BOSTON – Boston Mayor Martin Walsh and others are calling out union-affiliated groups for their involvement in a “student” walkout Monday that drew more than 1,000 to the capitol.

“I’d love to see who’s behind the walkout,” Walsh said. “Whoever’s behind it, I hope they start to feed the young students in our city with accurate information and not misguided information.”

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Students in schools across the city walked out of class around 11:30 a.m. Monday and marched on Beacon Hill to protest budget cuts aimed at closing the district’s $50 million shortfall, MassLive.com reports.

The student walkout was staged by two groups with very close ties to state and local teachers unions, which relentlessly campaign for increasing school funding regardless of budget issues.

The Boston Education Justice Alliance and the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools helped to organize the student protest as part of a nationwide campaign against school budget cuts, the Boston Globe reports.

“The Alliance to reclaim our schools has member organizations that include politically potent labor groups such as the National Education Association and Service Employees International Union,” according to the news site.

“The Boston Education Justice Alliance has 17 member organizations, including the American Federation of Teachers-Massachusetts and its local affiliate, the Boston Teachers’ Union.”

“I support the students in terms of them advocating for their needs,” Dina Cundiff, parent of a first-grader and member of the Citywide Parent Council, told the Globe. “However, I think they are being misguided, and they are being used as propaganda.”

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Union officials, of course, denied any involvement in the walkout, and claim students are simply upset about $12 million in budget cuts proposed by Walsh.

The Boston Education Justice Alliance promoted the walkout on its website, sent a letter to parents encouraging them to support students, and helped to organize similar protests. The alliance’s full-time director Marlena Rose works for Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, an alliance membership organization that’s heavily funded by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, according to the Globe.

“We had almost nothing to do with it,” Massachusetts Jobs with Justice executive director Russ Davis told the news site. “We offered to support them, and we spread the word, but that definitely came out of the students being upset at the cuts happening at the schools.”

Boston Teachers’ Union president Richard Stutman also contends the walkout “was started by a group of high school students, and it spread through social media.”

“I think it’s great that kids can demonstrate, and demonstrate peacefully,” he said.

Massachusetts Teachers Association president Barbara Madeloni denied any union involvement in the student protest, as well.

“My goal was to celebrate it, and I thought it was awesome,” she said of students missing classes. “People have a hard time respecting the power of student leadership, and the way students can name issues and organize themselves.”

If similar student protests in Chicago are any indication, the students are learning from the best.

In January, the Chicago Teachers Union held a workshop called “Teachers Empowering Students for Social Change” to help teachers learn the best ways to convince their students to take action for the union’s causes.

In an email endorsed by the CTU and sent by the far-left faction of Chicago teachers known as “Teachers for Social Justice,” encouraged educators to attend the Saturday workshop if they want to “empower” students to “express purposeful dissent,” “engage in civic action to bring about desired social change,” and “become involved in solutions to CPS’ teaching and learning problems,” EAGnews reports.

About three weeks later, roughly 300 students at Lincoln Park High School walked out of class to protest teacher pension issues, CBS Chicago reports.