The Chicago Public School system is a mess. As the Illinois Policy Institute reports, enrollment has decreased substantially over the past 15 years, from nearly 403,000 students in 2010-11 to about 316,000 in 2025-26. This decline has resulted in about 150 of the city’s schools being half-empty, with 47 operating at less than one-third capacity, which leads to higher costs and fewer course options.
Many of the enrolled students don’t regularly attend. According to Kids First Chicago, about 40 percent of CPS students are chronically absent—missing 18 or more days of school—compared with 30 percent of students nationwide.
It’s not only the kids who are ditching school. The latest data show that more than 40 percent of Chicago teachers missed 10 or more instructional days during the 2024-2025 school year.
Students in CPS don’t receive an adequate education. The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reveals that just 26 percent of 8th-graders are proficient in reading, and worse, only 22 percent are proficient in math.
Nevertheless, teachers do quite well financially. The Chicago Teachers’ Union agreed on a contract with the school district in 2025 that will increase average teacher pay from $86,439 to $114,000 by next year. This salary boost will cost taxpayers up to $1.25 billion. Additionally, the contract also involves hiring more staff, which is expected to cost taxpayers an additional $1.5 billion over four years.
Since 2022, CTU has been led by Stacy Davis Gates, who is ranked the fifth most powerful person in the city by Chicago Magazine, one spot above Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU organizer.
Among other things, Gates is a world-class hypocrite for sending her own son to private school after calling them “segregation academies” and referring to school choice supporters as fascists. In 2024, she also incoherently told a Chicago radio station that academic testing “at best is junk science rooted in white supremacy” and “you can’t test black children with an instrument that was born to prove their inferiority.”
Gates has also absurdly claimed that conservatives who criticize the union “don’t want Black children to be able to read,” and “that is literally a part of the oath that they take to be right-wing.”
In fact, it is the “right-wing” that supports black children escaping failing schools—many of which are controlled by teachers’ unions—through various school choice measures so they can learn to read.
If Gates wasn’t already doing enough damage, she was also appointed to lead the Illinois Federation of Teachers in October.
Clearly, educating students is not a priority for the CTU, but left-wing politicking is definitely high on its agenda. The union has plans for May Day that include a school day off to promote “civic engagement activities.”
What sets this year’s mobilization apart from previous efforts is organizers’intentional use of the education system to boost their numbers, influence, and control. This coordinated day of large-scale protests and direct actions is led by far-left activists, who are using K-12 schools and students as tools to promote a political revolution.
The union is suggesting that Mayor Johnson invoke state law to provide students with an excused absence for attending a “civic event.”
“Teaching our students what civic action looks like requires more than textbooks when the President sends federal agents to occupy our cities and the Governor chooses to continue giving tax breaks to billionaires instead of giving our students the school day they deserve,” CTU’s vice president, Jackson Potter, said in a statement.
The union also asserts, “With the President trying to pave his way to absolute power, using our school budgets for his illegal wars and kickbacks to his billionaire friends, our students and our coworkers need us to show up and show the power of labor and community in coalition.”
Union membership in Chicago is costly, with dues totaling $1,476 annually. But how exactly are those dues used?
It’s difficult to determine because, as the Liberty Justice Center disclosed in October 2024, CTU has failed to publish mandatory audited financial reports for more than four years.
Producing audits is a responsibility to its members. The union hasn’t issued a full audit since 2020, and members, along with watchdog groups like the Illinois Policy Institute, have been requesting them since at least 2023. The union claims that COVID-19-related issues are behind the delay, but that clearly doesn’t justify a five-year lapse.
This lack of transparency raises serious questions about how union dues are spent and has led four union members to file a lawsuit demanding that CTU leadership release the missing audits.
This case is still ongoing. On March 23, a Cook County judge denied the CTU’s motion for summary judgment and approved the plaintiffs’ request to compel discovery in the case.
“The court saw through CTU’s effort to avoid scrutiny. Simply posting documents after being sued doesn’t erase legal obligations. With discovery now moving forward, we intend to get a full accounting of whether CTU has complied with its duties to its own members,” said Sara Albrecht, chair of the Liberty Justice Center.
Besides blaming COVID-19, what other excuses does CTU offer for its inaction?
Desperate CTU leaders contend they are political victims of MAGA, the Trump administration, and the Illinois Policy Institute. In a letter to its members, the union said it is facing a “right-wing attack” because it makes educating “Black, Latine [sic], and largely low-income student body” a priority, and because it supports “protections for queer, trans, and immigrant students.”
On its website, the union laughably maintains, “The Chicago Teachers Union is an organization of educators dedicated to advancing and promoting quality public education, improving teaching and learning conditions, and protecting members’ rights.”
This hyperbolic bilge would be amusing if it weren’t so tragic for the students, their families, and the taxpayers.
In reality, the CTU is arguably the most detestable teachers’ union in the country. I can’t understand why any teacher would voluntarily fork over nearly $1,500 a year to such a reprehensible organization.
