The Chicago Teachers Union’s contract with Chicago Public Schools expires in June 2024, and ahead of negotiations with the district, CTU leadership released a list of demands with more than 700 proposals1 – many of which are extreme and political in nature. To use CTU president Stacy Davis Gates’ own terminology, the union’s demands represent “audacity.”2
If Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU employee, agrees to the union’s demands, it will be a history-making contract. That’s not just because the new demands are estimated to cost at least $10.2 billion in added spending, meaning CTU’s contract could cost $50 billion over its lifetime.3
The other reason this contract would be historic is because CTU’s radical demands go far beyond 9% annual wage increases4 and 45 days off per school year.5 While those demands would be prohibitively expensive for Chicagoans, at least wages and benefits are typical subjects of negotiations.
History will be made if the union succeeds in using negotiations to get its political and social agenda passed, including the following:
- Secrecy from parents on their children’s pronouns and sexuality
- Cash to asylum seekers
- “Police-free” schools
- 100% electric bus fleet
- Solar panels at schools
- Pension funds moved away from investments that are “contributing to climate change”
- Complete carbon neutrality in the district
- Creating 10,000 affordable housing units
- Creating dormitories for “unaccompanied youth” and using schools as sheltering places
- Charter school limitations.6
These issues should be decided by elected leaders – who are accountable for protecting the public’s interests – and not demanded by union bosses at a negotiating table. In short, CTU is trying to circumvent democracy and the will of the people through a union contract. Any political decisions made through the contract cannot be undone until the contract expires and is renegotiated.
How can this be? How can a union demand provisions which fall so obviously outside the scope of normal negotiations?
The Illinois Constitution allows it. The “Workers’ Rights” amendment, passed in 2022 as Amendment 1, grants government unions the fundamental right to negotiate over “wages, hours, and working conditions, and to protect their economic welfare and safety at work.”7 That language, and particularly the term “economic welfare,” is so broad and untested it could mean virtually anything. There is no case law refining it, and lawmakers are prohibited in the state constitution from ever limiting or “diminishing” it.8 Government unions also have a permanent right to strike if their demands are not met.9
Now CTU is using that newly created constitutional power to the max.
It begs the question: Have other large school district unions put such demands into their contracts?
To answer this question, the institute looked at teacher union contracts in the nation’s two largest school districts: the New York City Department of Education and the Los Angeles Unified School District.10
The New York contract has no provisions touching on the CTU demands listed above.11 The LA contract has a few provisions with subject matter similar to those CTU is pushing, but none require the implementation of policy.12
But what about other large districts? There has certainly been a lot of political posturing among teachers unions in the past couple of years, with strikes or threats of strikes over social justice issues making national headlines.
The longest teacher strike of 2023 occurred in Portland, Oregon, where Portland Association of Teachers went on strike for three weeks. The union had warned it would strike if the district refused to provide subsidized housing for low-income families. Earlier that year, the Oakland Education Association also walked out on strike. Among its demands: a Black reparations task force and using district property to help homeless students.
But neither of those strikes resulted in the type of contract provisions CTU is demanding17. Unions have not obtained such politically extreme provisions in Seattle,18 Columbus19 or Minneapolis,20 where headline-grabbing strikes or threats of strikes have occurred in recent years.21
It appears CTU would be the first large-city teachers union to have these demands cemented in a contract. Yet once it paves the way for this type of political bargaining, referred to as “bargaining for the common good,” it most certainly would not be the last. Democracy through elected leaders could be replaced with legislating from the bargaining table.
CTU’s demands would be a first if cemented in the new contract
Among CTU’s 700+ demands are numerous political provisions that fall outside normal bargaining over wages and benefits. Below we examine 10 of those demands, with insight on how other large district contracts deal with the same issues.22
Demand: Secrecy from parents on their children’s pronouns, sexuality
CTU’s many social justice demands include multiple provisions related to “LGBTQ+ Safe Schools,” a “Gender Support Coordinator” and “LGBTQ+ Leads/Specialist” at every school and staff training to be “queer competent.”23
Regardless of where a person stands on these issues, it’s the union’s effort to undermine parental rights in its related demands that is troubling. For example, the union’s demands state, “We must also respect students’ privacy, especially if parents or family members do not know how students identify or express their identity.”24
The demands go on to encourage teachers to work with students to hide their preferences from their families. All staff would be encouraged to “use students’ personal name and personal pronouns, specifically distinguishing student preference in the classroom versus when communicating home to families in order to respect students’ privacy. Employees will be encouraged to ask students about how staff should refer to the student when interacting with family members before all events that include family members.”25
That doesn’t bode well for parents, given CTU’s long history of trying to keep them in the dark on curriculum and even whether their own children were victims of sexual violence.26
None of the other contracts reviewed contain such provisions. To the contrary, the Minneapolis contract includes a provision stating, “teachers shall involve families in significant decisions affecting their student.”27
Demand: Cash to asylum seekers
The city of Chicago spent nearly $300 million on the migrant crisis in about 18 months, according to a March 2024 CBS Chicago report.28 That doesn’t include any funds spent by CPS, the Department of Streets and Sanitation or Cook County Health.29 The city has come under fire from aldermen30 and residents31 for its handling of the crisis and funds.
Now CTU is wading into the political quagmire, demanding its new contract include comprehensive support for asylum seekers. That includes a provision giving $2,000 payments for each newcomer student.32 The cost for this provision would be $10 million to $40 million.33
While CTU states the plan is based on New York City’s Project Open Arms,34 that undertaking is a multi-agency project of New York City – not a provision in a teachers union contract. In fact, the teachers union, the United Federation of Teachers, wasn’t even mentioned as a collaborator in the program’s official announcement.35
The LA contract does include a section on support for immigrant students and families, but no funds are provided directly to migrant families under its provisions.36 Likewise, the Oakland contract creates a committee to study how to “best support Newcomers,” but no funds are directed either to the committee or to newcomers themselves.37
Demand: Police-free schools
CTU has previously demanded “defunding the police” to support a “more just social order.”38
Now it is demanding “police-free schools,” prohibiting the district from staffing school resource officers or other police personnel at any school,39 even though CPS saw a 26% increase in violent crime in 2023.40
None of the reviewed collective bargaining agreements prohibit the presence of school resource or require “police-free schools.” Instead, the 2019-2022 New York memorandum of agreement includes a section related to the provision of lockers for New York Police Department supervisors of school security, as well as a provision creating a joint committee of NYPD and UFT to discuss paperwork issues and potential recommendations.41 The Seattle contract doesn’t address the role of school resource officers specifically, but it does allow police presence, stating “The [district] will call upon other agencies such as the police, the courts and social services to help preserve the health and safety of all persons involved in a school situation.”42 It also provides that the district “shall give priority consideration to the utilization of appropriate security personnel at functions such as athletic events, school plays, concerts and other school functions, to maintain discipline and order.”43
The Minneapolis contract grants district offices the authority to set policy on safety and security, with schools making recommendations.44 The contract also outlines various goals of the District Behavior Committee, with one being “Work with the police to establish better relationships between police and school age children.”45
Demand: 100% electric bus fleet
CTU is placing a heavy emphasis on “climate justice” in its demands. In a May 19, 2024, update to members, the union announced it would hold its “first-ever public bargaining session with CPS on our Green Schools proposals, a critical part of ensuring climate justice in Chicago’s schools.”46
Among those demands: a fully electric bus fleet – specifically driven by unionized employees of the district.47
Just one electric bus would cost around $400,000, according to an estimate from the U.S. Department of Energy.48 The Environmental Protection Agency granted CPS more than $20 million to purchase 50 clean buses as part of its 2023 Clean School Bus Program Grants Competition, but CPS would need another $500 million to buy another 1,250 school buses to fulfill CTU’s demand.49
Other schools may have language referencing green technology, but not requiring it. For example, the Los Angeles contract requires a “Climate Curriculum Implementation Task Force” to provide recommendations on increasing the number of electric buses in the district’s fleet using unionized contractors, but it does not require that the district implement any of the recommendations.50
Demand: Solar panels
Part of CTU’s “climate justice” push also includes a district commitment to install solar panels or arrays at 50 schools.
As with the provision on an electric bus fleet, the Los Angeles contract requires its green task force to provide recommendations on the installation of solar panels at district facilities using unionized contractors, but there is no requirement they implement those recommendations.51 None of the other contracts examined included language on solar panels.
Demand: Pension funds move away from investments that are “contributing to climate change”
CTU wants at least two of the city’s pension funds to place politics over sound investment.
Specifically, the union is demanding the school board collaborate with the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund and the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund to “identify and move away from any investments of bargaining unit employees’ deferred compensation that are contributing to climate change and other forces that are harming our students and communities and put our money towards financially sound investments that further an equitable transition to a green future.”52
This type of investing is known in pension parlance as environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. With ESG investing, investors place environmental and social-justice factors ahead of return on investment when determining where to invest money.53 What’s available in the pension pot is therefore determined by political investing, not fiduciary duty. In the government pension context, that means taxpayers are ultimately liable for any shortfalls caused by poor investments based on political preference.
None of the other large district contracts dictate pension investments.
Demand: Complete carbon neutrality by 2035
CTU’s “climate justice” demands don’t stop with solar panels, electric buses and ESG investing. The union is also demanding a completely carbon-neutral school district by 2035.
The demands require the school board to establish a “Carbon Neutral Schools pilot program” in five schools.54 The program is to utilize federal funding available for decarbonizing schools and retrofit schools to cut energy costs by 30% by the end of the 2024-2025 school year.55 The program is also to develop a plan to achieve a fully carbon-neutral school district by 2035.56
In addition, CTU is demanding the district build at least three new carbon-free, fully green schools to replace the most outdated schools.57
None of the contracts reviewed had similar language. The Portland contact includes an appendix directing the district to create a project plan to invest in its buildings to “improve climate resiliency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” but the project itself is tied to funds received through a grant from the City of Portland Clean Energy Benefits Fund.58
Demand: Creation of 10,000 new affordable housing units
CTU is demanding the district partner with the city of Chicago to create 10,000 new affordable housing units.59 Access would be provided on a lottery basis, with priority for CPS students and families.60 The potential price tag for 10,000 housing units: $2 billion to $4.7 billion.61
The housing crises experienced by some CPS families should be a concern of all citizens of Chicago. But the proper steps for determining how to best help should be debated and determined by the city council or state lawmakers – not in a teachers union contract.
While the Los Angeles contract includes a memorandum addressing housing support, it does not commit the district and city to creating housing.62 Instead, it establishes a task force to make recommendations relating to vacant and unused school property that could be used for the development of affordable housing for low-income students and families.
Demand: Dormitories for “unaccompanied youth” and schools as sheltering places
In addition to the creation of housing for CPS families, the union wants the district to identify schools with vacant, unused floors to be converted into “dormitories for unaccompanied youth.”63 It is unclear what “unaccompanied youth” means or who their guardians would be.
While CTU’s demands include a provision that the dormitory programs would be operated by CPS “partner community organizations,” even that is unclear – and not necessarily safe for the participating unaccompanied students. There are hundreds of allegations of sexual misconduct in CPS each year, particularly related to contract workers or vendors, as detailed in the CPS Inspector General’s annual reports.64
In addition, the union is demanding the board, union and community organizations identify functioning schools with separate entrances to be used as “non-congregate temporary sheltering places for CPS families experiencing homelessness.”65 These sheltering places would have a night-time custodial team and social service provider staff.
Again, the housing crises experienced by families in Chicago should not be ignored, but the proper democratic process should be followed. It shouldn’t be dictated by a teachers union.
While the Los Angeles contract includes an agreement by the district to make space available for non-profit organizations that provide tenant rights clinics, counseling services and housing assistance, it does not require the actual creation of dormitories or the use of schools as sheltering places.66
Demand: Charter school limitations
CTU’s demands related to charter schools further reveal its complete animosity toward parents’ choices over where their children go to school.
The current CTU contract already places a moratorium on charter school growth. The district can approve no new charter schools, and total enrollment in charter schools cannot exceed 101% of the total student enrollment as of school year 2019-2020.68
The union’s assault on school choice continues in its latest demands. It now wants to limit enrollment to 100% of the enrollment as of 2023-2024, further denying access to Chicago students and families who want to take advantage of a different option than traditional public schools.69
It’s also demanding that the district adopt a clear transition procedure of charter and contract school closures and reabsorptions, indicating it is laying the groundwork for the ultimate shut down of charter schools in Chicago.70
Charter schools and school choice in general are hot topics among teachers unions, so it is no surprise charter school provisions showed up more often than other politically-focused provisions in the institute’s review. But none of the contracts examined directly limit the number or enrollment of charter schools, and some even encourage educators to teach at charter schools through contract-provided leaves of absence policies:
- The New York contract includes provisions allowing for the conversion of public schools into charter schools and “extend[s] leaves beyond the statutory two-year period to the full term of their employment in the charter school for Board employees who become Conversion Charter School employees.”71 Employees who leave the public school system to go to a new charter school are granted two-year leaves.72
- The LA contract allows teachers to take a two-year leave of absence to teach at a conversion charter school.73
- The Columbus contract includes a 2006 memorandum of understanding related to community schools, the terminology in Ohio for charter schools. While the memorandum dictates hiring and salary rules and may inhibit employment in some circumstances, it does not directly limit the number or enrollment of the schools themselves.74
- The expiring Minneapolis contract includes multiple provisions allowing or referencing “charter school leave” for up to five years.75 The tentative agreement deletes one of the provisions (11.7.4), but not the others (11.1.1, 11.1.3(a), 11.1.3(f)), leaving the status of charter leave unknown.76
CTU’s demands amount to legislating at the bargaining table
CTU’s mission to put politically motivated provisions in its union contract is part of a broader movement of “bargaining for the common good” – a euphemism for using union contract negotiations to tackle issues such as racial justice, climate justice and immigration at the bargaining table, outside the normal democratic process.77
While pushed by the national teachers unions,78 this strategy started with CTU. As CTU Vice President Jackson Potter has said, “The 2012 Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) strike is often referenced as inspiration for an approach to contract negotiations called Bargaining for the Common Good (BCG).”79
In fact, CTU credits itself with triggering the swath of teacher strikes that have happened since its own 2012 strike.80 After that strike ended, “union leaders planned town halls in other cities across the country, in New York and Cleveland, San Francisco and Tampa, to spread the new gospel” of putting “things on the table that hadn’t been on the table before.”81
Now CTU is pushing the limits again, with demands ranging from mandated secrecy from parents to cash to migrants.
A lot is on the line with this contract. As Potter wrote in 2022, “The next mayor will have the ability to appoint more than half of the school board in 2024 and determine whether or not CTU can win social justice demands in our next contract.”82 After bankrolling former CTU employee Johnson into the mayor’s office,83 the union is ramping up for a history-making contract.
And just as teachers unions have followed CTU’s lead and gone on strike even when their own states prohibited striking,84 they won’t need their own Amendment 1 to transition into demanding subjects that don’t belong at a bargaining table. From Columbus to Seattle, they are already using the methods of “bargaining for the common good.”85 CTU’s potential success would just add fuel to a fire that’s already burning.
Parents and other residents in districts around the country should be wary. If CTU gets its way, “Bargaining for the Common Good” could quickly become the anti-democracy “legislating from the bargaining table” – with nothing regular citizens can do about it except open their wallets.
Endnotes
1 H Kapp-Klote, “Contract Campaign Update: This Time Around,” Chicago Teachers Union, April 23, 2024, https://www.ctulocal1.org/posts/contract-campaign-update-this-time-around/ (noting there are “700+ contract proposals”).
2 Editorial Board, “Stacy Davis Gates throws down a ‘$50 billion and 3 cents’ CTU gauntlet,” Chicago Tribune, March 10, 2024, https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/03/10/editorial-stacy-davis-gates-chicago-teachers-union/.
3 Bryce Hill, “Chicago Teachers Union Contract Could Cost at Least $10.2 to $13.9B,” Illinois Policy Institute, June 3, 2024, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-teachers-union-contract-could-cost-at-least-10-2b-to-13-9b/. The current CPS annual budget is approaching $10 billion. Pedro Martinez, “Budget 2024,” Chicago Public Schools, https://www.cps.edu/about/finance/budget/budget-2024/. CTU’s demands would add an additional $10.2 to $13.9 billion over the course of the four-year contract.
4 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” (2024), 85, https://files.illinoispolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/FILE_0918.pdf. The leaked copy of the demands was provided to Illinois Policy Institute in March, 2024. See Mailee Smith and Hannah Schmid, “Chicago Teachers Union Contract Demands About Politics, Bosses’ Power,” Illinois Policy Institute, April 11, 2024, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-teachers-union-contract-demands-about-politics-bosses-power/.
5 Mailee Smith, “Chicago Teachers Union Demands include 45 Days Off, 9 New Ways to Take Off,” April 29, 2024, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-teachers-union-demands-include-45-days-off-9-new-ways-to-take-off/.
6 See Smith and Schmid, “Chicago Teachers Union Contract Demands About Politics, Bosses’ Power.” For the full list of CTU’s demands, see Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA.”
7 Ill. Const. art. I, § 25, https://www.ilga.gov/commission/lrb/conent.htm.
8 Ibid. (“No law shall be passed that interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively over their wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment and work place safety….”). See also Mailee Smith, “What You Need to Know about Giving Unions Special Treatment in Illinois’ Constitution,” Illinois Policy Institute, October 13, 2021, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/what-you-need-to-know-about-giving-unions-special-treatment-in-illinois-constitution/.
9 Smith, “What You Need to Know About Giving Unions Special Treatment in Illinois’ Constitution.”
10 The unions in the other top ten largest distracts are not allowed to go on strike, placing a check on what they can demand and obtain in a collective bargaining agreement. Mailee Smith, “Illinois Teachers Unions Have Threatened to Strike 188 Times Since 2010,” Illinois Policy Institute, August 18, 2023, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-teachers-unions-have-threatened-to-strike-188-times-since-2010/.
11 New York City’s United Federation of Teachers hasn’t published a contract in full since its 2009-2018 contract. See 2009-2018 Agreement, Board of Education of the City School District of the City of New York and United Federation of Teachers, Local 2, https://www.seethroughny.net/contracts/NYC%20-%20T.pdf (hereinafter NYC contract). Instead, it publishes memoranda of agreement, which supplement or change the previous contract. See 2019-2022 Memorandum of Agreement, Board of Education for the City School District of the City of New York and United Federation of Teachers, Local 2, https://www.uft.org/sites/default/files/attachments/secure/moa-2018.pdf; 2022-2027 Memorandum of Agreement, Board of Education for the City School District of the City of New York and United Federation of Teachers, Local 2, https://files.uft.org/contract2023/DOE-MOA.pdf. As such, all three documents were reviewed for this report, with reference to each as applicable.
12 2022-2025 Agreement, Los Angeles Unified School District and United Teachers Los Angeles, https://utla.net/app/uploads/2023/12/FINAL-CBA-2022-2025-UTLA-Contract-1.pdf (hereinafter LA contract).
13 Jeremiah Poff, “Teacher Strikes Cost Students Weeks of School in 2023,” Washington Examiner, December 30, 2023, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2709624/teachers-strikes-cost-students-weeks-of-school-in-2023/.
14 Sarah Mervosh, “Portland Teachers’ Strike Ends After More than Three Weeks,” New York Times, November 26, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/26/us/portland-teachers-strike-ends.html.
15 Alec Schemmel, “Portland Teachers Threaten School Shutdown if Their District Declines to Provide Subsidized Housing,” Washington Free Beacon, September 6, 2023, https://freebeacon.com/policy/portland-teachers-threaten-school-shutdown-if-their-district-declines-to-provide-subsidized-housing/.
16 Soumya Karlamangla, “Oakland Students Resume Classes as Teachers’ Strike Ends,” New York Times, May 16, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/us/oakland-teachers-strike.html.
17 2023-2026 Agreement, School District No. 1 Multnomah County Oregon and Portland Association of Teachers, https://www.pps.net/cms/lib/OR01913224/Centricity/Domain/56/PAT_Agreement%20-%202023-2026%20-%20Draft%202.21.24.pdf (hereinafter Portland contract); 2022-2025 Agreement, Oakland Unified School District and Oakland Education Association, https://www.nctq.org/dmsView/NEW!_OEA_INTEGRATED_Contract_2022-25 (hereinafter Oakland contract).
18 2022-2025 Agreement, Seattle Public Schools and Seattle Education Association, https://seattleschools.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/SPSBoardOffice-O365/EQD8gWt1Mz5DikPVodmFafEBBL6vq432FN7TqIBZVruamg?e=7UJwpt (hereinafter Seattle contract).
19 2022-2025 Agreement, The Columbus Board of Education and the Columbus Education Association, https://www.ceaohio.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/CEA-Master-Agreement-2022-2025.pdf (hereinafter Columbus contract).
20 2021-2023 Agreement, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Minneapolis Board of Education, https://www.mft59.org/_files/ugd/bf7435_4a4f8e50f33e4777a22b23c598e1641e.pdf (hereinafter Minneapolis contract). See also 2023-2025 Tentative Agreement, Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Minneapolis Board of Education, https://www.mft59.org/_files/ugd/bf7435_4fb541ed1f1843878e0f01323bdc6448.pdf (hereinafter Minneapolis tentative agreement).
21 Amir Vera, “Seattle teachers vote to officially end strike that had delayed start of the school year,” CNN, September 13, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/13/us/washington-state-schools-closed-as-teachers-strike/index.html; Megan Henry and Ashley R. Williams, “47,000 Ohio Students may Start School Online if Strike in State’s Largest District Continues,” USA Today, August 22, 2022, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/22/columbus-ohio-city-schools-teachers-strike/7863273001/; Jacey Fortin, “Minneapolis Teachers Reach a Tentative Deal to End Their Strike,” New York Times, March 25, 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/25/us/minneapolis-teachers-strike.html.
22 This report examines what is in the teachers union contracts, not district policy as set by school boards or other elected officials. Some of the districts referenced here could have policies outside of union contracts related to the issues discussed herein. But those provisions, while perhaps politically motivated, would have come about through the normal democratic process, not at the negotiation table between a politician and a special interest party.
23 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 115-16.
24 Ibid. at 115.
25 Ibid. at 116 (emphasis added).
26 Mailee Smith, “Chicago Teachers Union Demands Parents be Kept in the Dark on Curriculum,” Illinois Policy Institute, May 28, 2024, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/chicago-teachers-union-demands-parents-be-kept-in-dark-on-curriculum/.
27 Minneapolis Contract, 24. This section is unchanged in the tentative agreement. Minneapolis Tentative Agreement.
28 CBS Chicago Team, “Chicago has spent nearly $300 million on migrant crisis response, City says,” CBS Chicago, March 8, 2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/chicago-migrant-crises-300-million/.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 Matt Brown, “Chicago’s response to migrant influx stirs longstanding frustrations among Black residents,” Associated Press, April 19, 2024, https://apnews.com/article/chicago-migrants-black-latino-biden-immigration-ab8d7f22eea423d86fb350665b9e66f6.
32 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 107.
33 Hill, “Chicago Teachers Union contract could cost at least $10.2 to $13.9B.”
34 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 107.
35 “Adams Administration Announces ‘Project Open Arms,’ Comprehensive Support Plan to Meet Educational Needs of Families Seeking Asylum,” The Official Website of the City of New York, August 19, 2022, https://www.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/607-22/adams-administration-project-open-arms-comprehensive-support-plan-meet-educational.
36 LA Contract, 438.
37 Oakland Contract, 124,.
38 Jackson Potter and Saquib Bhatti, “Defund police and banks; Support schools and a more just social order,” Chicago Teachers Union, Sept. 22, 2020, https://www.ctulocal1.org/chicago-union-teacher/2020/09/defund-police-and-banks-support-schools-and-a-more-just-social-order/.
39 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 42.
40 Patrick Andriesen, “Violent Crime Surges 26% at Chicago Public Schools, Arrests Hit Record Low,” Illinois Policy Institute, May 3, 2024, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/violent-crime-surges-26-at-chicago-public-schools-arrests-hit-record-low/.
41 NYC Contract, 52, https://www.uft.org/sites/default/files/attachments/secure/moa-2018.pdf.
42 Seattle Contract, 69.
43 Ibid. The Oakland contract does not prohibit police presence but does state, “interaction with the criminal justice system is to be avoided whenever possible.” Oakland Contract, 96. If an unauthorized person is on school premises, an administrator may “if necessary, call the Police Department.” Ibid. at 97. The contract also provides for an Employer Safety Committee, which makes recommendations to the Superintendent on “issues impacting school climate, including the efficacy of restorative practice.” Ibid. at 99-100. There is no language requiring the Superintendent to accept the recommendations.
44 Minneapolis Contract, 63. The tentative agreement does not change this policy.
45 Minneapolis Contract, 136.
46 Jackson Potter, “Contract update #5: Public Bargaining is a Historic Win for CTU,” Chicago Teachers Union, May 19, 2024, https://www.ctulocal1.org/posts/contract-update-5-public-bargaining-is-a-historic-win-for-ctu/.
47 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 114.
48 Alternative Fuels Data Center, “Flipping the Switch on Electric School Buses: Cost Factors: Module 1,” U.S. Department of Energy, https://afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/electric-school-buses-p8-m1#:~:text=In%2520conclusion%2520current%2520electric%2520school%2520bus%2520costs%2520average%2520around%2520%2524400%252C000.
49 Dylan Sharkey, “CTU Leadership Demanding Green Buses, Carbon-free Schools,” Illinois Policy Institute, May 11, 2024, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/ctu-leadership-demanding-green-buses-carbon-free-schools/.
50 LA Contract, 436.
51 Ibid.
52 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 87.
53 Sarah Coffey, “How ESG Works (And Why It’s Bad News),” Foundation for Government Accountability, February 6, 2023, https://thefga.org/blog/how-esg-works-and-why-its-bad-news/.
54 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 114.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 Ibid.
58 Portland Contract, 123.
59 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 107. This is part of CTU’s demand that the district and city work to house the families of up to 15,000 students. Ibid. at 107. Notably, the Boston Teachers Union contract includes a provision for a similar pilot program housing the families of up to 4,000 students, but that contract does not require the actual creation of housing units. 2021-2024 Agreement, Boston Teachers Union and Boston School Committee, 19, https://btu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2021-24-Collective-Bargaining-Agreement.pdf.
60 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 107.
61 Hill, “Chicago Teachers Union contract could cost at least $10.2 to $13.9B.”
62 LA Contract, 439.
63 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 108.
64 See, e.g., Will Fletcher, “Fiscal Year 2023 Annual Report, Office of the Inspector General,” January 1, 2024, 42, 46 https://cpsoig.org/uploads/3/5/5/6/35562484/cps_oig_fy_2023_annual_report.pdf (detailing 446 sexual misconduct complaints and breaking out the number of those related to vendors and volunteers in SAU-Table 1).
65 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 108.
66 LA Contract, 439.
67 2019-2024 Agreement, Board of Education of the City of Chicago and Chicago Teachers Union Local 1, 378, https://www.ctulocal1.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/CPS-CBA-2019-24.pdf.
68 Ibid.
69 Chicago Teachers Union, “Proposals Recommended for the 2024 CBA,” 141.
70 Ibid.
71 NYC Contract, 186-187.
72 Ibid. at 188.
73 LA Contract, 137.
74 Columbus Contract, 158-159; Ohio Department of Education & Workforce, “Community Schools,” https://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Community-Schools#:~:text=Community%20schools%2C%20which%20are%20often,are%20state%20and%20federally%20funded. (“Community schools, which are often called charter schools nationally and in other states, are public schools created in Ohio law….”).
75 Minneapolis Contract, 167, 184.
76 Minneapolis Tentative Agreement, 31.
77 Bargaining for the Common Good Network, “Concrete Examples of Bargaining for the Common Good,” 1, https://www.bargainingforthecommongood.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Common-Good-Demands-Memo.pdf. CTU President Stacy Davis Gates is on the advisory committee for the Bargaining for the Common Good Network. Bargaining for the Common Good Network, “Advisory Committee,” https://www.bargainingforthecommongood.org/advisory-committee/.
78 National Education Association, “Bargaining for the Common Good,” https://www.nea.org/your-rights-workplace/union-educator-voice/bargaining-common-good; American Federation of Teachers, “Union and Allies Work Together for the Common Good on Campus,” https://www.aft.org/news/unions-and-allies-work-together-common-good-campus.
79 Jackson Potter, “The Strike that Started the Red Wave,” In These Times, September 12, 2022, https://inthesetimes.com/article/chicago-teacher-strike-2012-anniversary-labor-union-education.
80 See, e.g., ibid. Jackson Potter is the Vice President of CTU.
81 Dylan Scott, “The Strike that Brought Teachers Unions Back from the Dead,” Vox, August 29, 2019, https://www.ctulocal1.org/chicago-union-teacher/2019/08/the-strike-that-brought-teachers-unions-back-from-the-dead/.
82 Potter, “The Strike that Started the Red Wave,” (emphasis added).
83 See, e.g., Mailee Smith, “Unions Still Fund Johnson, Individuals Back Vallas for Chicago Mayor,” Illinois Policy Institute, March 31, 2023, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/unions-still-fund-johnson-individuals-back-vallas-for-chicago-mayor/; Mailee Smith, “3 Ways Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is Likely to Repay Unions for Bankrolling Him,” Illinois Policy Institute, August 24, 2023, https://www.illinoispolicy.org/3-ways-chicago-mayor-johnson-is-likely-to-repay-unions-for-bankrolling-him/.
84 See Scott, “The Strike that Brought Teachers Unions Back from the Dead” (“Strikes are technically illegal in [West Virginia], but they walked out anyway.”).
85 See National Education Association, “Bargaining for the Common Good Racial Justice Guide,” 36, https://www.nea.org/sites/default/files/2024-05/bargaining-for-the-common-good-racial-justice-guide_0.pdf.