The Chicago Teachers Union has suffered another very public blow, this time at the hands of its own members.
CTU officials looking for extra money for politics had asked union members to approve a plan that was projected to yield about $8.5 million in new dues money for the CTU. Union leadership wrote that “with about 80 percent of schools counted, “roughly 60% of members voted against moving forward with this proposal,” according to a memo obtained by Politico.
The irony is that the proposal would’ve restructured dues into a progressive model in which higher-earning teachers pay more. The plan would’ve cost some teachers as much as $800 more a year, according to Tribune reporting. Flat annual dues this year were $1,476.
The message from the top seems to be that while roughly 60% of members voted against the dues hike, the union will be taking another shot at this issue in the fall.
People tend not to vote for things that are going to cost them more money, yes. And $800 is a lot of cash. But there’s a lot more going on here.
First, CTU spends an awful lot of money on politics, and under Stacy Davis Gates’ leadership, the union’s political spending has quadrupled, according to analysis from Mailee Smith of the Illinois Policy Institute. Meanwhile, Smith noted, the CTU spends less than 20% of teachers’ dues on what the union puts toward the meat and potatoes work of, you know, representing its members. Of course, union leadership would argue that winning in politics is inseparable from protecting public education and will ultimately benefit members.
But you have to ask — what is CTU’s politicking actually getting regular teachers?
Yes, the union won an incredibly (overly) generous union contract. More money is nice, but higher pay and benefits will ultimately end up flowing to fewer teachers and staff members if the price is too high. The district can’t afford it and taxpayers are tapped out, which is leading to inevitable cuts to staff positions. Chicago Public Schools is tasked with closing a whopping $732.5 million deficit, and in an effort to do so has announced it will be cutting an unspecified number of teachers. The Chicago Sun-Times estimated more than 700 teachers could be on the chopping block.
More reasonable union leadership would’ve realized the unpleasant tradeoffs their prized contract would beget.
Second, CTU needs the money. Despite having expected revenues this fiscal year of over $40 million, the big-spending union faces a $4.2 million deficit just months ahead of a historic election this November in which all 21 school board seats are on the ballot.
More than $13 million total was spent in the 2024 school board races, and CTU was the biggest spender, according to Chalkbeat. Still, the union won just four of 10 seats. With more than double that at stake this time around, we imagine union leadership will want to double down, given that these are the folks who will decide so much of what goes on in schools.
That gets us to another issue that likely played into union members voting down this dues hike: The union has a losing record.
Yes, CTU got one of their own elected as mayor in 2023, but none of Johnson’s signature initiatives — from the mansion tax to the head tax — have stuck. Worse, the mayor has proved unable to work effectively with Springfield, a particular pain point given the union’s insistence that Springfield provide substantially more funding for CPS.
Three years into the mayor’s tenure, just 34% of voters have a favorable view of the mayor, according to an April poll. Those numbers are worse for the CTU, which has seen its public approval tank since Johnson was elected.
Today, many CTU members appear to be asking whether the return on their investment has justified the cost. This internal vote looks less like simple sticker shock than a warning from members that CTU leadership has drifted too far from the classroom and too deep into extremist politics.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.