The Chicago Teachers Union chose to honor Assata Shakur, born JoAnne Chesimard, days after she died in Cuba. In a system that fails most kids, that should say all you need to know. Their official post reads:
“Today, we honor the life and legacy of a revolutionary fighter, a fierce writer, a revered elder of Black liberation, and a leader of freedom whose spirit continues to live in our struggle.”
This is not an endorsement by a fringe union member. This is the union’s official stance and reflects the moral foundation of those we have entrusted with our children.
Let’s remember exactly who the union chose to celebrate.
On May 2, 1973, New Jersey Troopers Werner Foerster and James Harper pulled over a Pontiac with three occupants: Zayd Malik Shakur, Sundiata Acoli, and JoAnne Chesimard. What started as a routine stop for a broken taillight turned into a gunfight. Trooper Harper was wounded, Zayd Shakur was killed, and Trooper Foerster was beaten, shot, and then executed with his own service revolver.
In court records, the state’s parole authorities summarized the ballistics:
Foerster “was shot once with Acoli’s weapon, then shot with his own service revolver twice more in the head, killing him.”
There were no eyewitnesses to the final trigger pull — and it didn’t need to be Acoli’s word versus anyone else’s. The physical evidence told the story.
A New Jersey jury convicted Chesimard in 1977 of murdering Trooper Foerster, among other felonies, and she was sentenced to life in prison.
Two years later, armed members of the Black Liberation Army entered the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women, took guards hostage, and helped her escape. She went underground and reappeared in Havana in 1984, where Fidel Castro granted her asylum. She spent the rest of her life there as a fugitive from American justice.
In 2013, on the 40th anniversary of Foerster’s murder, the FBI named her on its Most Wanted Terrorists list — the first woman to be so named — and offered a $1 million reward. New Jersey added another $1 million, bringing the total to $2 million.
The FBI’s account is straightforward: trooper Harper was wounded, while Forester was “shot and killed execution-style at point-blank range.”
Her accomplice, Acoli, the driver who fought with Foerster, was paroled by a split New Jersey Supreme Court in 2022 after spending nearly five decades in prison. That decision remains a wound for many in law enforcement who vividly remember the exact details of Acoli’s crimes.
According to Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, Shakur died due to unspecified “health complications” in Havana on September 25, 2025, at age 78. Her daughter confirmed it. So, she died peacefully under a criminal regime that shielded her from accountability, while Trooper Foerster’s family lived with an empty chair at their dining room table.
The union’s tribute was not a nuanced historical reflection. It was a hagiography, sainting someone rightly convicted in a trooper’s execution and who fled responsibility with guns and hostages. The union stance discredits their profession, but more importantly, it shows every Chicago parent that CTU’s priorities are ideological theatrics over real-world outcomes for kids.
And those outcomes are dismal. On the state’s own tests last year, about 30.5% of CPS students in grades 3–8 met reading standards, and 18–19% met math standards. That means roughly seven out of ten kids aren’t reading on grade level, and more than four out of five aren’t proficient in math.
Among 11th-graders, only about 22% met standards in reading, and approximately 18.6% in math on the SAT. These are the numbers after the district claimed “progress.” Progress from terrible is still terrible for a child who can’t read, write, or compute.
CTU leadership is not some alien imposition; teachers elected them. If you’re in a CPS classroom and you checked the box for leaders who use the union’s megaphone to venerate a convicted cop-killer, you own that message.
When the union’s moral compass points to Havana instead of the founding principles of our country, instead of honoring the law, don’t be surprised when families and taxpayers lose faith.
Chicago schools face a crisis in reading, math, and credibility. A union that prioritizes adults and celebrates Assata Shakur cannot credibly claim to be entirely focused on children. If CTU wants to honor someone, they should recognize the third-grade teacher who turns a non-reader into a fluent reader. They should also acknowledge the algebra teacher who helps a student move from counting on fingers to factoring quadratics.
As for Shakur, the facts remain:
a trooper was executed with his own gun, a jury convicted her, she escaped with help from armed militants, she lived out her years welcomed by and under a brutal, foreign criminal regime, and she died a fugitive. That is the whole story — not the manufactured legend the CTU tried to sell you.
Chicago’s children deserve adults who prioritize academics and character.
Start by rejecting leaders who can’t tell the difference between a hero and a murderer.
