Chicago City Wire

Chicago teachers are facing increased dues this year, as an additional $161.40 is withdrawn from their paychecks to support record political spending by the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

According to Illinois Policy’s Austin Berg, this brings the annual dues for teachers to $1,403, with only 17% of those funds allocated for teacher representation, while the majority is directed toward administration, politics, and other leadership priorities.

“NEW: Dues hikes are now hitting Chicago teacher paychecks to fund @stacydavisgates record political spending,” Illinois Policy’s Austin Berg said on X.

“Every teacher will see an extra $161.40 taken from their paychecks for the 2023-24 school year. Bringing their total dues for the year to $1,403.”

“The Chicago Teachers Union spends just 17% of that dues money on teacher representation, according to their own reporting. The rest is spent on administration, politics and other leadership priorities.”

The CTU notably raised its dues to support the candidacy of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a CTU member himself.

WTTW Chicago’s Paris Schutz noted the campaign cash inflowing to Johnson’s campaign before he was elected.

“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 who was paid $390,000 by the Chicago Teachers Union over the past five years and continued to be on their payroll up until his election. His candidacy was heavily backed by public sector unions. Of the campaign donations he received, 93% came from public sector unions and teacher’s unions have given 62% of that worth $5.6 million, according to Illinois Policy.

Former Chicago Public Schools CEO and mayoral candidate, Paul Vallas, has criticized Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates for her opposition to school choice programs, particularly the Invest in Kids scholarship initiative, despite sending her own children to private schools.

Vallas pointed out the hypocrisy in Gates’ stance, who sends her own children to private schools, arguing that parents should have the option to choose the best educational opportunities for their children, especially those who lack the resources to find better alternatives within the public school system.

Davis Gates has used racialized language in opposition to school choice programs.

“On Twitter, she has said things like ‘School choice was actually the choice of racists. It was created to avoid integrating schools with Black children.’ Private schools are ‘Segregation Academies,’ she wrote on Twitter. ‘Call them private schools supported by taxpayer funds – vouchers – so your northern cousins understand better,’ she said. And she linked to an article titled ’The Racist Origins of Private School Vouchers,’” Mark Glennon wrote for Wirepoints.

Davis Gates is also facing controversy within the union due to her accusations of racist dog-whistling, with a fellow union member highlighting the union’s failure to produce an audit for four consecutive years. The member had pointed out the missing audits in a private Facebook group post, which led to an exchange with Davis Gates using questionable terminology and a union member requesting an external audit of all accounts, specifically questioning the use of union dues for political action committees.

“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.”