CHICAGO — A Chicago Public Schools official informed Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s campaign team that it can’t recruit students for political work on campus or offer extra credit — hours before the mayor’s campaign released a statement defending it as a “common practice” done for decades, emails obtained by The Chicago Tribune show.
Lightfoot’s campaign emailed CPS teachers earlier this month asking them to help recruit students for her reelection campaign in exchange for class credit.
The Lightfoot campaign’s effort to recruit students is under investigation by CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher and Chicago IG Deborah Witzburg. Lightfoot has apologized for the emails, calling them a “mistake” while downplaying them as an error in judgment by a staffer.
