The Chicago Teachers Union is backing various candidates for Chicago Board of Education. CTU has donated more than $175,000 to their endorsed candidates.
Years of exorbitant political spending in Illinois – more than $24.3 million since 2010 – has secured an enormous amount of political influence for the Chicago Teachers Union. It is now the main political player not just in Chicago, but across the state.
Illinois government workers’ union dues fund Democratic Party campaign committees, which are now seeking to tip the presidential election outcome in swing states. That fails to align with at least 40% of members’ politics.
The Chicago Teachers Union’s internal rules require it to release an audit to members each year. It hasn’t done so since Sept. 9, 2020.
The Chicago Teachers Union’s leaders want teachers to keep parents in the dark if their child asks to go by a different name or pronouns in school. The school district is OK with that.
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates decried standardized testing. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said schools should be measured by spending, not performance. ‘Accountability’ is not in their vocabulary.
Chicago teachers were handed a union without the ability to choose for themselves. It’s the result of a system that props up government unions at the expense of the members they are supposed to serve.
It may be based in Chicago, but the Chicago Teachers Union’s lobbying affects residents throughout Illinois. The Illinois General Assembly did CTU’s bidding on 60% of the bills on which the union took a stance last session. CTU discontent is growing.
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates had words for state lawmakers, the governor, corporations and financial institutions at a public bargaining session over a new union contract. She said union demands are not a money discussion, but rather about culture.
The federal filings of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and its national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers, reveal questionable spending, with little spent on representing teachers, millions spent on politics and deficit spending while the big boss got $500K.
Chicago Public Schools just passed a $9.9 billion budget that spends nearly $30,000 per student. Despite receiving most city property taxes, boosted state funding and about 40% of federal aid, the new teachers contract will put the budget in the red.
The Chicago Teachers Union has funneled over $850,000 to the political committees of 30 of the 50 current Chicago aldermen since 2010. Seven Socialists received the most money.