By: Matt Rosenberg
A possible ethics slip-up involving attempted recruitment of Chicago Public Schools students into incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s re-election effort may or may not result in formal findings against her campaign, but it sorely underscores her misplaced priorities in education and ethics as her tumultuous first term draws to a close.
At the very least, Lightfoot’s deputy campaign manager skated at the edge of ethical propriety by emailing teachers to induce students to join the campaign for 12-hours-a-week “externships” to earn “class credit.” Instead of trying to politicize teachers and students, Lightfoot should be focused like a laser on nagging systemic problems at CPS.
Foremost among these are lagging reading and math achievement scores at CPS: Illinois data show only 6 percent of black CPS students in 2022 were at grade level proficiency in math, and just 11 percent in reading. Two more CPS failures by the mayor: giving away the city’s power to close CPS’ badly under-enrolled school buildings, and failing to advocate for state-approved vouchers so minority families will have sufficient access to real school choice in place of the failing CPS system.
But Lightfoot has given up on righting the sinking ship of CPS. Instead, her campaign focused on using the city’s public schools as a source of political campaign workers. The mayor’s re-election campaign ignored earlier ethics pushback from when it tried to enlist City Colleges of Chicago students into her campaign, and tried the same stunt again.
Worse, despite that stern warning from City Colleges, her campaign this time claimed the questionable move to recruiting students for political work through official government channels was “common practice.”
Then a day later as pressure mounted, the campaign tried to walk it all back and admit error.
CPS’ Office of the Inspector General is investigating, as is the city of Chicago’s Board of Ethics. A national educational advocacy group named Parents Defending Education has even joined the fray by filing its own complaints with the city ethics board.
The organization released a statement saying in part, “Tragically, far too many students in Chicago Public Schools are unable to read or write at grade level — even prior to the” Covid-related “CTU-led school closures, which disproportionately impacted the city’s disadvantaged children.”
Parents Defending Education, added, “Chicago students should be sitting in classrooms and focused on making up this learning loss so that they have the opportunity to make a better life for themselves — not being conscripted as foot soldiers in Mayor Lightfoot’s re-election campaign.”
The new ethics snafu is at least double-edged for Lightfoot.
That’s because in addition to lagging achievement and declining enrollment at CPS – problems that should trump the injection of tawdry campaign politics into the city’s K-12 public schools – Lightfoot won office in 2019 as a would-be corruption fighter.
A former federal prosecutor who convicted corrupt Chicago aldermen, Lightfoot campaigned successfully as an ethics reformer who would tame questionable practices that have made Chicago Exhibit A in civic political corruption.
In fact, in a 2019 TV ad as light shined in on her in a Palmer House room with a back exit reputedly used for escapes by Al Capone, Lightfoot criticized “shady backroom deals” and told viewers that the field of candidates “were all tied to the same broken Chicago machine, except me.”
She was just getting warmed up, though, in staking out her position as a corruption-busting advocate of good government.
- On the campaign trail she pledged to fight corruption, saying, “you’ve got to have a mayor who is really going to push for this. People feel like city government is corrupt. They feel like it doesn’t work unless you have clout.” Like the clout of an incumbent mayor’s re-election campaign trying to enlist public school teachers as recruiters of student campaign workers?
- Lightfoot the candidate also pledged to win independent remapping of the city’s badly gerrymandered ward boundaries. Instead she let it turn into a black-versus-Latino political food fight.
- She pledged to fight for term limits of two terms in office, for the mayor and city council members. Never happened.
- She pledged to use her leverage as mayor to end the practice of allowing one alderman to stop a development proposal if it was to be located in his or her ward. That’s because the practice, called “aldermanic prerogative,” has proven to be an inducement to shakedowns and bribery offers to aldermen and sometimes their staff members. But that went by the boards, as well.
Whatever the investigators do or don’t officially decide about Lightfoot’s current impropriety, it sure sounds like the very same kind of Old School Chicago politics that candidate Lightfoot – the reformer – in 2019 said she’d sweep away.
You could be forgiven for thinking: Meet the new boss, same as the old bosses.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- New CPS data: Mayor Lightfoot, Chicago Teachers Union continue to keep dozens of empty, failing schools open
- Don’t buy the Tribune headline: Chicago crime worsened in 2022
- 50 years of failure: Norman Lear’s ‘Good Times’ first criticized Chicago’s policy of automatically passing students in 1974. It’s still happening today.
- Six facts Gov. Pritzker doesn’t want you to know about Illinois’ 2022 Report Card
- Wirepoints in the Wall Street Journal: Illinois’ Shocking Report Card. The Land of Lincoln is failing its children and covering it up.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Classic Case: Do it and ask for forgiveness later.
(And, Lightfood’s reaction, of course, was hardly an apology. It was a “process problem” – which is how every moral deficit is explained by the Left. They never accept personal responsibility.
Possible ethics slip up? Sending two emails requesting the same thing is not a slip up.
Why is anyone surprised? Our public school system is nothing more than an indoctrination system for the Democrat Party. The teachers unions have been in the back pocket of the Democrats for decades, and it only makes sense that the mayor would try to use students for extra indoctination credits.
From all appearances, Lori Lightfoot is pulling out all the stops and is becoming desperate in her attempt to win another term as Mayor of Chicago. I laugh at her attempt to explain that emails sent out to recruit students to assist in her campaign for Mayor was a mistake. Make no mistake, she knew full well.
Although I do not reside in the city of Chicago, I believe the citizens deserve better, and ditto for the CPD.
Where is CPS on this?
If the kids will be old enough to vote in the next election, at least they should be able to read the ballot…. or count the vote? Who is going to organize the kids and make sure that they stay away from trouble? Then again, maybe some of them would be a better mayor this Lightfoot…
When I was serving on the Des Plaines school board, CCD62, from 1993-2001, we had a PTA president that was running for the school board and her team sent flyers home in every child’s backpack, encouraging the parents to get out and vote for her. We called a special PTA board meeting to address it, but she was not removed from the ballot and went on to win a seat. This is so much worse. CPS is working for her and no one there will stand up to her; the fools that put her in power will ignore the loser… Read more »
Lightfoot is a typical Chicago Democratic Machine politician. She probably didn’t think this was unethical and she probably thought it would fly under the radar. She was wrong on both counts.
Where are the public voices of the educated, successful and visible Black Leaders in our city? While we the 2nd and 3rd generation of immigrate from all over Europe were encouraged, cosseted and treasured as children, these mostly illegitimate children are abandoned by their own families and made wards of the state ? How can this generation of reprobates and single parent households ever, ever get on the correct track of life ? I’d suspect that the Latin immigrants have superior English reading skills by the time high school roles around.
Latin Ameican immigrant students, of all generations, have just as awful English language skills as their black peers. It is in some cases, its even worse because they know two languages poorly whereas the black students speak English already. I know a school teacher in a now primarily hispanic school district and he says it is terrible. He says that recent immigrants, with limited English skills and a 3rd grade education back home, at least try to learn in class, but it is difficult to communicate, and they can’t comprehend basic concepts like fractions, and they only know the metric… Read more »
A relative was director of literacy in a large suburban county. The data was clear. On average, if takes seven years for a non English level learner to have a decent mastery of English. This assumes no catastrophic incidents at home. Kids who come at kindergarten manage eventually. Kids who arrive at middle school age generally don’t. One of the challenges is that 18 year olds don’t mix well in classes with 12 or 13 year olds. Accordingly, late arrivers often go to alternative schools at night, and they can do do until she 22- with bus or cab rides… Read more »
“Fighting corruption” by being as corrupt, delusional and arrogant as possible…the very definition of Lightfoot. Of course, she’d want to drag CPS students into the campaign fray…free labor with a side of leftist indoctrination for the kids. It’s a “win-win” for the Chicago democommies.
Back in the days of Old Chicago, your local Democratic Prescient Captain and workers would stop by your house and remind you how to vote, as if you didn’t know already. They would tell you about the wonderful new garbage cans you’re going to get. Today, the Democratic Socialist Organization along with Mayor Lightfoot want to send ” Lorries Light Foot Brigade of Democratic Socialist Youth” to do the job. Freshly indoctrinated, and fully equipped with the latest expensive three colored literature, these youths will excite and enthrall any and all in their house. And not wanting the kids to… Read more »
Mao’s Red Guard enforcing the Cultural Revolution was mainly youths, some of whom were too leftist even for Mao. I believe Lori probably could have gotten away with using CPS students to campaign for her if she was the popular front runner. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chuy was already using students behind the scenes to canvas/ballot harvest hispanic neighborhoods. He doesn’t need the administration organizing it on his behalf, the teachers and students are doing it voluntarily and enthusiastically.
She makes the old bosses look good and they were terrible.
Me thinks Lightfoot is lightheaded! Where’s Harold when you need him? Jane! Jane!
I say let her do it. Let’s get a nice cross-section of 8th graders from across the city to write her campaign ads and speeches. Then she will see for herself exactly what’s what at CPS. She’ll end up making Uncle Joe sound like Winston Churchill.
Lori thinks she gets a pass on everything because she’s black, gay, and an Asswhole.
One more log on the fire. That’s my hope, anyway.
Why is this a surprise? The Mayor in all her arrogance or should I say ignorance has made one bad decision after another. Under her watch the City has become worse. Crime, violence and mass exodus of both businesses and citizens is ignored. The two major newspapers have failed to report the truth. Yet, this Mayor not only has the arrogance to run for reelection but continues to blatantly lie about the conditions law abiding citizens are living under her watch
What a shame! Chicago was at one time a city that I felt very comfortable in. I rode my bike to Calumet park from Whiting, never feeling in danger. It seems that the mayor is only focused on winning re-election, and not concerned with important issues, and what could be more important than education and safety? She’s a typical politician. Tell’em anything to be elected, and once elected, just put effort into cronyism and corruption. No wonder no one has faith in our system.
Matt Rosenberg exposes Mayor Lightfoot’s unethical (should be illegal) recruitment of public school students for campaign purposes. Meanwhile, students in Chicago suffer from steadily declining scores…
All her political wounds are self inflicted. She’s not stupid, but seems to surround herself with staff that has no political instincts.
Well written.
Lightfoot’s entire tenure as mayor has been one huge ethics violation after another!
The hypocrisy is almost too much to bear! She railed against Joe Berrios when he was in office against his insider deals but pulls this stunt like she never campaigned as the reform candidate. Many times office holders get away with this kind of blatant duplicity because they are likeable or have built up a reservoir of good will with the voters. In the case of Mayor Miserable, no such luck – she’s reviled by all. She’s not going to make the runoff – book it!
I can’t believe she has the nerve to run again. My relatives sacrifice so their kids are in catholic schools. It’s shameful that the CTU are not doing their jobs. Her treatment if CPD rank and file. They get their days off cancelled with 12 hour shifts and the brass send back selfies from vacation. She’s ruined Michigan ave. Blaming merchants for not having security guards. I can’t let my kids visit with the car jacking explosion. Losing the ability to use a scanner to hear the real numbers. What can she point to as a plus for day to… Read more »
Moving into her last 2 Months of being Chicago’s Mayor, she has more than likely used up every CTA bus available to RUN people under. Nothing is ever her fault. Her massive security detail gets the blame for parking in Bicycle Lanes, her staff is to blame for the CPS emails using children in her campaign, and people who are overwhelmed by violent crime and express their thoughts are now called HATERS by her. It’s been 4 long years of gross incompetence and failure and yet according to her, she’s doing a great job. She’s a liar, she’s brash, she’s… Read more »
Is anyone surprised? Very few Democrats actually care about the kids. Kids are a tool.
This lack of judgment should come as no surprise but this blunder smacks of desperation.
Why would this surprise anyone? When criminals seem to be running Chicago they have nothing to fear even when they attempt to use children.
While Lightweight, CPS and the CTU continue to educationally abuse children, now comes the mayor encouraging underage child labor. The lot of them are corrupt and evil and must be held accountable. Wake up, school parents!
She’s desperate. She pulling out all HER stops in order to do whatever she needs to win another term of poor leadership. Either way we look at this there will be a run off, because of too many candidates running. Anyone with deep and a huge backing will be elected to the 5th floor office. By the way, isn’t CPS and their employees responsible for children learn to read, rite and rithmatic??
“You could be forgiven for thinking: Meet the new boss, same as the old bosses.” Great reference to The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and hopefully we won’t be given that Mayor Lightfoot is running 4th in current polling. How does she think she’s going to pull off an electoral victory now with this scandal added to her heap of problems? See this Fox News Poll showing Lightfoot slipping (and I’ll put my bias out there: Paul Vallas is the only candidate to truly improve the mess Matt is describing, and looks like he has a shot): Congressman Chuy Garcia… Read more »
Perhaps I’m becoming jaded, but I don’t think so. Nevertheless, this level of inappropriate behavior coming from the highest levels of city government is intolerable. I hope the investigations shine the light of day on these practices, and put an end to them.
Who will Instagate her Kim Foxx?🤦♀️🤦♀️
Well said
As usual, Light-head continues to ignore glaring problems in Chicago (CPS and it’s gigantic failure to even minimally educate it’s students) not to mention crime and gang violence that alters and takes lives every weekend. She’s selfishly focusing on continuing her control of Chicago only to further her own corrupt dealings. Chicago voters just don’t learn or most likely don’t even pay attention to what directly affects them. Keep exposing her. Maybe voters will finally catch on.
Power corrupts…absolute power corrupts absolutely. Sadly, you know a politician is lying whenever you see their mouths moving. However, it is difficult to blame the current Mayor for the failures of the Chicago School System…when was it ever good? The teachers union owns politicians in Chicago and Illinois. Any effort to improve education by holding teachers responsible for underperformance will never fly. The Unions run the show. Could, or should Lightfoot be fighting for students, for victims of crime, for ethics in government…of course she should, just don’t expect it to happen. Illinois is corrupt, and Chicago is corrupt…the problem… Read more »
American Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker was quoted as saying: “When school children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the interests of school children.” The CTU playbook, no doubt.
Why do unions need to be abolished they have overstepped their boundaries. Power is all they want.
Just public employee unions
I would normally assume the politician made this statement without thinking it through totally. You know. Innocently enough. Unfortunately, it’s Lightfoot, and we know her MO now. Just another scheme to bilk the public. She’ll probably get re-elected, because it’s chicago, and the voters are chumps.
RIP, Chicago.
So a person running for reelection wants to use those who do not yet vote to campaign for her? What could go wrong?
Isn’t it presumptuous on her part that their parents would vote for her? Of course her thinking is if you’re poor and black you must vote for her. Is this what desperation smells like?
This is a huge slap in the face to parents what she thinks of the education of your children.
But then again it’s The Chicago Way.
Thanks for a great article.
One wonders, what is it about Chicago that entices people to vote for people like Lightfoot? Or for that matter, what is wrong with all Illinois voters, who keep voting for mediocre and.or incompetent, unqualified candidates? Does it all trace back to Illinois’ failing, dumbed-down education system? Is this what equity means? Everyone is stupid? Does the system teach children that activism is more important than reading and math skills? One seriously has to to ask these questions and find leaders who will provide solutions.Lightoot is a disgrace.
All excellent questions that will never be answered.
I had high hopes for her when she was elected. She appeared to offer a way out of the Machine, which unfortunately today is hard left radical She has disappointed immensely. First she is way to far to the left to govern sensibly. And second, she is simply not likeable and therefor has difficulty leading. Don’t get me wrong – this is not personal – I suspect as a neighbor she would be ok. But as a political figure? She brings a litigation my gain is your loss abrasiveness to her relationships, a really limiting factor in politics.
What a corrupt and disordered individual she is. I still cannot believe Chicagoans elected her as their mayor. That right there caused me to lose faith in my fellow man.
Homosexuality is a mental health disorder of which she suffers. Narcissistic personality disorder is also a mental health problem for which she exhibits symptoms. Why did Chicago elect this basket case? Because she promised to be a corruption buster. Instead, they have a rudderless, troubled woman that has worsened the city and failed to deliver on her promises. Until voters recognize her for what she is, Chicago will continue to suffer from poor leadership.
I’m going with Valas, but I have a very low opinion of Chicago voters. They gave us Lightfoot and if they replace her at all it will be with another Leftist. They deserve her/him or whatever pronoun they go by.
Easy extra credit, less effort for the CTU’s finest!
Am truly frightened for public school kids. They have been taken advantage of at every turn, and the Mayor is at the top of the list. Whether you have kids in schools or not, their failure is our failure too, the entire city is losing here. Not surprised by this latest request, it fits all the rest. She is sorry she got caught.
Where are the parents
Sadly, the majority of CPS students are products of single parent, low education households. How many parents do you think are involved with day to day scholastics?
15 years ago they were the students in this failed system, where they graduated while being functionally illiterate thanks to the union. And 15 years from now, the current students will be the parents that teachers try to blame for failure.
The insatiable lust for power and money have driven her insane. She is no longer able to tell fantasy from reality or right from wrong
This is Lori’s clumsy effort to recruit the gangs for good spirited electioneering. She’ll form an alliance with anybody.