I went undercover at Chicago May Day rally. Here’s what taxpayers funded

I’d been watching the Chicago Teachers Union implosion play out for months — President Stacy Davis Gates going unhinged on social media, jaw-dropping headlines, and coworkers passing around reports on Chicago Public Schools literacy rates so bad they don’t seem real.

So when the CTU announced it had cut a deal with CPS to bus students to a May Day rally at Union Park, I decided I needed to see it for myself.

The CTU sold the day as a labor history lesson — hands-on learning outside the classroom, helping students “find their voice.” What I watched unfold on Friday had nothing to do with any of that.

MAY DAY: CHICAGO’S CLASSROOM COUP

The morning started at a Logan Square “ICE out” rally, where classes of fourth and fifth graders had been brought by their teachers. Anna Stevens, a fifth grade teacher in a CTU sweatshirt, told me, “We’ve talked a lot