West Cook News

Activist William Mueller is slamming River Forest District 90 School Board President Ralph Martire for reportedly pushing an equity-based curriculum linked to a downswing in student scores. 

“Illinois is hopeless," Mueller told West Cook News. "The unions (teachers and government AFSCME) are the tails wagging the dog. There are close to 900 school districts in Illinois with half having only one or two schools.  By contrast, Florida, with 35% more students has less than 100 school districts.  Per pupil cost in Illinois is $12,300 while in Florida it's $8400 … heard enough?” 

According to Mueller if Martire thinks "five years of declining scores is brilliant', he thinks otherwise.

“Martire is part of the plot to destroy the school system," he added. "How long will Illinois tolerate 'educators' telling you black is really white and white is really black. CRT, ESL, DEI, etc. are all part of the plot that tells minorities not to try and learn because it's hopeless… you’re a victim… it's systemic and there is nothing you can do.  The ‘solution’ is to stigmatize accomplishment as being ‘too white’ and to condemn white students as hopelessly racist and privileged.”   

Mueller urges educators to do better.

“Are you starting to see the division this has caused in Illinois all you ‘wokes'. No hope for blacks, stigmatize accomplishment, dumb down learning, destroy the true history of this country, gut the middle class and then the Marxists can just swoop in and take over," he said

Those comments come as River Forest District 90 School Board President Ralph Martire, a teacher's union lobbyist and political activist, is pushing a failed equity-based teaching methodology on Oak Park and River Forest High School, West Cook News reported.  Martire serves as executive director of The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a public employee union-funded think tank. Its backers include the state's two largest teacher's unions — the Illinois Education Association, and the Illinois Federation of Teachers-- as well as AFSCME Council 31. In the past, Martire’s methods have made their way up to the state level and have been implemented by the Illinois State Board of Education

Martire, who is also a Roosevelt professor of public policy and public administration, was reportedly on a hot mic in early 2021 gloating about promoting Marxist ideals in schools, West Cook News previously reported. He said the way he views government budgets is through a lens of how to use them to "organize society." 

In 2017 Martire was behind a revamp in the state’s education funding, West Cook News reported. Martire is the author of state public school spending minimums, arguing that more money spent on teacher pay and benefits will result in better education for Illinois students. He believes that schools should focus less on classroom adjustments, such as reviewing curriculum or terminating unproductive instructors, and more on how much money they are spending in order to increase student performance.