Outgoing Chicago Public Schools CEO says CTU 'bullied' him
Paris on Politics: Outgoing Chicago Public Schools CEO says CTU 'bullied' him
Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez is leaving his post this week to take on the top education job in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. But it didn't stop him from taking some parting shots at the Chicago Teachers Union and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
CHICAGO - Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez is leaving his post this week to take on the top education job in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
But it didn't stop him from taking some parting shots at the Chicago Teachers Union and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
‘They bully people’
The backstory:
Martinez said he saw the mayor and CTU as working against him in trying to improve the district's financial position and education performance for students.
"This is what they do. They bully people, and they try to take away their rights, and this is something I have to stand up on," Martinez said.
On Friday, Martinez filed defamation lawsuits against CTU President Stacy Davis-Gates and Board of Education President Sean Harden for comments they made both in news media and on social media. Martinez said they were false and denigrated his character, and he said he's done it because he's witnessed CTU bully its own members.
"They've been bullying me for almost a year," Martinez said. "Personal attacks. When I decided to add this to the suit, I was thinking about our staff."
Martinez indicated that both the CTU and President Donald Trump were overstepping their authority, albeit from different sides of the ideological spectrum.
"When somebody has absolute power, and they abuse it, I don't care what your political affiliation, but we're seeing people with absolute power talk about democracy, and they stand for the opposite," he said.
In a wide-ranging one-on-one interview, Martinez told FOX 32 that the mayor's handpicked school board took a vote to fire him in December before even meeting him. This came days after Johnson asked Martinez to resign back in September after he refused to cede to the mayor's demands to take out a $300 million short-term loan to help fund a new teachers' contract.
Martinez' first stint at CPS was from 2003 to 2009, and he says he was stunned at the deterioration of the district's finances when he returned to take over post-pandemic in 2021.
A request for comment from the CTU was not immediately returned on Monday evening.
What's next:
Martinez takes over as the Commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education in July.
You can watch the entire interview here: