Editorial: For now, Chicago's public schools will be open May 1. But the CTU saga may not be over

The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune on Apr 15, 2026

Published in Op Eds

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Will Chicago Public Schools be open on May 1?

As of now, they will. That’s thanks to CEO Macquline King’s directive last Thursday following a confusing closed-door meeting Wednesday of the Chicago Board of Education during which board members appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson pressured King into closing schools on May 1. Their agenda? The Chicago Teachers Union wants to make “May Day” a “day of civic action,” incorporating CPS students as well as teachers into a large-scale protest action.

As that non-public board discussion was occurring last Wednesday, we wrote that King needed to be far clearer in her opposition to CTU’s May Day plans.

To her credit, King subsequently said in no uncertain terms that she wouldn’t support changing the school calendar and added that if the board wanted to close schools on May 1, it would have to vote in open session to do so.

So the ball is now in the court of board President Sean Harden, an appointee and supporter of the mayor, who will have to decide whether to call for a special meeting. Will he?

We suspect that will depend on whether CTU President Stacy Davis Gates and Johnson, the former CTU organizer propelled into the mayor’s office with millions in CTU donations, direct Harden to try to twist the necessary arms on his board.

We’ll also hazard an educated guess that quite a few on the 21-member school board would prefer to let the issue die quietly, since most of them (not Harden, interestingly) appear to be running in November in what will be Chicago’s first-ever full school board election. It’s one thing to raise your hand in a straw vote during a closed session. It’s quite another to put yourself on the record for something so dunderheaded, which can and will be used against you in an election a few months from now.

We doubt very much that a majority of Chicagoans — and certainly most CPS parents — are in favor of teachers taking an unscheduled (but paid, naturally) day off to march in favor of CTU’s far-left political goals. The attack ads practically write themselves.

Should Harden choose to schedule that special meeting, knowing which board members chose to keep kids out of school to kowtow to the CTU would be most clarifying for Chicago voters in November.

But, for the sake of CPS parents, it would be best to let this latest sorry chapter in the management of Chicago’s schools under Mayor Johnson die a quiet death, even as Chicago’s kids breathe life into a May 1 day of learning.

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