Editorial: CTU president wants us to stop asking questions about how Chicago will pay for her list of demands

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates on March 5 told a packed house at the City Club of Chicago this: Stop asking questions about how to pay for her list of demands, even if it costs “$50 billion … and three cents.”

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates on March 5 told a packed house at the City Club of Chicago this: Stop asking questions about how to pay for her list of demands, even if it costs “$50 billion … and three cents.”

CTU allies’ infamous “First We Get the Money” is a theme the union will continue in its upcoming contract negotiations. Details of what CTU leadership is demanding were revealed Monday.

The last contract ended up costing taxpayers an extra $1.5 billion over the old one. That contract expires on June 30. CTU leadership’s new demands indicate the next contract will cost even more.

Among the new demands are a call for taxpayer-funded housing assistance for teachers, who are the highest-paid among big city districts. Sources inside city government estimate increased staffing, class size limits and new workspace demands alone will cost billions of dollars. As the district stares down a $391 million budget deficit this year, and nearly $700 million the following year, it’s hard to imagine how it can afford to take on even higher costs.

“They’re gonna say, ‘These are great proposals and can’t nobody pay for it and CTU with all of this, that and the other and who’s gonna pay for it, Stacy?’” she said Tuesday. “Stop asking that question. Ask another question.”

How about this question: How does Davis Gates’ continued demands for “more, more, more” square with a CPS’ student population that is “less, less, less” and scores that are “lower, lower, lower”?

Chicago students deserve properly staffed, well-resourced schools that prepare them for success. But since CORE took over the CTU in 2010, the district is down 86,000 students. That shows Chicago parents aren’t buying what Davis Gates and the other radicals are selling.

It’s also down in terms of student outcomes, where fewer kids can read and write at grade level. This, of course, should be CTU leadership’s primary focus.

But as the district loses kids and its scores get worse and worse, it’s getting more and more money from state and local taxpayers. CPS will collect more than $7 billion from state and local taxpayers in fiscal year 2023. That number was $4.5 billion in fiscal year 2010. That’s good for CTU leadership, but not great for anyone else. Even with more money, the district’s results continue to decline, and budget gaps persist.

Here's another question: How can the union and the district work together to come up with a plan that better utilizes existing, ample funds?

So, how does a union that has overseen the rapid decline of city schools have the power to demand whatever it wants? Including, of course, demands well outside the scope of wages and benefits, such as a proposal to allow CTU to dictate the school district’s legislative positions and calls for climate justice in school facilities?

Well, it helps to know the mayor. But even before former CTU employee Brandon Johnson was elected thanks to the union’s campaign cash, a tweak to state law gave CTU the ability to ask for anything in contract negotiations. In 2021, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill that took away that limitation, and now CTU leadership can demand absolutely anything.