the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Sep 16, 2024
The Chicago Teachers Union has lobbied for more than a decade to take the school system out from under mayoral control and to impose some democracy in Chicago education. For the first time, this November, ten members of the school board will be elected, while ten other members and the school board president will still be appointed by the mayor.
Activists hoped that the elected school board would defend public education against the attacks that have been carried out under one Chicago mayor after another, such as closure of public schools to be replaced by charter schools and other funneling of education money to private organizations.
But two pro-charter school Political Action Committees, or PACs, have raised three and a half million dollars between them. That’s more than six times all of the money raised by the 32 school board candidates, combined!
One PAC, run by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, has collected big donations from Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix, as well as from a member of the Walton family (the family that started Walmart). A Chicago auto executive gave almost a million dollars—it just so happens that he runs a set of charter schools.
The other PAC is run by Juan Rangel, who was in charge of one of the largest charter school networks a decade ago. Rangel was forced to resign when it came out that he was routing money for his schools to contractor cronies.
This is the kind of democracy we are allowed under capitalism. Yes, it is better to have a vote than not. But the capitalists and their cronies, with their access to money, are much better equipped to make their “voice heard” in this system’s elections.