CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot discussed her optimism for a safe reopening of Chicago Public Schools in an interview with the New York Times; but said a return to in-person learning would not have been possible without mayoral control of the public schools.
Even though she campaigned for mayor saying she favored an elected school board in Chicago - something the teachers union keeps pushing - now, Mayor Lightfoot said not having an elected school board and having the mayor really in charge of schools is what made it possible to negotiate an end to the dispute with the union.
She pointed to cities with elected school boards like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Portland, which are still trying to get kids back in school buildings.
"We would never have opened without mayoral control. It’s quite clear. The fact that L.A. and San Francisco had to sue to force the conversation about reopening? Look, what’s easy, the path of least resistance, the political expediency, would have been to do nothing and just let the unions dictate what the state of play was going to be in education. That’s never, ever going to be the path that I take," Lightfoot said.
Meanwhile, Mayor Lightfoot also said she thinks the Chicago Teachers Union and the Fraternal Order of Police are more akin to political parties. She believes the teachers union "ultimately, they’d like to take over not only Chicago Public Schools, but take over running the city government."
"Let me put it in a context of labor across the city. We have relationships with over 40 [organized labor] units. We have labor peace with almost every single one, except for two. The Fraternal Order of Police, which has a lot of right-wing Trump aspirations, and the Chicago Teachers Union. When you have unions that have other aspirations beyond being a union, and maybe being something akin to a political party, then there’s always going to be conflict," Lightfoot told the New York Times.