Just days before then-President-elect Donald Trump was set to take office, President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency wired $100,000 to an arm of the Chicago Teachers Union to train public school children in environmental advocacy.
The payment, which the EPA disbursed to the Chicago Teachers Union Foundation 12 days before Trump’s inauguration, is earmarked to fund a two-week-long “Environmental Justice Freedom School,” where public school students will be taught how to engage in environmental activism, federal records show. Chicago’s teachers union has a long history of financially supporting the Democratic Party, using money collected from its members to shower Democratic lawmakers with cash and pouring millions of dollars into supporting Chicago Democrats. In 2023, for instance, the union ran a deficit after spending over $2 million backing the mayoral bid of former Chicago Teachers Union organizer Brandon Johnson, a Democrat.
The taxpayer-funded and union-administrated program is set to take place this summer between June 16 and June 27. Program organizers make it clear that they seek to turn students into activists.
According to the program’s website, “Environmental Justice Freedom School” takes its name from the “Freedom Schools” of the 1960s. These schools, which cropped up during the 1960s, sought to train African American students to become civil rights activists and otherwise involved in politics.
One of the goals identified by the program’s organizers was to help students develop “climate action plans” and teach them how to engage in activism by disseminating those plans to the “school district, various stakeholders, and the public.” Students are also instructed to come up with “action-oriented solutions” to climate change and to “develop [their] individual and collective agency to address individual and collective climate impact of air and water pollution in underserved communities.”
“Leading environmental advocacy groups” will also play a key role in instructing the school children.
“Students will become climate change champions for their school community and local environment through EJ teach-ins inspired by their climate action plans,” a web page describing the program reads. “Students will develop social and emotional intelligence and skills to process feelings about climate change and reflecting, collaborating, negotiating, and organizing toward climate action.”
The Chicago Teachers Union has faced accusations in the past of trying to use its influence over students for political purposes.
In March 2024, the Illinois Policy Institute filed an ethics complaint against the union after it sent out an email advertising one of its events where students would be encouraged to vote and transported to an early voting location.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT SPENT HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS INJECTING DEI INTO SCHOOL DISTRICTS
In its first months, the Trump administration has prioritized spending cuts, particularly as they relate to grants and contracts distributed to left-of-center organizations.
Trump’s EPA has accused the prior administration of using the agency’s funds to reward political allies with lucrative grants and contracts, highlighting $20 billion worth of awards handed out to organizations run by Democrat donors and operatives, such as Stacey Abrams’ Power Forward Communities.
“President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American people to stop the fraud and abuse by leaders who irresponsibly shoveled boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity, instead of serving the American people” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said of the spending.
The Chicago Teachers Union and the EPA did not respond to requests for comment.