Chicago City Wire

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates finds herself embroiled in controversy as accusations of racist dog-whistling emerge from within the union's ranks. 

The accused member highlighted the union's failure to produce an audit for four consecutive years. 

“Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates accuses a fellow union member of racist dog-whistling,” Illinois Policy’s Ustin Berg said on X.“The member previously sought election as the union’s financial secretary. And pointed out in a private group post that the union has refused to produce an audit for four years despite: Millions of dollars in dues hikes."

"The union constitution requiring an annual audit that is made available to members."

Berg posted a message from the CTU Members Only Facebook Group.

“The CTU Constitution mandates that a financial audit be done and available to members to view yearly. I know that last spring, the House passed a budget that raised our dues to account for the pass-throughs that go on to AFT/IFT,” a poster said on the site.“Okay, fine. I disagree with that, but that happened, so it is what it is. The rationale for that increase was because CTU could no longer afford to pick up the difference in the pass throughs (if you want more of an explanation on what pass throughs are, feel free to reach out to me, but I won’t go at length about those here)."

“The last audit posted in the member portal is for FY 18/19. We are missing audits for FY19/20, FY20/21, FY21/22, and FY22/23. We have a right to see these audits and it is frustrating that they have not been provided to us, especially because we are seeing a dues increase and (as I have been told--I don’t know for sure) a desire to move to a progressive scale for dues.”

Davis Gates responded with questionable terminology.

“Back to the Stacy is a thief dog whistle, huh? That train is never late with you, is it? Resurrecting the 2018 smear campaign from Pittsburg?” Davis Gates said in the group chat.

The original poster noted the lack of an audit pre-dated her presidency.

“Hi Stacy. This has actually been an issue long before you were President, so this isn’t about you. Have a great day,” the poster responded. 

Still, Davis Gates leaned in, responding “don’t swallow your dog whistle now.”

A union member requested an audit be conducted after CTU spent heavily on backing former union organizer Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson for the Chicago mayor’s office, a spot he won after the CTU increased their campaign spending by hiking rates on union members without calling for a vote.

“I would like to request a full external audit of all accounts. The last financial manager has been on leave for 6 months and resigned. How much in union dues has been ‘borrowed’ for PAC?” The CTU member said.

Illinois Policy elevated CTU member comments on the issue.

“CTU’s rank-and-file members have for weeks publicly protested their leadership’s doublespeak on the ethics of their political spending habits,” Illinois Policy said on X. 

CTU members have protested the decision by union leadership to jettison dues moneys to electoral politics. 

“Not even a vote??” One member questioned of the decision.

“Forget about the vote--they didn’t even bother to let delegates know they were doing this! They just did it. I wonder if Trustees even knew?” another answered.

Davis Gates was recently caught in a scandal in which she used similarly charged language regarding private schooling, but then enrolled her own children in private schools rather than Chicago Public Schools. 

She previously made claims that private schools are “segregation academies.” 

In a contentious CNN interview, Davis Gates doubled down on her anti-school choice rhetoric, despite factual inaccuracies about Chicago public schools and her own choice to send her son to De La Salle.