Reporter: “Mayor, I wanted to ask you about your friends at the CTU who are sable rattling, they said late yesterday that the conflict, the contract dispute, is barreling toward an escalated conflict instead of a landed contract. Do you believe the CTU would strike when one of its members occupies the fifth floor?”
Johnson: “I share the frustration. I do. As I stated earlier, there is no other mayor that has the commitment that I have for our public schools. I believe in public education. I do. I’ve benefited from public education. My family has. My children are CPS students, the first mayor in the history of Chicago to send my children to our public schools. I know the frustration in the classroom. I do. As an elementary teacher as well as a high school teacher, the expectation that the people of Chicago have is that we move towards really fully funding our public education system. And what does that mean? That means ensuring that no matter where you live in this city, you can count on a social worker and a counselor being in your building. No matter where you live in the city, you can count on class sizes that are smaller and manageable. No matter where you live in the city, you should have a reasonable expectation to know that your children are being exposed to the arts, extracurricular activities that can help create confidence in our young people to help build purpose. That’s what I’m fighting for. That’s what the people of Chicago voted for. They voted for a parent. And some of the experiences that they’re having with these negotiations, there are individuals that are not working in good faith on behalf of the expectations that the people of Chicago have. And that is a frustration. The people of Chicago have spoken. They have. They trust my vision for public schools, sustainable community schools. I put my body on the line for public education in this city. I don’t know if you can name any other mayor that blocked elevators and went on a hunger strike to make sure that a school wouldn’t be closed. And God help us, if that school would have been closed, those young boys would not have experienced the joy of competing and winning. Our children were left for dead. Our teachers were fired. And speaking of cuts, I remember two administrations ago, a 4 percent raise was snatched away from educators. And it’s that type of animus and disdain towards the public good that we’re also experiencing from Washington. It’s the same approach. Cut. Lay people off. Dismantle programs that work. That’s what Donald Trump is doing. We cannot have a district that acquiesces to the ridicule that’s coming from D.C., where people are blaming educators and blaming children for growing up in neighborhoods that have been historically disinfested in. And so, you know, I’m trying my best to, you know, show some restraint here. But I’m home now. I don’t have to do that. In D.C., I had to do that. But I’m home. We have been fighting for public schools in this city for decades. Al Raby, the campaign manager for the first black mayor in the history of Chicago, you know, called for justice at Marshall High School and led wildcat strikes. Black folks in particular have been dealing with the pain and frustration of administrations that refuse to invest in them. The school closings in 2013, over 1,000 children missing. We don’t even have an account for where they were or where they are. Willis Wagons, the fact that we have lost half of the black teaching force, that is the system that we have grappled with. And now we’re in a position where we can do right by veteran teachers that are overwhelmingly black. We can do right by children who need special education services and bilingual education. We can do right by the workers of this city. And unfortunately, we have an individual that believes that he doesn’t have to acquiesce to the demands of the people of Chicago. Their frustration is not directed at the fifth floor. Their frustration is directed at the individuals who believe that they are the only arbiter for what the people of Chicago deserve. And so here’s what I’m going to say here now. I’m calling on the city of Chicago, all of us, to challenge the Board of Education as well as challenge the leadership of Chicago Public Schools to challenge them to make sure that we do not go back to a dark time with layoffs, privatization, harming workers, disinvesting in our children. Whether you’re on the north side of Chicago, the far southeast side, and everywhere else in between, we deserve high-quality education. And I need the city of Chicago, as you voted for me, to stand with me to ensure that we don’t have an individual or individuals who want to take us to a dark time in our city’s history, that they cannot acquiesce to the iniquitous forms of government that’s coming down from Washington, D.C.. We’re Chicago. We are better than that.”