) April 3, 2023

…added up to a hard-to-beat, easy money, constant and massive cash infusion for one new mayor of Chicago.

…Over 93% of Johnson’s funding is from 20 unions. Most of that is from eight teachers unions, which have funded 62% of Johnson’s campaign to date.

Over 71% of Vallas’ funding comes from 1,073 individual donors.

…CTU’s parent affiliates are also investing heavily: the American Federation of Teachers has contributed nearly $1.7 million [Beege: Weingarten’s org] and the Illinois Federation of Teachers more than $940,000.

Johnson may “quit’ the union on paper, but he is the union – all the unions except the unions you need in a hurry – in the flesh. And the second his right hand goes up, that bill is coming due.

I don’t know that Lightfoot left the fools that voted him in anything to pay themselves off with.

And there’s where the trouble will really start.

It’s like that place never changes. Goodnight, Chicago.