By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
The Chicago Tribune Editorial Board recently published “How can teachers fix what’s wrong at CTU? Change the leadership.” The editorial called on the Chicago Teachers Union’s membership to choose a new set of leaders less focused on “self-serving clout-building.” They argued that teachers “deserve leaders who remember that the core mission is the education and welfare of Chicago’s children.”
The Tribune has already gotten part of what it wanted: CTU President Jesse Sharkey recently announced he won’t be running for reelection.
But here at Wirepoints, we argue that a change in leadership will do nothing to help Chicago’s broken education system. Here’s our response to the Tribune:
The Tribune’s editorial offers false hope to teachers and the Chicagoans they serve. Yes, the CTU’s militant bosses should be replaced, but nobody should expect new leadership to make much difference.
Disagree? Just count the number of times the CTU has struck or walked out over the decades. As the Tribune pointed out in a 2021 editorial: “For one stretch starting in 1969, teachers in Chicago went on strike that year, again in 1971, 1973, 1975, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1987.” Add to that the disruptions of 2012, 2016, 2019, 2021 and now 2022. Teachers have overwhelmingly supported the recent stoppages. More than 90 percent of union members voted to strike in 2016 and 2019. And more than 70 percent voted for the recent walkout.
What really needs to be changed are the collective bargaining powers public sector unions have amassed, courtesy of state lawmakers. Illinois is a national outlier when it comes to union-friendly labor laws. The state’s laws force CPS officials to bargain with the CTU over a host of issues far beyond just pay, and they give CTU teachers the power to strike – one of only 13 states to do so.
Contrast that with the labor laws of states like North Carolina, Georgia and Texas, which ban collective bargaining with teachers unions altogether. Those states prioritize children and families over public unions.
And make no mistake, any CTU leadership changes will mean nothing as long as lawmakers continue to grant the union more powers. Last year the General Assembly and Gov. J.B. Pritzker expanded the number of employment issues the CTU can strike over, even after the union subjected Chicagoans to a week-long strike in 2019 and a walkout in 2021.
Now Illinois lawmakers want to go further. They’ve put an amendment on the November 2022 ballot that will enshrine the extensive powers of Illinois’ public-sector unions, including the CTU’s, into the state constitution. If it passes, forget about ever making Chicago kids a top priority.
Ultimately, school choice is the solution to a system that’s long been fiscally and morally bankrupt.
But if the Tribune really wants to take a stand on the union right now, they’d call on lawmakers to dismantle the CTU’s overwhelming bargaining powers. And they’d call on Chicagoans to vote out any lawmakers that refuse to do so.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Everybody should watch what’s happening in Chicago. Unions want to export that playbook to the rest of the nation.
- Why the Chicago Teachers Union Always Gets What It Wants
- Chicago teachers are paid some of the highest salaries of any big district in the nation. What do Chicago parents get in return?
Audio and summary 
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Perfect photo to show how militant the union is: “This time you messed with the wrong group of teachers”. Thanks to the sign maker for saying out loud what we already knew about this group.
The current CTU leadership is going because they have accumulated a lot of publicly discoverable baggage. Look for the new CTU leadership candidates to be cut from the same cloth as the old but without the baggage.
Typically, union elections are like off-cycle local elections and have low voter turnout. This ambivalence usually helps the current people in power. A lot of people don’t want to rock the boat either. Any competing party is going to have to work hard to unseat the current regime.
Again, my advice to any CTU member dissatisfied with the current leadership: drop out, even if only for a year or two. Speak with your wallets. It’s the only way they’re going to tone down their political tirades.
Politics within the CTU are equal to or greater than the politics in Chicago/Cook County itself as far as self serving control is concerned. The rank and file members are sheep and will blindly follow whoever wins the next power struggle.
Funny thing though…they don’t have to. If the competing caucus within CTU is treated like crap this upcoming election cycle, they can simply withdraw from the union. By law, CTU is required to represent all teachers at schools where they have a presence, regardless of membership status. If I were them, I’d seriously considering dropping from the union, especially considering how the current people in power are treating them.
I knew I was leaving CPS in the mid 1980’s and stopped paying dues to CTU. At the time, the only way to stop was to change from pay check deduction to annual by personal check and then just not pay. I understand it is easier now but the union probably still has a collection of brown shirt wannabes who will still try intimidating non-members
“……call on lawmakers to dismantle the CTU’s overwhelming bargaining powers.” Even if the Trib’s editorial board did such a thing, nothing would come of it. The cabal of stakeholders who have inflicted an enduring pestilential bankruptcy of finances and governance on Illinois’ citizenry couldn’t care less about what newspaper editorial boards write. Why should they, after all, a majority of those of us who vote don’t. Lickspittle legislators, who tout and shill for all this disfunction in return for campaign contributions and endorsements, know that suburban and rural downstate Illinois voters have been utterly disenfranchised by the Illinois Democratic Party.… Read more »