Chicago Teachers Union wants housing assistance for teachers making nearly $100K
New contract demands from the Chicago Teachers Union include housing assistance for teachers. Chicago’s median teacher salary is more than $93,000.
The Chicago Teachers Union will soon ask the city for financial assistance to house teachers.
For reference, the median teacher’s salary is more than $93,000 compared to Chicago’s median household income for the whole city of $71,000.
CTU also said it wants money for housing students experiencing homelessness or temporary living situations, but the first item on their list of housing demands was: “Financial assistance for CTU members to live and work in the city.”
CTU’s contract proposal states their housing agenda starts with “Bring Chicago Home” on the city’s March 19 primary ballot. They gave $200,000 to the effort to promote the tax hike.
The referendum states money from the new tax is intended to help the homeless, but there are no details or guarantees. Johnson has not offered a plan about how the tax will help the homeless and nothing in the ballot language itself lays out a plan. If passed, it would allow the city to raise taxes without binding the city to use the funds generated in any explicit way that guarantees helping the homeless.
Now CTU wants city funds shifted towards paying for their members’ housing.
The real estate transfer tax hike was a major promise from Johnson on the campaign trail. He was a CTU employee and his campaign was backed with $2.5 million from CTU and its affiliates. He will be negotiating the union’s new contract this summer.
CTU’s contract proposal says its housing campaign starts with “Bring Chicago Home” on the city’s March 19 primary ballot. Then union bosses want Chicago Public Schools to add housing advocacy to their mission – an alarming extra duty when the district is doing so poorly at its primary mission of educating children.
Trusting Chicago leaders to use the money well seems unlikely. An Illinois Answers Project investigation found Chicago had only spent 15% of its $52 million in American Rescue Plan funds budgeted for homelessness.
Before taking millions more from residents, the city should examine how it can better use $44 million in federal dollars it still has or the $200 million in its budget for homeless relief.
Providing housing funds for teachers already earning $93,000 seems like an extremely poor use of tax dollars.
Paid for by Vote No on Chicago Real Estate Tax