The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board cited Wirepoints’ education research in its new opinion piece about the Chicago mayoral election and why the CTU will run Chicago if their chosen candidate, Brandon Johnson, wins.
Read the WSJ editorial: The Chicago Teachers Union Power Play
He’s right. Mr. Green endorsed the other runoff candidate Paul Vallas, a former schools superintendent who supports more charters schools for the city. Some 83% of Chicago students graduate from high school but less than a third are proficient in reading or math on the Scholastic Aptitude Test, according to Wirepoints and Illinois Report Card data.
Read more about Chicago’s education failures:
- Chicago Public Schools implicitly endorses ‘looting and burning’ as a form of equity
- Not a single student can do math at grade level in 53 Illinois schools. For reading, it’s 30 schools
- 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.
- New CPS data: Mayor Lightfoot, Chicago Teachers Union continue to keep dozens of empty, failing schools open

Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Brandon Johnson’s people are deserting him in droves, he jumps the shark everytime he opens his mouth.
The schools are the core of a successful city. I grew up in the Detroit area and if Chicago’s voters aren’t careful the city will be hollowed out by all the desperate people moving their families out to the suburbs to provide their children with a better education and living environment. Be careful what you vote for!
Spot on Rob. I also saw that 1st hand
Please no!!
Including the magnet schools, 83% of Chicago students graduate from high school but less than a third are proficient in reading or math on the SAT.
Not including the magnet schools, ….
I’m glad to see ‘education’ in the Chicago Public School system get some attention. That Chicago schools perform so poorly in academics and attendance is pretty much undisputed fact among mostly everyone who’s involved. Different excuses-n-explanations, but small dispute over how little learning comes of the vast expense required. I doubt that there’s much of anything that’s gone on in a CPS school that hasn’t been negotiated with the CTU. I’ll bet that there’s more than a few Chicago couples with one partner working for the Chicago PD or Fire Department, and the other teaching in a Chicago school. Lots… Read more »
Quite unbelievable, given the results of everyone we ever knew in the 60’s & 70’s. I can honestly suggest that I didn’t know a single child ‘held back’ a grade. Then again, I didn’t know a single child who didn’t have two parents in the home, both able to read !
What a Shit Show these big cities have become.
Race to the bottom sadly. No emphasis on performance but only based on equity and inclusion nonsense. One of the many reasons so many folks want out of the city.
Maybe the electorate is awake and alert as Election Day nears. That the CTU’s favorables are sinking is an encouraging sign. However, as it shovels more dues money into Johnson’s campaign, I suspect much of it is being spent to persuade Hispanics to vote in favor of their candidate. With two weeks remaining, we’ll see if it is effective. Who is polling the Pilsen, Little Village and Hermosa neighborhoods to get a peek on how they’ll vote?
Not how, but if.