New polling shows 3-in-5 Chicago voters have an unfavorable view of the Chicago Teachers Union. More than 55% said they would be less likely to vote for someone who accepts CTU donations.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is on leave from Chicago Public Schools while his administration negotiates its new contract. If Johnson were to return to CPS, he would be guaranteed a six-figure job.
The Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools entered the “fact finding” phase of negotiations in January 2025. Here’s what that means, whether Chicago students might be out of class, when and what it all could do to taxpayers.
The first nationwide school choice bill to pass out of committee in U.S. history was just reintroduced. But teachers unions, which killed Illinois’ school choice program in 2023, oppose giving families education options.
Rapid growth in government jobs during 2024 did little to fix the downward trajectory of union membership in Illinois. Just 13.1% of workers are union members in the state.
Government unions posed threats to public welfare that were recognized by founders of the labor movement and by progressive icon Franklin D. Roosevelt. Those threats have become reality, with government union power dominating – especially in Illinois.
A current dispute with SEIU and militant stances against police are just two reasons other city unions have reason to believe the Chicago Teachers Union cares little about solidarity and a lot about its own interests.
NEA has lost nearly 400,000 members since its peak in 2009. It could be because just 9% of the union’s spending is on representing teachers – with the rest on politics, administration and other union leader priorities.
The American Federation of Teachers’ recent federal filing showed just 36% of the national union’s spending was on representing teachers. More than two-thirds of its own employees made six-figure salaries.
The Illinois Education Association is the largest statewide teachers union in Illinois. But less than 15% of its in spending in 2024 was on representing its members – which could be why nearly 5,000 education employees have left the union.
The Chicago Teachers Union is pushing to expand the 20 “sustainable community schools” in the district. But the model doesn’t work: fewer students are proficient, absenteeism is higher.
The Chicago Teachers Union wails about schools closing, but it is the union’s actions that have been solely responsible for past school closings and for the conditions that will lead to more closures in the future.
Public records show the Chicago Teachers Union and other union entities pay Stacy Davis Gates a very healthy salary. But union transparency ends there. CTU is refusing to show members how it spends their money, despite that mandate in CTU’s rules.
The Chicago Teachers Union spent $1.74 million on its endorsed school board candidates. But most of them were defeated, signaling the unpopularity of CTU and Mayor Brandon Johnson.