Posts tagged Chicago Public Schools
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.
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION, AFFILIATES BIGGEST SPENDERS ON CHICAGO POLITICS
December 15, 2023 // Johnson’s deep ties to CTU should worry Chicagoans. Johnson, a former “legislative coordinator” for CTU, will be sitting across the table from his former CTU colleagues when they negotiate a new contract in 2024. Their tight relationship effectively places CTU on both sides of the bargaining table. What’s on the line if he keeps toeing the CTU line? A plethora of expensive contract demands, with taxpayers bearing the costs. Past demands include defunding the police – Johnson himself once said he would cut the Chicago Police budget by at least $150 million – and creating affordable housing. Those potential provisions are not typically negotiated into teachers union contracts, but could be under Johnson’s tenure. And while the union has focused on non-education demands, most students within Chicago Public Schools can’t read or do math at grade level.
ILLINOIS: Union president’s school choice sparks debate over Illinois’ expiring program
September 11, 2023 // State Rep. LaShawn Ford, D-Chicago, did not comment directly on whether the Invest in Kids Act should be extended but said it should be up to the parents to do what they believe is best for their children. "I believe every child should have the opportunity to go to the school that their parents choose for them to go to. Period," Ford told The Center Square. Ford said the choice by Davis Gates to send her child to a private school speaks to another issue he sees. "We cannot miss that her decision to place her [child] in a school outside of Chicago Public Schools speaks volumes to the deficit in those schools," Ford said.
Chicago School Principals Average $157K, Unionizing
June 13, 2023 // The already-high pay averages are both substantially higher than other principals and assistant principals in Illinois, which average $116,400 and $100,000, respectively. Median household income in Chicago is $65,781. This movement is likely to succeed. Mayor Brandon Johnson has already signaled support for this unionization attempt during his campaign, and has created a deputy mayor for labor relations position that will “foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of Chicago” and “assure work-related benefits and rights.”
Union ties could make or break the Chicago mayoral race
March 23, 2023 // Progressive Brandon Johnson and centrist Paul Vallas, both Democrats, fought through a nine-way race that saw the incumbent mayor fail to make the April 4 runoff. The election is “a movement that unions helped to anchor,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates told Morning Shift. Johnson, a former public school teacher who’s done paid work for the CTU — his opponents call him a lobbyist — has received millions from teachers’ unions, and is set to receive up to $2 million more from a recently-announced plan to apportion $8 from each CTU member’s monthly dues to PACs for him. Vallas, a former CEO of Chicago Public Schools who’s been criticized for relative conservatism in a Democrat-run town, nabbed endorsements from the local Fraternal Order of Police, firefighters and construction unions.
PRITZKER SIGNS BILL ALLOWING CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS PRINCIPALS TO UNIONIZE
February 13, 2023 // Chicago Public Schools principals already make nearly 30% more than their peers in the rest of the state. A newly signed law allows them to unionize and push for even more. Gov. J.B. Pritzker just signed a bill allowing principals within Chicago Public Schools to unionize and bargain. While supervisory employees have not traditionally had a right to unionize, House Bill 5107 redefines who constitutes a “managerial employee” within CPS. Under the new language, only those who negotiate with unions or formulate district-wide policies are prohibited from unionizing.
ILLINOIS HOUSE BILL WOULD GIVE MORE POWER TO CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNIONS
January 13, 2023 // Principals and other important administrative staff within the district will now be able to join a union. The average salary for a principal in Illinois is $116,398, according to the Illinois State Board of Education’s 2021 annual report. But ISBE’s data on principals’ salaries statewide shows CPS principals average $149,628 – nearly 30% more than their peers in the rest of the state. Yet they are pushing to unionize. CTU has a history of keeping kids out of school to get what it wants CTU has caused five work stoppages in just the past 11 years.
Teachers are fleeing partisan unions that some say undermine public education
January 11, 2023 // Teachers are fleeing unions in droves, citing the political partisanship of the organizations that charge $750 to $900 a year in membership fees. The National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers lost a combined total of 59,000 union members during the 2021-22 school year. And they lost 82,000 members the year before.
Audit: Widespread fraud, abuse of ‘extra pay’ in Chicago Public Schools
January 10, 2023 // "At one school, colleagues punched in a teacher’s ID number on days when the teacher stayed home from summer school," the report stated. In another example, one school district employee received nearly $150,000 in extra pay and other forms of supplemental pay over four years while clocked in at his school while casino records indicate he was visiting a casino. That same employee was paid for working two different types of supplemental pay jobs simultaneously.