9 things you’d likely get wrong about Illinois Federation of Teachers
The Illinois Federation of Teachers represents employees in more than 200 school districts across the state, but it does a lot that defies expectations. Here are nine things you and its members likely misunderstand, most related to colluding with the Chicago Teachers Union.
The Chicago Teachers Union has a reputation for being militant and disliked by its own community, with a January 2025 survey showing just 29% of Chicagoans approve of it.
But CTU doesn’t operate alone. It’s part of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which has local affiliates all over Illinois and just a fraction of its members in Chicago.
That means teachers in Champaign or Quincy who are members of their local unions are also automatically members of IFT and the national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers. Their money is going to pay the salaries of IFT’s leaders – including its executive vice president, Stacy Davis Gates, the CTU president whose tenure has been rocked by one scandal after another. Their money also supports the union’s leftist politics and one local in particular: the aptly named Local 1, CTU.
The bottom line: local affiliates in districts all over the state are inextricably tied with IFT, its use of money and its support of CTU.
Here are nine things residents and education employees in those 200 communities should know about IFT, but likely did not realize:
- IFT is present in more than 200 Illinois school districts.
- IFT claims to have more members than it really has.
- IFT and its affiliates are the No. 1 funder of Chicago politics.
- IFT spends a disproportionate amount on CTU compared to other local affiliates.
- IFT has over $21 million in net assets.
- IFT’s political action committee has an additional $2.5 million in its war chest.
- IFT takes millions from teachers in dues each year but spends little on representing them.
- IFT lavishes six-figure salaries on its own employees.
- IFT’s president was a partisan delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
With IFT more focused on its own pockets and political agenda, it’s no wonder Illinois’ student proficiency is in shambles. By 11th grade, not even 1 in 3 students can read at grade level. Even fewer can do math.
You can use our look-up tool to determine if your district’s teachers union is part of IFT.
1. IFT is present in more than 200 Illinois school districts
While CTU is IFT’s most well-known affiliate, the union has affiliates in at least 200 other Illinois school districts, according to data published by the Illinois State Board of Education.
Its affiliate locations range from Galena Unit School District 120 in the uppermost northwest corner of Illinois to the Joppa-Maple Grove Unit District 38 in the southern tip of the state. See item No. 3 for why CTU is No. 1 with IFT.
2. IFT claims to have more members than it really has
The union claims on its website to have over 100,000 members, but that’s not what it told the U.S. Department of Labor in its most recent federal report.
The union has 88,458 members, according to that report. That means one of three things: 1) IFT is overreporting its membership on its public website, 2) IFT misrepresented (under oath) its member numbers to the U.S. Department of Labor, or 3) IFT lost more than 11% of its membership since it last updated its website.
With CTU reporting 28,680 members in its last federal report, that means most education employees IFT represents – nearly 60,000 – are not in Chicago.
3. IFT spends a disproportionate amount on CTU compared to other local affiliates
IFT redirects some money it receives back into its local affiliates. But the way it prioritizes this spending isn’t representative of the districts where its members work.
Less than one-third of IFT’s members are in Chicago, yet CTU receives the majority of IFT’s affiliate funding. In 2024, 60% of local affiliate spending was on CTU, with just 40% on the remaining locals.
That deprioritization of IFT’s non-Chicago affiliates isn’t new. For at least the past 20 years, CTU has received the majority of IFT’s affiliate spending.
4. IFT and its affiliates are the No. 1 funder of Chicago politics
IFT spent over $1 million on politics in 2024, according to its federal report. But that’s nothing new. IFT and its affiliates – CTU and AFT – were the biggest spenders on Chicago politics leading up to the 2023 municipal election that put CTU lobbyist Brandon Johnson in the mayor’s office.
Altogether, IFT, CTU and AFT funneled nearly $6.5 million to Chicago mayoral, city council, city clerk and city treasurer candidates between Feb. 28, 2022, and May 4, 2023.
Not even one-third of IFT’s members are in Chicago. Yet it’s pouring money into Chicago politics.
5. IFT has over $21 million in net assets
IFT would like the public to think it’s one of the little guys fighting the elite. But its accounting reveals it is part of the elite political class. Not only does it spend millions on politics, but it also maintains millions in assets.
IFT had $30,323,485 in assets – including over $15 million in cash – at the end of 2024, according to its report with the U.S. Department of Labor. It reported $9,096,921 in liabilities, for total net assets of $21,226,564.
That doesn’t include anything IFT has diverted to its political action committee.
6. IFT’s political action committee has an additional $2.5 million in its war chest
IFT’s accounting to the U.S. Department of Labor doesn’t include what it has already diverted to its political action committee.
That PAC has over $2.5 million, according to Illinois Sunshine. From there, it can be used on any political candidate or cause without member approval.
7. IFT takes millions from teachers in dues each year but spends little on representing teachers
IFT receives dues passed up the chain from its 200-plus local affiliates. In 2024, IFT took in $25,136,261 in member dues, according to its federal report.
It spent a total of $50,173,911 that year. Yet only $12,882,785 – or just 26% of its total spending – was on “representational activities,” which the U.S. Department of Labor defines as including the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement and the administration and enforcement of the resulting contract.
The rest was spent on politics, overhead and other union leadership priorities.
That means teachers handed over $25 million in dues to the union, yet barely half of that was spent on teacher representation.
8. IFT lavishes six-figure salaries on its own employees
IFT employed 142 officers and other staffers in 2024, and 63 of them made over $100,000. IFT President Dan Montgomery earned over $278,000.
Another big IFT earner: CTU President Stacy Davis Gates, who pulled in $78,150 from IFT to act as its executive vice president. That’s in addition to her $187,000 salary from CTU, according to that union’s 2024 federal filing.
The average teacher salary in Illinois was less than $76,000.
In total, IFT spent $12.7 million on its own officers and employees’ salaries. Despite the fact IFT takes money from teachers all over the state, it funded politically volatile leaders such as Davis Gates, who does not necessarily represent the best interests or political preferences of teachers outside Chicago.
Teachers are sending their hard-earned money to IFT. IFT is taking advantage of them, using their union dues to prop up its own expensive employees while spending just 26 cents of every dollar on representing those teachers.
9. IFT’s president was a partisan delegate to the Democratic National Convention
IFT routinely endorses candidates in elections. But those endorsements don’t necessarily reflect the preferences of its members.
Of the more than 115 legislative and judicial candidates it endorsed in the 2024 general election, just four were Republicans. IFT also praised its national affiliate, AFT, as the first one to endorse Kamala Harris for president.
But IFT President Montgomery took IFT’s support for Harris a step farther, attending the Democratic National Convention as a delegate and posting after the convention, “our own IFT members are ALL IN for Kamala and Tim!” He wasn’t there in his own personal capacity but instead presented himself as being there on behalf of IFT and speaking for all the union’s members.
Yet overall union membership voting trends show IFT’s endorsements run contrary to the preferences of a large swath of union households. An estimated 45% of Illinois union members supported former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Nationally, at least 40% of union households voted for Trump in 2020. By 2024, exit polling showed 45% of houses with at least one union member in 10 key states voted Republican.
Regardless of a member’s personal leanings, IFT’s politically motivated actions and spending run counter to the organization’s purpose of representing teachers on core wage and workplace issues – especially when just 26 cents of every union dollar is spent on its core purpose.
When a union spends three times more on leadership priorities than it does on representing members, there’s a problem.
IFT needs to get back to the basics of representing teachers on core issues and distance itself from the radical values of CTU instead of empowering them.