The point of Day of Civic Action

Rep. Marty McLaughlin wants you to believe that a single Day of Civic Action is a threat to Chicago's students. The real threat is an elected official telling students that showing up for their community is a waste of time.

Our students are the future: to be educated is to be empowered. That Rep. McLaughlin frames workers' rights and civic action as a "political issue" is, at best, recklessly ignorant, and at worst, entirely bad faith. It demonstrates a deep misunderstanding of education as praxis, the idea that the most important lessons are learned through lived experience, not confined to a classroom or textbook. At worst, he is mounting an attack against the very institution that teaches us how to think.

If one day of civic action is "irresponsible," imagine the hours spent drafting an entirely performative House resolution to condemn an act of constitutionally protected solidarity. You'd think an official who swore an oath to defend the Constitution would think twice before attacking the rights it guarantees. Perhaps Rep. McLaughlin correctly criticizes our educational system for prioritizing "political theater" over basic knowledge. I suggest he open a seventh-grade history textbook and read about International Workers' Day, born from the 1886 Haymarket Square riots right here in Chicago, where workers struck for the eight-hour workday. For Rep. McLaughlin, concepts like "civic action" and "workers' rights" are best confined to the annals of history and Not in My Backyard.

His real intention, albeit obfuscated, is to defund public schools and revive the "Invest in Kids" backdoor voucher program that expired in 2023. His call to tie CPS funding to test scores is a thinly veiled threat to punish students in poorer communities, deepening the already abysmal disparity between family income and educational outcomes.

Chicago’s students don't need politicians who weaponize their struggles. They need leaders who actually show up for them.

Jennifer Deering

Barrington