A lawsuit challenging the Chicago Teachers Union’s failure to release mandated financial audits to its members survived CTU’s attempt to get it thrown out.

Chicago Teachers Union members have reason to question the leadership of President Stacy Davis Gates heading into the May 16 union election. Her many scandals have driven down the union’s reputation.

The Illinois state affiliate of the Service Employees International Union collected over $3 million in dues from members in 2024. It spent just $57,000 of that representing them. Politics and overhead were the union’s priorities.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ questionable spending, as revealed in its own federal reporting, could be driving members away from the union.

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.

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.

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.