Mayor Richard Daley ordered the destruction of Meigs Field in the dead of night, and his actions sparked outrage, particularly among the wealthy private jet owners and elite circles it impacted.
Mayor Brandon Johnson faces his own “Meigs Field moment.” His decision to demand the firing of CPS CEO Pedro Martinez sets a reckless trajectory for Chicago Public Schools. This will reverberate through every corner of this city. It’s about every child in Chicago losing out on a brighter future.
As an elected member of the incoming CPS board and a parent of two young children, I am deeply alarmed. I ran with the hope of helping make CPS the system families choose for a quality education. I fear it’s becoming the system families leave behind.
Martinez wasn’t a perfect leader, but firing him mid-year, weeks before the historic transition to an elected representative school board, has thrown CPS into chaos. This was about saddling CPS with Johnson’s ill-conceived high interest "payday" loan to fund a contract for the Chicago Teachers Union.
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As a former Itasca Education Association-Illinois Education Association president, I fought for my members and believe collective bargaining is a sacred process and teachers deserve the best working conditions, pay, benefits and retirement possible. And if our students can’t eat, be housed or supported, how can they learn?
All of that is for naught if the district becomes insolvent, and that’s what Johnson’s loan would do.
With Martinez in limbo, CPS is now a ship without a captain in the middle of an unprecedented storm. The next wave coming is the board will likely take out the payday loan, leaving teachers, parents and students bracing for the fallout: cuts to extracurricular programs, fewer resources for classrooms and more pressure on overworked teachers and staff.
Parents, educators, elected officials and even members of the incoming school board have repeatedly called for collaboration. But instead of respecting those calls, the current unelected board has chosen a scorched-earth strategy that undermines the very foundation of CPS.
A strong and stable public school system is the backbone of a thriving city. It attracts families, supports local economies and creates opportunities for the next generation. But when that system is destabilized, it sends a clear message: Johnson isn’t investing in Chicago’s future.
I am prepared to fight for CPS and Chicago’s future. As a fellow Chicagoan, are you?
Jenni Custer, CPS elected school board member, District 1
The Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board is correct that President-elect Donald Trump’s notion to privatize the U.S. Postal Service must be opposed. But the board did not acknowledge its history since July 2020 when Trump appointed Louis DeJoy as postmaster general to reduce delivery of mail-in ballots in advance of the November 2020 election.
DeJoy substantially privatized the postal service. I recently moved from Columbus, Ohio, among the worst post offices in the U.S., and I find Chicago service better. My Old Town Triangle area lacks a regular carrier, but we have delivery almost every day.
Despite conflict-of-interest laws, DeJoy has been a major investor in private companies with close ties to USPS. After he removed sorting machines to slow mail-in ballots, DeJoy ordered postmasters to violate the U.S. Postal Code to deliver for private, for-profit delivery services 24 hours/day, seven days/week and not deliver U.S. mail six days/week. Vacancies are not filled. But private delivery service items are delivered on schedule.
This favoritism of private, for-profit corporations amounts to a significant privatization of the once-celebrated USPS.
USPS’ often-mentioned financial problems center on Congress’ unworkable arrangement to fund postal employees’ pension plans. They have little or nothing to do with privatization notions.
Seldom mentioned is the common compromise across Europe, the United Kingdom and Canada: regular delivery five business days each week.
It remains inexplicable that the presidentially-appointed U.S. Postal Board of Governors has not removed DeJoy. President Joe Biden filled several existing vacancies, but no one seems to know why they have not taken much-needed corrective action. Nor do I understand why no one in Congress has made this an issue of note. Even the remaining “legitimate media” only occasionally make mention, as the Sun-Times Editorial Board has just done.
Harvey J. Graff, Lincoln Park, professor emeritus of English and History, Ohio State University
Neil Steinberg is the reason I still subscribe to Sun-Times newspaper delivery. I don’t agree 100% with him, but for me, he speaks truth to lies with facts and won’t be intimidated. And he is also fun and funny when the subject calls for it.
He is a keeper. I will follow his writing wherever it leads me.
Howie Mogil, Lake View
The proposed Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park at the former U.S. Steel Southworks site will be a long-term win for the city only if the public park acreage and access to it are greatly increased from what appears in the preliminary plans.
These plans show a leftover narrow park strip along the lake for the public, with the rest of the site developed for private uses. The quantum campus should be designed around a series of public open spaces and traditional campus quads that link the community to a significant lakefront park, not a private development blocking public access to a leftover narrow park strip that is of limited use to the public.
Let’s maximize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and improve the quality of life for the maximum number of people.
Robert E. Sullivan, Orland Park
