Word Problems for Grown-Ups: A Chicago Teacher’s Union Study Guide
Show your work. That’s all a teacher worth their salt ever asks a kid to do. Chicago Teachers Union—under the leadership of president Stacy Davis Gates— is “standing up to the multimillion dollar marketing firm Illinois Policy Institute”. Chalk in hand, CTU and Gates obviously plan to walk to the front of the class, —as has been asked of them by the lawsuit filed by its own members and an audit by the U.S. Department of Labor — and show their work. Funny thing about filing a defamation suit against Illinois Policy Institute for calling out alleged “cooked books” and “toxic” behavior: it means a judge gets to ask you to show what you have been working on that refutes that, except this time “show your work” isn’t a classroom rule — it’s called discovery, and it’s not optional.
So before the CTU court date drops, let’s prep with a practice set.
Stacy works Job A and Job B.
Job A: President of the Chicago Teachers Union. Job B: Executive Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, CTU’s statewide parent. Combined, those roles pay at least $265,150 a year, according to Illinois Policy Institute reporting on her compensation.
If Job A represents 30,000 CPS members and Job B represents a statewide federation with its own priorities, and a president cannot literally be in two buildings at once, solve for: whose interests get the marginal hour?
There isn’t a wrong answer so much as an unasked question — and once you’re the plaintiff in a defamation suit, “we didn’t ask” stops being a defense. Discovery gets to ask it for you.
And while we’re meeting Stacy: this is also the same union president who can mean mug during a press conference, talk tough about socialism and take ownership of the city’s children (until the next teen takeover or academic grading) — while her own son attends private school, even as she pushed to end Illinois’ only tax-credit scholarship program that helped low-income families afford exactly that kind of choice, according to Illinois Policy Institute’s reporting. Consistency is also a kind of non-toxic math. It didn’t check out then either.
In May, CTU leadership put a $8.5 million dues restructuring to a membership vote — real money, framed as necessary for “the fights ahead.” With about 80% of schools counted, roughly 60% of members voted no. It was, by outside political observers’ own description, a stunning defeat for union leadership, coming from its own rank and file.
If X = the amount leadership asked for, and 60% of the people paying dues said no thanks, what does X actually represent — a mandate, or a miscalculation?
Leadership doesn’t have to show that work to a jury. Members already made them show it to a spreadsheet, and the spreadsheet said no. Their money, their choice.
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Wisconsin Act 10
