Chicago Teachers Union Political Power
CTU’s political spending has quadrupled to a record $4.2 million, despite losing most of its school board races.
The union ran its first-ever reported financial deficit on Davis Gates’ watch.
CTU has undergone multiple federal investigations over a lack of financial transparency, hiding independent audits from members for 5 years.
The union’s favorability among Chicagoans has collapsed to an abysmal 28.8%.
When union leadership prioritizes funding political campaigns (like funneling $2.3M to @ChicagosMayor, himself a former CTU “organizer”) over basic financial solvency, it’s not just teachers who lose. It is the taxpayers who are inevitably asked to bail out the system. This is happening as we speak.
How can the public trust CTU leadership to dictate a $10 billion @ChiPubSchools budget when they can’t even balance their own internal books without hiding the audits from their own members for years?
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Davis Gates has tanked the Chicago Teachers Union’s reputation in Chicago since becoming its president in 2022. Teachers in other districts can expect her to do the same to IFT.
She has subjected CTU to multiple federal investigations and been plagued with other scandals, from running a deficit and quadrupling the union’s political spending to not paying her taxes and utility bills and sending her son to private school instead of letting her members educate him.
Teachers who don’t want to answer to Davis Gates can join the thousands of other education employees who have rejected union membership. Learn more at LeaveIFT.com.
Meanwhile, we’ve compiled a look at CTU and Davis Gates.
