Chicago 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.”
