Chicago Teachers Union took over Acero charter schools to stifle parents’ rights

The Chicago Teachers Union played a long game with Acero charter schools: unionizing them, undermining them and then taking them over. Now students and parents are left without the charter schools they chose.

The Chicago Teachers Union is the enemy of parents’ rights. It’s efforts to unionize charter schools, push them to the brink of closure and then take them over as typical public schools bears this out.

After the Acero Schools charter network announced it was closing seven of its 15 schools, the union made a show of claiming it supported the parents and students affected.

Now Chicago Public Schools board members – appointed by CTU crony Mayor Brandon Johnson – have unanimously voted to fund the schools to keep them open for the coming school year but transform five of them into CPS-run schools starting in the 2026-2027 school year. The district will evaluate whether to keep the other two open as district-run schools.

Parents should be wary of CTU’s alleged “support.” Parents chose charter schools for a reason. What was offered through the district’s traditional schools wasn’t right for their children. Now, the absorbed schools will no longer be charters.

The Acero situation is no aberration. CTU’s admitted plan: 1) unionize charter school employees, 2) undermine the charter schools and then 3) absorb the schools into the district. It is part of CTU’s years-long anti-charter strategy to eliminate the charter schools they never wanted to exist in the first place.

The result: Removing parental choice in education.

Here’s how it played out.

Charter closures were part of CTU’s plan

CTU admitted its plan was to undermine and close Chicago’s charter schools.

Step 1: Unionize. In January 2018 – the same year Acero’s unionized employees merged with CTU – former CTU President Jesse Sharkey explicitly admitted his motivation to “undermine further charter expansion,” using tactics such as unionizing and merging charter schools into CTU.

Step 2: Undermine. Later that year, CTU employed its go-to tactic in leading Acero’s teachers out on strike, marking the first charter school strike in the nation and cancelling class for the 7,000 students at the 15 schools.

Notably, Acero administrators cite declining enrollment and significant operating costs – two of the many negative effects CTU has also had on CPS – in its closure reasoning. “Unlike CPS, Acero Schools cannot operate with a budget deficit; we must legally balance our budget,” its statement reads.

Step 3: Absorb. After Acero announced schools were closing, current CTU president Stacy Davis Gates claimed she wanted to “save” them by absorbing them into CPS. The school board followed her directive on Dec. 20 and did just that.

Now those charters will no longer exist.

CTU has a long history of anti-parent actions

CTU doesn’t want parents to have the right to make educational choices for their children, which is substantiated by its very public attack on charter schools. Just a few examples:

• It directly undermined parents’ ability to choose charter schools in its last two teacher contracts with CPS, requiring a moratorium on charter school growth. A side letter negotiated under Sharkey in its recently expired contract mandated a “net zero increase” in the number of charter schools over the term of the four-year contract and limited enrollment to 101% of the capacity those schools were at in 2019-2020. In other words, CTU purposefully prevented the growth in the number of new charter schools and the enrollment of students in those already in existence.
• CTU’s demands for the new contract continue that assault, limiting the number of students enrolled in charters by the 2027-2028 school year to the same capacity as enrolled during the 2023-2024 school year.
• The union was also instrumental in CPS’s decision to limit the length of charter school contracts to just three years, as opposed to the 10-year standard under state law. The shortened contract length makes it harder for charters to plan or invest in the schools. It’s also less attractive to potential staff or students, who realize their school may not exist in just a few years.
• CTU’s goal to undermine charters has played out in the Statehouse as well, affecting not just Chicagoans but students and families statewide. In the six legislative sessions between 2011-2022, the union lobbied lawmakers on at least 50 bills related to charter schools and educational choice. For example, the union opposedat least three bills removing limits on the total number of charter schools that can operate statewide or in the city of Chicago.

Of course, CTU’s fight against educational options isn’t just about charters. The union was also instrumental in killing the Invest in Kids tax credit scholarship program, declaring that it should be terminated “for good.” When the program ended, at least 15,000 kids around the state were left stranded without scholarships, and multiple private schools closed completely.

Unlike CTU, the people of Illinois didn’t want the scholarship program to end. Polling found voters supported the program 3-1, with at least 60% support from each main political party.

Back in Chicago, families chose Acero charter schools because those schools were a better fit for their children than the traditional schools within CPS. CTU overrode their choice and pushed the schools toward closure. Now those students will be tossed back into a system that is not working, condemning families to district schools with abysmal outcomes for students.