After Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates admitted to sending her son to a private school while trying to kill school choice for others, she defended her decision to her union’s members. To be kind, it was misleading. Here’s a fact check of it.

Educators and other public school employees in Illinois can opt out of union membership in August and stop paying dues.

Just 26% of IFT’s spending in 2022 was on representing teachers. IFT’s questionable spending could be why nearly 16,500 Illinois public school employees have chosen to distance themselves from the union.

Less than 8% of NEA and IEA’s spending in 2022 was on representing teachers, according to the unions’ federal reports. That could be why nearly 203,000 public school employees – including more than 6,000 in Illinois – have left NEA since 2017.