Reporters were met with jaw-dropping hostility during a recent press conference held by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson in regard to his appointment of new a new school board.
The mayor clearly had no intention of answering relevant questions about the city’s economic woes, his use of public funds, turmoil within Chicago Public Schools or what appears to be a coup to oust Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez.
Female journalists who dared to ask pertinent questions about Johnson’s use of public funds for international travel were met with Trumpian brashness, complete with outrageous implications that the valid inquiries were a symptom of racism. According to Johnson, “it’s disrespectful to ask a black man” these questions.
As a public servant, he should expect to be treated no differently from a mayor of any other race, and in general, city leaders are expected to provide transparency on budget-related matters.
To be sure, questions about spending and the city’s finances are particularly relevant in Chicago at the moment. After all, the Windy City is dealing with a massive $982.4 million budget gap for the 2025 fiscal year.
Making matters worse, there is disagreement over whether City Hall or the school board Johnson handpicked himself is responsible for making a $175 million payment to CPS’s non-teacher employee pension fund. The payment was never made as a result of the ongoing debate.
Now Johnson is pressuring the district to agree to a $300 million short-term loan to both fund the pension and also provide a 10 percent salary bump for unionized teachers, who are currently undergoing contract negotiations. Due to Chicago’s financial woes, the loan would have to come with a high interest rate.
But with the city grappling with the largest budget deficit since the height of Covid in 2021, and the projected gap ballooning 80 percent since Johnson’s first year in office in 2023, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez rejected the idea of taking out the loan. Martinez drew Johnson’s ire after calling the idea “fiscally irresponsible,” and the mayor pressured Martinez to resign.
But he wouldn’t.
The only other way to get rid of Martinez is through the school board that Johnson himself handpicked.
But they wouldn’t.
Instead, the entire school board resigned, citing the Mayor’s relentless pressure campaign as their reason for doing so. Turns out the board had voted 7-0 to approve Martinez’s budget plan, which would prevent school closures through 2027. They also held a vote on Johnson’s desired $300 million loan, and unanimously rejected it.
The school board’s resignations opened up an opportunity for Johnson to appoint a new interim board and that’s what he did. Journalists justifiably wanted to know whether Johnson had installed board members who he knew would carry out his wishes. They also questioned if the newly appointed board had ties to the teacher’s union, which could be raise a conflict of interest.
But Johnson wasn’t interested in those questions:
On the other hand, Johnson did take some time to dictate the type of questions he will allow journalists to ask after shooting down one reporter’s valid inquiry about whether the new board approved of the loan loan. The reporter’s hilariously snarky reply was pitch perfect:
Even more bizarre was how Johnson lied earlier about his attempts to push Martinez out, telling CBS Chicago, “I didn’t ask anybody to do anything. The only thing that I’m required is leadership that is prepared to invest in our children…The strategy is ultimately about what’s best for our children.”
Is it? It’s worth mentioning that the mayor’s largest campaign donor is the Chicago Teachers Union. Data from watchdog group Illinois Sunshine found that between Dec. 4, 2017, and June 30, 2023, Johnson’s political committee received $6.07 million from the CTU, which he used to be a member of.
While paying teachers higher salaries is generally an agenda item worthy of pursuit assuming the economic scenario that allows for it, at the moment it’s questionable that what’s “best for the children” is a high interest loan that would make an already-troubling budget deficit worse, potentially leading to school closures down the line.
Johnson is already eyeing public employee layoffs and cuts to police trainings to close the budget gap. He’s also considering property tax increases and the possible refinancing of the city’s debt, which could save Chicago $110 million upon city council approval.
Regardless of what one thinks about the mayor’s loan idea or his leadership on the the city’s finances, the hostility toward reporters and his diatribes on slavery, which were only meant to deflect from the issue at hand, was outrageous. In a true democracy we need elected leaders to be transparent about the decisions they make about appointments, taxpayer money and debt decisions. Johnson’s shameful press conference was the antithesis of that.
Chicago's Mayor Shuts Down Valid Questions About Alleged School Board Coup