Stacy Davis Gates’ tenure as president of the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Federation of Teachers has been riddled with scandals. Now, fewer than 1-in-3 Chicagoans have a favorable opinion of the union.
IFT represents educators in more than 200 districts across Illinois. But teachers’ zip codes dictate how much support they actually get from the union.
Going into this budget cycle, there should be an added urgency for the City Council to build its capacity to play a co-equal role in the budget process and push to adopt more reforms and efficiencies to control spending.