Midwest
Chicago Teachers Union president raises eyebrows with claims about conservatives
Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Stacy Davis Gates told a news radio host that conservatives do not want Black children to read, adding that it is “part of the oath they take to be right wing.”
In an interview published on WBBM News radio’s site on Sunday, the station’s political editor, Craig Dellimore, spoke with Davis Gates on “At Issue,” about the union’s contract demands.
Some of the demands included social justice issues.
During the interview, Dellimore asked Davis Gates about the teacher union contract proposals that drew criticism from conservatives for being “too big,” and raising concerns that too many elements are not directly concerned with education.
CHICAGO DEMOCRAT SOUNDS ALARM AS 55 SCHOOLS REPORT NO PROFICIENCY IN MATH OR READING: ‘VERY SERIOUS’
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates said in an interview conservatives do not want Black children to be able to read. (REUTERS/Max Herman)
“Conservatives don’t even want Black children to be able to read,” Davis Gates said. “Remember, these same conservatives are the conservatives who probably would have been championing Black codes, you know, during reconstruction or thereafter. So, forgive me again if conservatives pushing back on educating immigrant children, Black children, children who live in poverty, doesn’t make my anxiety go up. That’s what they’re supposed to say. That is literally a part of the oath that they take to be right wing.”
The teachers’ union is in the process of negotiating a new teacher’s contract with the public school system, which calls for an extra $50 billion in funding. The massive increase is being proposed to cover wage hikes as well as other demands. For instance, the money would be used to provide fully paid abortions for its members, new migrant services and facilities and a host of LGBTQ-related requirements and training in schools.
Last year, the total base tax receipts for the state of Illinois was $50.7 billion.
PARENTS CAST BLAME FOR ‘DEVASTATING’ NATION’S REPORT CARD IN WAKE OF PANDEMIC: ‘VERY BAD DECISIONS’
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates claimed conservatives push back on educating immigrant children, Black children and children who live in poverty. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The incredible demands are being made despite its members delivering underwhelming results for its students. Only 21% of the city’s eighth graders are proficient readers, according to the Nation’s Report Card, which provides national results about students’ performance.
Terry Schilling, the president of the American Principles Project and a conservative school choice and education advocate, told Fox News Digital that if conservatives did not want minority kids to know how to read, they would not protest.
“They would allow and support the teachers union and give them everything they want, because right now in Chicago public schools, only 20% of minority students can read at grade level,” he said. “Whatever the conservative goals are, I disagree with what she was saying. I want every kid to know how to read and write. I think that our country’s a lot better off when everyone’s literate, when everyone knows how to do math.”
SCHOOL CHOICE GIVES PARENTS THE POWER TO BREAK TEACHERS UNIONS’ CHOKEHOLDS ON STUDENTS: COREY DEANGELIS
American Principles Project President Terry Schilling spoke with Fox News Digital and said he would prefer all children be literate. (Fox News)
Schilling is a father of seven who lives in Fairfax, Virginia. During the pandemic, he pulled all of his kids out of public schools because he felt the academics were terrible.
He explained that he got to see firsthand what his kids were learning and found out that only about 36% of the students in Fairfax County Public Schools could read at grade level.
So, when looking at one of the wealthiest and best-funded schools in the country and finding out less than half the kids could read at grade level, “it was a no-brainer,” he said.
Davis Gates touted having her children in public schools in 2022. She said it helps to “legitimize” her position within the union and that she could not advocate on behalf of public schools if that were not the case, according to NBC Chicago.
SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER DOES NAZI SALUTE IN CLASH WITH ‘DICTATOR’ RIVAL
Students arrive for classes at A. N. Pritzker Elementary School on Jan. 12, 2022 in Chicago. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
However, in 2023, Davis Gates placed her teenage son in a private Catholic high school in the city.
“She is the poster child for what it means to be part of the teachers union,” Schilling said. “They’re all hypocritical. The leaders of the teachers’ unions, almost none of them, send their kids to public schools, and they know that these are failing public schools and putting their kids in these schools means that they won’t be that smart. They want the best for their kids, but not for our kids.”
He continued by saying the leadership of the district is important, and who the leader is trickles down to everyone below.
“If your leadership is corrupted at the top, then everything else is going to follow suit below,” he said. “And that’s what we’re experiencing with Chicago public schools: it’s rotten from the top down.”
TEACHERS UNION BOSS DEFENDS SENDING SON TO PRIVATE SCHOOL AFTER CALLING SCHOOL CHOICE RACIST
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates stands with Mayor Brandon Johnson. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Davis Gates did not respond to requests from Fox News Digital seeking clarification or a statement on her comments to the radio host.
Schilling pointed to various other reasons the district is failing.
The Illinois Report Card recently released a report showing Chicago Public Schools spent $29,000 per student, and the teachers in the district are among the highest paid in big cities.
Howerver despite high pay, the report showed that 43% of the district’s teachers are chronically absent each school year.
“That means they miss more than 10 days of school a year, and the reason that’s important… is the Illinois State School Board says that teacher absences are critical, and they greatly devastate student outcomes,” Schilling said. “They have almost half of your teachers as chronically absent? That’s a recipe for failure. What are they doing to crack down on that?”
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Davis Gates’ comments about conservatives are not too far off from what other teachers’ union leaders say, though Schilling said they are more direct than what his organization is familiar with.
“They all think that we’re the enemy, and they refuse to acknowledge their own failures,” he said. “But the problem is that it’s not, you know, a bunch of Republicans in these schools that are failing to teach these kids. It’s not the right-wingers who are getting these lavish salaries, and, you know, getting that $29,000 per kid. This is bad. They have to own it.”
Fox News Digital’s Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
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Detroit, MI
‘Diarra From Detroit’ sets date for second season on Paramount+
The Detroit-set detective series from creator and star Diarra Kilpatrick debuted in 2024.
Diarra is coming back to Detroit.
“Diarra From Detroit” will return for its second season on July 29 on Paramount+, the streaming network announced Wednesday.
The eight-episode season will debut with two episodes and will follow with new episodes every Wednesday through Sept. 9.
Diarra Kilpatrick, half-sister of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, is the creator, writer, executive producer, and star of the series, which follows her adventures as Detroit detective Diarra Brickland.
From the official show description:
“Season two finds Diarra Brickland trying — unsuccessfully — to have a hot girl summer without getting wrapped up in yet another deeply unserious and extremely dangerous Detroit mystery. This time around, what starts as a seemingly harmless furniture recovery mission quickly spirals into a triple homicide investigation, a citywide treasure hunt and another trip deep into Detroit’s criminal underbelly. As Diarra attempts to sort out her messy relationship status, she instead finds herself going undercover with a secret society, starring in a Tubi movie, chasing urban legends, dodging gang warfare, and uncovering secrets buried beneath the city itself. Because of course she does.”
Alongside returning stars Kilpatrick, DomiNque Perry, Bryan Terrell Clark, Jon Chaffin, Shannon Wallace, Phylicia Rashad and Harry Lennix, the new season will feature guest stars Cliff “Method Man” Smith, Morris Chestnut, Glynn Turman, Bokeem Woodbine, Amber Riley, Lil Rel Howery, Skilla Baby, Icewear Vezzo, Chris “CP” Powell and more.
The show originally debuted on BET+ in March 2024. The show was filmed in New Jersey, which stood in for the Motor City.
At the time, Kilpatrick told The Detroit News she was inspired by the detective shows she watched growing up with her grandmother.
“I watched ‘Perry Mason’ and ‘Columbo’ with my granny, and I think that structure is in my bones,” she said. “Even though they’re White shows, because of my grandmother’s commentary on them, she made them Black shows.”
She said the show follows in the lineage of those shows she grew up loving.
“I have nostalgia for these highly entertaining procedural shows,” she said. “This one is edgier, it’s sexier, it’s raunchier — it’s definitely an adult show — but I want people to talk to their friends at brunch or call their friends and say, ‘I think she should go back with the husband!’ I love when people get involved in storytelling that way, and if I can reveal the humanity of Detroiters in the process? I feel like I’ve won.”
“Diarra From Detroit’s” first season is currently available to stream on Paramount+.
agraham@detroitnews.com
Milwaukee, WI
50 electric school buses to transport MPS kids starting this fall
Mayor and Superintendent Celebrate New Green & Healthy Schoolyard
Milwaukee Mayor and MPS Superintendent Celebrate New Green & Healthy Schoolyard at Riverwest Elementary
Beginning this fall, thousands of students will catch rides to and from Milwaukee Public Schools by electric bus.
At an event June 8, MPS unveiled the arrival of the new electric buses, 50 of which will transport about 6,000 students starting this September. MPS officials said its transportation partners will add another 100 electric buses to service by the 2028-29 school year.
Once all 150 electric buses are on the road, about 22% of buses used to transport MPS students will be electric, according to figures provided by David Fifarek, MPS senior director of transportation services.
The initiative is fully funded through federal pandemic relief aid and about $40 million in grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a district spokesperson said. The district’s transportation providers are constructing charging infrastructure and will cover the cost of electricity, which district leaders said will help MPS save money.
MPS officials said the initiative is meant to cut costs amid rising fuel prices and to help reduce the city’s childhood asthma rates. The electric buses will additionally push MPS closer toward achieving its goal of reducing the district’s carbon emissions by 45% over the next four years, said Superintendent Brenda Cassellius.
According to the EPA, diesel exhaust is a significant contributor to climate change, as well as childhood asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
In 2024, Milwaukee had the nation’s highest rate of asthma-related emergency department visits, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America reported. Across the U.S., public school children are about twice as likely to have asthma as their school-aged peers.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are particularly studying the link between air pollution and asthma-related visits to school nurses in MPS.
Cassellius said each electric bus will replace a diesel bus, resulting in “fewer emissions at bus stops, near our schools and in the communities our families call home.”
Ben Schutzman, CEO of Highland Electric Fleets, which provides the vehicles, said “replacing just five diesel school buses with electric buses can reduce the risk of pediatric asthma for approximately 1,500 students.”
“In a city where asthma remains a huge concern, that is a very meaningful step forward,” Cassellius said.
There are also financial benefits as MPS seeks to tighten its budget amid broader fiscal challenges, Cassellius added. With fuel prices soaring nationwide, school districts have incurred extra transportation costs.
From March to June, the district said in a statement, MPS spent about $800,000 in diesel surcharges, which are additional fees that bus contractors charge districts to offset higher gas prices.
“That kind of volatility makes it harder to budget and harder to invest where it matters most,” Cassellius said. “This initiative is helping us change that and will allow us to bring more stability to our transportation costs.”
At a School Board meeting in May, MPS interim Chief Operating Officer Michael Turza said the district expects to save money by making the switch, with daily operating costs decreasing because electric buses do not rely on fuel.
The district does not own the buses. MPS Chief Financial Officer Aycha Sawa told board members that the district’s bus vendors instead purchase the buses, and MPS reimburses them under the federal grant.
Contractors who receive the funding must operate in the district for five years, Fifarek said. The companies are also installing charging infrastructure at local bus terminals, which he said creates a long-term investment that could support further expansion of electric buses.
MPS now joins a growing number of school districts in Wisconsin and across the country that are transitioning to electric transportation.
Fifarek said MPS may seek additional EPA grants to increase the number of electric buses in the future.
Kayla Huynh covers K-12 education, teachers and solutions for the Journal Sentinel. Contact: khuynh@gannett.com. Follow her on X: @_kaylahuynh.
Kayla Huynh‘s reporting is supported by Herb Kohl Philanthropies and reader contributions to the Journal Sentinel Community-Funded Journalism Project. Journal Sentinel editors maintain full editorial control over all content. To support this work, visit jsonline.com/support. Checks can be addressed to Local Media Foundation (memo: “JS Community Journalism”) and mailed to P.O. Box 85015, Chicago, IL 60689.
The JS Community-Funded Journalism Project is administered by Local Media Foundation, tax ID #36-4427750, a Section 501(c)(3) charitable trust affiliated with Local Media Association.
Minneapolis, MN
Operation Metro Surge cost Minneapolis $700 million, city leaders say
Operation Metro Surge cost Minneapolis nearly $700 million in lost wages and business closures, according to an updated assessment city leaders released Wednesday.
The report looked at figures from December 2025 through April 2026. Previously, the city had released data showing that the federal immigration enforcement action cost the city $203 million in January alone.
The Whittier and Central neighborhoods were the most impacted, the analysis says, as those areas reported the most Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity during the surge.
Colonial Market’s Daniel Hernandez said he was selling just 15% of his stock during the surge at his south Minneapolis location. He had only just opened the grocery store in November 2024, and despite a strong start, revenue only declined as community members faced uncertainty about immigration policies. He said he’s forced to shut down his Lake Street location after losing $3 million.
“I might be in the floor right now but I know I’m going to go up again,” said Hernandez. “Because our community deserves a place that cares about them, and that place is us, Colonial Market.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey touted the city’s small business resiliency fund, which last week sent license fee refunds to 1,200 businesses.
“Minneapolis is resilient, we’re compassionate, we’re tough and we have consistently shown grit,” Frey said, while encouraging residents to patron restaurants and stores.
According to new research from North Star Policy Action, the state’s leisure and hospitality industry was the most deeply impacted sector across the state. The sector also represents 8.7% of the state’s workforce and is on average one of the lowest-paid industries, with most employees working paycheck-to-paycheck.
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