Posts tagged Chicago
Opinion: George F. Will: Chicagoans are getting fed up with the city’s teachers union
August 14, 2026 // At more than 50 Chicago schools, the percent of students achieving math proficiency is 0.
Firms Linked To 2 Men Convicted Of Public Corruption Have Gotten Campaign Business From Gov, CTU
August 13, 2026 // The firms tied to former Ald. Isaac “Ike” Carothers and former Blagojevich administration official Bamani Obadele have gotten campaign business from Gov. JB Pritzker and in the hotly contested race for Chicago School Board president.
Chicago schools count on $435M in unrealized taxes to balance budget
August 7, 2026 // Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, asked the board before the vote to roll more assumed funding from other sources into the budget to prevent teacher layoffs and expand funding for schools. “The way that you're going to assume it for the mayor of Chicago. He signed up and he said, ‘yes,’ to the tune of a billion dollars. Who else can you assume as partners in this? Can you assume Maria Pappas? Can you assume Tony Preckwinkle? Can you assume J.B. Pritzker? Because we have people who assume it every day,” Gates said. The union repeatedly called on lawmakers to return for a special session to pass supplemental funding – a request made during the spring session, but not addressed before it ended.
Illinois Federation of Teachers educators aren’t getting what they’re paying for
August 5, 2026 // Less than 28% of IFT’s spending in 2025 was on representing teachers, according to the union’s annual report filed with the U.S. Labor Department. The rest was on politics, overhead and other union leadership priorities.
Pritzker says he won’t support new state taxes for CPS
August 3, 2026 // The final version included an amendment from board members aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union, which agreed the state should provide the district with an additional $150 million to assist in covering the district’s deficit. Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch told members of CTU a day before the board’s vote that he’s committed to putting forward legislation to give CPS more state funds, but didn’t mention how much he thought the state could provide. “I will lead that effort in the veto session. We got two weeks in November that we can get it done and you got my support 100%,” Welch said.
Chicago Teachers Union likes Brandon Johnson’s tax on sites like LinkedIn, TikTok
July 16, 2026 // The CTU isn’t a typical union interested in teacher wages and student improvement, which is obvious from the millions it’s spent on politics and lobbying over the years. It is a political party masked as a teachers union, and it is hurting students and underrepresenting teachers. Just 18% of what it spends is on representing them. In the meantime, its own leaders rake in six-figure incomes. And while the CTU and its president, Stacy Davis Gates, clamor for the “wealthy” to pay their “fair share,” Davis Gates has a long history of not even paying her own water bills.
Editorial: Randi Weingarten’s book sleaze might mean the end of corrupt teacher-union power
July 13, 2026 // Under Reps. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and Rick Allen (R-Ga.), the committee is following up on Post reporting on dubious transactions uncovered by the Freedom Foundation that amount to hundreds of thousands of AFT dollars spent to help produce the book Of course, that’s just a fraction of how union higherups profit from members’ dues: Weingarten’s pay is now $470,000 a year, not to mention ample perks. Maybe she’s worth it — to the union itself, at least: She’s been a Democratic Party powerbroker for decades, using that influence to protect the power of the AFT and its larger ally, the National Education Association.
Commentary: Both University of Chicago Press and Hachette Book Group have voted to unionize.
July 9, 2026 // This effort is part of a nationwide labor movement that’s currently gunning for the publishing industry—and gaining huge wins. For just yesterday, employees at the Hachette Book Group also voted (388 to 130) to unionize with the Washington-Baltimore News Guild. This victory is historic for its size. According to Publishers Weekly, the Hachette Workers Coalition—i.e., the org behind the union drive— speaks for “600 union-eligible remote and NYC-based staff,” making it the largest union in trade publishing history.
Seventeen States & Localities ‘Are Increasing Their Minimum Wage In July’
July 6, 2026 // On July 1st, the Minimum Wage rose in the States of Alaska, Oregon and in our Nation’s Capital, Washington, D.C. - lifting wages for more than 361,000 Workers and collectively raising their earnings by more than $221 million. In addition to these two States and Washington, D.C. - 14 Cities and Counties also increased their Minimum Wage this Summer, including Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Chicago Teachers Seek Billions in Special Session for “What We Are Owed”
June 25, 2026 // The teacher unions funded Democratic campaigns and Democratic politicians then sign off on windfall union contracts without forcing any improvements for the actual students. For these students, the system borders on the criminal. Rather than actually improve their educational results, the Chicago teachers (like unions and administrators in other cities) have lowered their proficiency standards.