Chicago City Wire

The Chicago Teacher’s Union is being pointed to as a force in the April 4 race to decide Chicago’s next mayor. 

“The Chicago Teachers Union is the new Machine,” Illinois Policy’s Austin Berg said on Twitter.

Berg retweeted a comment from WTTW Chicago’s Paris Schutz on the campaign cash flowing into Cook County Commissioner for the 1st District Brandon Johnson. 

“Brandon Johnson is set to receive millions of $$$ more from CTU. Today, union members overwhelmingly approved up to $2 million in union dues (8$ per member per month for the rest of the year) to go to its Political Action Committees to support Johnson. @wttw," Schutz tweeted. 

Johnson is a former CTU organizer and teacher.

Critics have called the CTU “a political party with a very strict agenda.” 

The union boasts around 25,000 dues-paying employees in Chicago Public Schools, the fourth largest public school system in charge of 322,106 students across more than 6,000 schools in Chicago.

The CTU has been borrowing money against future dues to support Johnson’s candidacy. 

Before the Feb. 28 primary Johnson had received over $1 million in campaign cash from the CTU. He also received over $1 million from the American Federation of Teachers and $440,000 from the Illinois Federation of Teachers.

The support of Johnson by the CTU is unsurprising. Paul Vallas, the top vote-getter in the Feb. 28 mayoral race, was formerly the head of the CPS. In early 2022 he said the CTU has too much control over the lives of Chicago’s children, noting calling the union’s influence an “almost totalitarian school system.” 

Vallas, a southside native who grew up in the Roseland neighborhood, was CPS’s chief from 1995 to 2001. He has been critical of school leadership in recent years. 

"The union has been radicalized. They decided to wrap themselves in the mantle of the progressive movement. That's why a lot of times they are pursuing things in negotiations that are totally unrelated to the basic responsibilities of the schools which are to provide a quality education, to keep these buildings open,” Vallas told Chicago’s Morning Answer. He has called for CPS to be broken down into more manageable units.