To be successful in politics, you need to attract allies and build coalitions. That’s basic stuff.
The Chicago Teachers Union long ago refashioned itself as a political power player and at its peak in 2023 managed to get one of its own, former CTU organizer Brandon Johnson, elected mayor of Chicago.
But now? As Johnson weighs whether to run for a second term in next year’s election, CTU is seeing former friends and allies either become enemies or distance themselves from the union’s pressure tactics and recklessness. In other words, it’s doing precisely the opposite of what one needs to do to be successful in politics.
The clearest example of CTU failing to win friends and influence people is its ongoing feud with Local 73 of the Service Employees International Union over who gets to represent various non-teaching employees of Chicago Public Schools. Once the two were staunch allies and both played major roles in getting Johnson elected.
Now, they’re backing different candidates for Chicago school board president in the city’s first-ever election of that position. You can read the views on CPS’ budget of all five candidates for board president, including CTU-endorsed Hilario Dominguez and SEIU-endorsed Jessica Biggs, today in our pages.
But don’t overlook the endorsement Monday of Gov. JB Pritzker by the Illinois Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.
CTU is part of the other major umbrella group for teachers, the Illinois Federation of Teachers. And CTU and IFT have been hammering away at Pritzker for questioning their demand for $150 million in immediate funds to stave off layoffs and furloughs Chicago Public Schools otherwise will have to impose to balance its budget for the coming school year. CTU and IFT haven’t endorsed Pritzker’s reelection bid amid their pressure campaign.
No such qualms for IEA, whose membership is dominated by suburban teachers whereas a third of IFT’s membership are Chicago teachers. Stacy Davis Gates is president both of CTU and the IFT.
IEA President Karl Goeke took pains to say that his organization’s backing of Pritzker didn’t mean it was “at odds” with Davis Gates and the IFT. Of the push for $150 million more to Chicago Public Schools, he said, “I don’t know enough about that to comment.”
Perhaps Goeke has been on a long vacation, but — especially if public education is your business — you’d have to have been living under the proverbial rock not to be up to speed on the Chicago school board’s vote late last month to leave a $150 million hole in its budget and expect Springfield to plug it.
So we’ll surmise that IEA doesn’t plan to join Davis Gates’ latest effort to bully Springfield into shoveling more cash at the bloated Chicago school system.
Speaking of bullying, CTU on Monday filed a defamation lawsuit against the Illinois Policy Institute, a frequent critic of Davis Gates and the union. Named in the complaint was IPI Vice President Austin Berg, who has broken much reporting ground on CTU’s fraught relations with some of its own members and has been an articulate voice on television, podcasts and radio on the politics of public education in Chicago. The final defendant is the Liberty Justice Center, a nonprofit legal outfit with a libertarian point of view.
Among IPI’s allegedly defamatory actions was to use the word “toxic” to describe some of CTU’s behavior, including the union’s misguided push to make May 1 an unscheduled school holiday to enable students to join teachers in protesting for (you guessed it) more cash from Springfield — a campaign that CPS CEO Macquline King thankfully resisted.
The complaint cites a couple of other instances of IPI’s use of the word toxic to describe Davis Gates and the CTU.
Last we checked, the First Amendment right to free speech still exists in this country. And last we checked CTU was arguably the most influential political organization in the city of Chicago. The idea that a think tank sitting somewhat right of center is “defaming” such a powerful player by using a word well within the confines of political discourse is farcical.
Not to mention the obvious fact that Davis Gates herself throws lots of verbal sharp elbows at her political opponents and is hardly some shrinking violet. Her barbs have been directed our way at times, and we have no problem with that. Comes with the territory. The same territory that CTU itself inhabits.
But, of course, this lawsuit is designed to intimidate. All-important school board elections are happening in November. IPI proved itself to be an effective source of information on the stances of candidates in the 2024 board elections that elected 10 members; all 21 members (including president) are on the ballot this time around. Cowing IPI into muzzling itself during this important period no doubt is a goal.
It’s tactics like these that help isolate CTU and alienate the union, even from its organized-labor friends. CTU is trying to have it both ways — to be a political mover-and-shaker while claiming it should be immune to public criticism because all it’s trying to do is represent its members.
Most ordinary Chicagoans, we trust, see through this attempt at changing the narrative.
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