Chicago Teachers Union contract will be costly, but did union get what it demanded?

After bankrolling Mayor Brandon Johnson’s way into office, the Chicago Teachers Union went into contract negotiations demanding 700-plus new provisions, estimated to cost at least $10 billion. What it got: 150 new provisions worth around $1.5 billion.

The Chicago Teachers Union had big expectations after spending $2.3 million to get its lobbyist into the mayor’s office and another $1.7 million to get four of its candidates into 10 school board spots.

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said “so what” if the contract cost $50 billion and three cents. More than 700 demands were priced at between $10 billion and nearly $14 billion on the ones that could be calculated.

But the past year did not yield the smoother negotiations and transformative contract the union predicted. Instead, it bred contempt for the union across the city.

The four-year deal is estimated at $1.5 billion. That took nearly a year and gave CTU a fraction of its agenda.

CTU’s House of Delegates approved the union’s tentative contract with Chicago Public Schools on April 2. All union members now vote on April 10 and 11 before a final approval by the CPS board.

After bankrolling former CTU employee Brandon Johnson’s mayoral campaign – including spending members’ dues without their OK – the union thought it had a foolproof plan for getting everything it wanted in a new contract. “Most of us remember past contract negotiations in 2012, 2016, and 2019. They weren’t just contract campaigns, they were battles…. This time, CTU’s contract demands are aligned with the Mayor’s education transition report,” CTU told members at the beginning of negotiations.

Nearly a year after negotiations started, rumor had it Davis Gates didn’t have the requisite member votes to approve a strike. And the community was against her, with just 29% of Chicagoans having a favorable opinion of the union and 60% an unfavorable opinion.

Davis Gates overpromised and underdelivered. With her own leadership re-election coming up in May, it seems Davis Gates was forced into making a relatively benign deal to land the contract in time.

That said, the four-year contract will still burden taxpayers, and Johnson does not yet have a plan to pay for it. There are also provisions that are bad for students and taxpayers.

Here is what CTU achieved, versus what it demanded, as well as other initial demands that appear missing from the tentative agreement.

What CTU got versus what it demanded

CTU went into contract negotiations with 700-plus demands. In the end, it only delivered on 150. Here are some of the main provisions of the tentative contract:

• Raises: Teachers will receive 4% cost-of-living increases in Year 1 of the contract. They will receive 4-5% in each of the remaining three years, depending on inflation. This is the same proposal made by the fact finder in February, which CTU rejected. CTU had demanded 9% raises.
• New positions: The contract includes 800-900 additional staff during the four years and in targeted areas, such as special education and bilingual positions. CTU had demanded 13,900.
• Instructional time: Student instructional time will remain the same, but teachers will receive 10 extra minutes of prep time during the day. CTU had wanted to cut student instructional time to provide planning time for teachers.
• “Sustainable community schools”: An additional 50 schools will be created over the course of the contract, bringing the total count to 70. CTU wanted to add 180 of these schools, which have the worst outcomes in the district.
• Curricula demands: Teachers will be able to supplement curricula, and students, parents or other individuals can challenge lesson content. The lesson content could be restricted following a review process outlined in the contract. CTU had demanded total teacher autonomy to reject district-mandated curricula.
• School safety and discipline: The new contract includes a section on “restorative practices,” including the provision of restorative practices training. CTU had demanded police-free schools.
• Housing: The union and board will advocate for affordable, accessible and safe housing through city initiatives and legislative efforts to attempt to provide housing and rental assistance to 20,000 students. CTU had demanded the board partner with the city to create 10,000 new affordable housing units. It had also demanded a program to help new teachers buy homes.
• Charter school moratorium: There will be a net-zero increase in the number of board-authorized charter schools during the agreement, and the total number of students enrolled by the 2027-28 school year will not exceed 101% of the total student enrollment capacity as of school year 2023-24. In other words, charter school growth – both in terms of schools and enrollment in already existing schools – will be stifled. CTU’s demands were met.
• Charter school reabsorption: The board must adopt transition procedures for charter and contract school closures and reabsorptions by the end of the 2026-2027 school year or earlier. This paves the way for charter closures within the district, a CTU goal. CTU’s demands were met.
• Secrets from parents: The district can hide students’ preferred gender identity from parents. The district must “respect students’ privacy, especially if parents or family members do not know how students identify or express their identity.” Teachers “will not be required to reveal a student’s sexual orientation or gender identity without the student’s permission,” unless it is necessary for health or safety emergencies or as required by law. CTU’s demands were met.

Other demands missing from the tentative agreement

CTU went into negotiations with an array of social justice, climate justice and other politically motivated demands that don’t appear in other large school district contracts. It would have been the first contract of its kind. But many of those provisions are missing in the tentative agreement, including the following:

• Carbon neutrality by 2035: CTU wanted the district to establish a carbon-neutral schools pilot program at five schools and develop a plan to be a fully carbon-neutral district by 2035.
• All-electric bus fleet: CTU wanted the board to implement a 100%-electric bus fleet, driven by unionized employee bus drivers.
• Cash to asylum seekers: CTU wanted $2,000 for each newcomer student.
• CTA passes to all employees and students: CTU wanted free Chicago Transit Authority fares for all CPS students and employees.
• Creating dormitories for unaccompanied youth: CTU wanted the board and union to identify schools with vacant, unused floors, to be converted into dormitories for unaccompanied youth.
• Environmental, Social, Governance pension investments: CTU wanted the board to collaborate with the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund and the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund to identify and move away from any investments the union saw as contributing to climate change and other practices it considered to be harming students and communities.

There’s no doubt the contract will be costly. But it doesn’t appear to rise to the “transformative” contract Davis Gates promised. Even after ensuring a friendly administration with Johnson as mayor, she couldn’t compete with the forces against her: a membership unlikely to approve a strike and the union’s plummeting reputation among Chicagoans.

The 2019 CTU contract also cost $1.5 billion over five years and took a teacher strike to obtain. It included teachers raises that put the average salary at $93,182 in 2024 – growing 2.5 times faster than inflation – and additional sustainable community schools, among other provisions.

What has that cost done for education in Chicago? Not even 1 in 3 CPS students read at grade level. Even fewer do math at grade level. Student outcomes in 2024 barely surpassed 2019 levels.

It doesn’t leave much hope this new CTU contract will help student proficiency or end the CTU’s incessant quest for power.