Chicago Public Schools teachers face a tough decision in the coming days: While the district is set to reopen K-8 schools for the first time since March 2020, the Chicago Teachers Union is calling for teachers to take collective action and refuse to return to classrooms. Whether refusing to work in person would constitute an...

Students are scheduled to return to classrooms Feb. 1 for the first time in 10 months. The union is threatening that.

Most of CPS’s 340,000 students haven’t been in a classroom for 10 months, and a brewing CTU strike could keep them out even longer.

Illinois labor laws prevent the Chicago Teachers Union from going on strike to protest the reopening of school buildings. But the union is winning a push for legislation that places students’ return to school in jeopardy.

The Chicago Teachers Union is encouraging Chicago Public School teachers to “take action” against the school district, but the union’s agenda risks teachers’ jobs without backing by science or law.

Madigan already faced similar scandals alleging he asked powerful corporations to hire people at his recommendation.

CTU members who don’t support the union’s violent rhetoric have another option: they can opt out of the union. But they must do so today if they want to stop paying dues this school year.

Teachers’ unions have provided lots of campaign cash to Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan, who’s been implicated in a bribery scandal. Teachers who don’t want their money sent to a corrupt system can opt out of the union.

While members can opt out of CTU at any time, the union says they may only stop paying the union if they do so during a one-month period. A lawsuit filed against the union argues this violates teachers’ First Amendment rights.

Leaders of Illinois’ largest local teachers’ union received swift blowback after their latest push into public politics. Members dissatisfied with the priorities of their union’s leadership deserve to know they have other options.