Posts tagged Brandon Johnson
Commentary: Brandon Johnson Makes Sure the Fix Is In for the Chicago Teachers Union
October 10, 2024 // Among the terms the CTU is demanding — and which Mayor Brandon Johnson is supporting — is that the city, already wildly overburdened with unmeetable pension obligations, assume $175 million more of the responsibility for the pensions of non-teachers in the CPS system. How to pay for it? The idea was to force Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to take out a high-interest $300 million loan to fund it for a year and then just pray for Governor J. B. Pritzker to toss the city some money next time around because “now they have to.”
Entire Chicago school board to resign over teachers union dispute with Dem mayor Brandon Johnson
October 7, 2024 // “With the shift to a hybrid elected and appointed Board forthcoming, current Board members and Mayor Johnson understand that laying a strong foundation for the shift is necessary to serve the best interests of students and families in Chicago Public Schools,” the statement added. The powerful Chicago Teachers Union said in its own statement that the resignations are the “latest instability caused by the CEO in our district.
CHICAGO: Mayor Brandon Johnson Asks CPS CEO Pedro Martinez To Resign. Martinez Says No, Sources Say
September 26, 2024 // ohnson’s desire to replace Martinez comes after he pushed school district leaders to take out a short-term loan to cover a pension payment for non-teaching staff and new costs related to the yet-to-be-settled Chicago Teachers Union contract. It also comes as school district leaders are in tense contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union. The mayor is also struggling to address looming deficits to the city budget he now oversees. Those deficits are driven, in part, by the CPS administration and school board’s refusal to take out the short-term loan.
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION CONTRACT COULD COST AT LEAST $10.2B TO $13.9B
June 6, 2024 // CTU wants massive pay raises, stipends and additional personnel – all of which are within the traditional scope of bargaining. It also wants the city to create new housing, levy new taxes, construct new parking garages, undertake new environmental initiatives, divest pension funds from fossil fuels, fully fund infertility and abortion care for members, subsidize weight-loss surgery and drugs such as Ozempic, add new members to the bargaining unit, offer free CTA passes for all students and employees, among many other things. The new contract also mandates certain positions to be staffed at every school, regardless of enrollment. The new positions include: librarian, librarian assistant, social worker, newcomer liaison, case manager, restorative justice coordinator, reading specialist and interventionist (elementary schools), three elective teachers (middle schools), technology coordinator, “Climate Champion,” and gender support coordinator and/or LGBTW+ lead/specialist and option to expand LGBTQ+ faculty support teams at each school. Because of the minimum staffing requirements laid out in the contract, this would constitute a minimum of 4,650 new hires. Based on the current average compensation for each type of employee, hiring the additional personnel would cost an estimated $1.7 billion.
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION CUTS CLASS TO LOBBY, COSTING TAXPAYERS UP TO $141K
May 17, 2024 // Teachers can partake in political advocacy on their own time, but this day of action occurred during regular school hours and at taxpayer expense. It doesn’t help that most of the students they left behind are unable to read or do math at grade level, and could have benefitted from a normal day of instruction. Chicago Public Schools has seen steady budget growth combined with dwindling enrollment. CPS’ per-pupil operational spending is $24,132, up more than 50% from $15,878 in 2018. CTU held a similar event with students during the March 19 primary election when they took students out of class to hear from proponents of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s real estate transfer tax hike, were told how to vote and then marched to the polls. The tax hike failed.
Opinion: ‘$50 Billion’ Chicago Teachers Union Contract Demands Higher Pay And Lower Expectations
May 8, 2024 // The contract veers into many social issues and away from academics: LGBT issue training, sex-neutral bathrooms, immigrant housing, police-free schools, restorative justice, and more. The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has kicked off a season of contract negotiations by issuing a $50 billion list of demands that will enrich the union at taxpayers’ expense and provide little, if any, benefit to the city’s students. Right now, Chicago Public Schools delivers terrible results at a very high cost. Last school year, the district spent more than $21,000 per student, well above the national average of $14,347. And on the last Nation’s Report Card, only 21 percent of the city’s eighth graders were proficient readers.
EDITORIAL: CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION LEADERS FLIP-FLOP ON TAXPAYER-FUNDED STADIUMS
May 2, 2024 // Chicago Teachers Union leadership opposed publicly funded stadiums in 2013. That’s changed: Chicago’s mayor is pushing a Bears football stadium deal needing billions in tax subsidies. And his pals in CTU leadership have yet to speak out about it.
ILLINOIS: SEIU announces ‘unprecedented wage increases’ for park district workers
April 29, 2024 // SEIU workers will get unprecedented wage increases, according to a statement from the union, pending ratification of the tentative agreement. Dabrowski said ordinary Chicagoans are going to have to pay a lot more for government employees. “All these workers want big, big raises. They have guaranteed multi-year contracts when they sign these things. Many of them get guaranteed pensions,” Dabrowski said. SEIU Local 73 President Dian Palmer expressed heartfelt gratitude to Johnson and his staff for their instrumental role in facilitating the agreement. The SEIU endorsed Johnson for mayor and donated more than $4 million to his campaign.
InfluenceWatch Podcast #313: America’s Worst Teachers Union?
April 23, 2024 // It might be America’s worst teachers’ union—and knowing American teachers’ unions, that’s saying something. Since its takeover by a radical-left-wing, militant caucus in 2010, the Chicago Teachers Union has pushed a radical-left agenda through numerous strike actions and controversially aided the mayoral campaign of Brandon Johnson, a former lobbyist for the union, in the city. Just last month, the union allegedly used school time to rally students to vote for a tax hike ballot measure supported by the union and now-Mayor Johnson. Joining us to discuss the Chicago Teachers Union is Mailee Smith, Senior Director of Labor Policy at the Illinois Policy Institute.
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION CONTRACT DEMANDS ABOUT POLITICS, BOSSES’ POWER
April 15, 2024 // A 142-page leaked document contains hundreds of Chicago Teachers Union contract demands, from 100% abortion coverage to pay for surrogates, from housing students in old schools to a fleet of electric school buses. Then there are 180 more of the union’s favored, failing schools.