May Day

Not even hiding the communism any more:

• The president of the Chicago Board of Education is pressuring the new Chicago Public Schools CEO to cave to union demands to cancel classes on May 1 for a day of protests, according to a memo reviewed by WGN Investigates, but the new schools’ chief stood firm late Thursday.

  “My position has not changed,” CEO Macquline King wrote in a memo.  “As a career educator, I believe every minute in the classroom is vital for our students.”  She added the entire school board should take a public vote if they want to cancel classes that day.

Why lose a day of badly needed instruction for kids who can't add, can't read and probably can't even spell "communism"?

As a couple aldercreatures point out:

• “May 1 is a day on class instruction, our students need to learn in the building,” Ald. Ray Lopez (15th Ward) told WGN Thursday morning.  

  Another alderman agreed. 

  “I think it’s a terrible idea,” Ald. Nick Sposato (38th Ward) told WGN. “I respect everyone’s right to protest. Why can’t this protest be on a Saturday?”

If it was on a Saturday, everyone could attend....but then teachers wouldn't get a three-day weekend.