The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is seeking an additional $50 billion in contract negotiations for salary increases, immigration funding, fully subsidized abortions and LGBTQ-related materials in classrooms, it has been revealed. He was criticized for demanding “What?” .
Maley Smith, director of the Illinois Policy Institute, responded to the request. When “Fox & Friends” They accused CTU of acting on behalf of the interests of its members rather than students.
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“This is a given for them. They’re not imposing what’s best for students,” Smith said Monday. “They are pushing what best suits the political agenda of their leaders. Other things we are seeing are demands for climate justice, demands for social justice, student support for asylum seekers. These include requests for $2,000 per person and housing for new teachers.
“None of this is typical of collective bargaining,” she continued. “These are leaders’ agendas and have nothing to do with students.”
Although the union’s demands have not been made public, the leaked document lays out an eye-opening agenda, including union president Stacey Davis Gates’ bold call for a 9% annual wage increase for union members through 2028. It’s shining a light.
The average salary for Chicago public school teachers is $93,182, according to a study by the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative nonprofit think tank. Therefore, average teacher salaries will increase by half to $144,620 in the 2027-2028 school year.
According to the latest Nations Report Card, which provides national results on student performance, only 21% of the city’s 8th graders are proficient readers, with members demonstrating overwhelming results for their students. This request is being made despite the fact that
“CTU leadership has a long history of progressive activity,” Smith said. “It focuses on the power and politics of what’s best for teachers and students, and … in 2022, it hand-picked and funded one of its own employees, Mayor Brandon Johnson, to hold office.” This was to some extent expected, as the ”
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“Now they are using this opportunity to bring their own policies to the negotiating table to advance their most radical agenda yet,” she continued. “We are already seeing the results of CTU’s work: Math and reading achievement scores are plummeting. In Chicago Public Schools, only one in four students can read at grade level. Mathematics It’s even worse for low-income students.” Absenteeism is up, and enrollment is down as people leave CPS. This was while the radical leadership of the CTU leadership was in charge. ”
The leaked request also addresses “disparities” in health insurance, calling for 100% coverage benefits. abortion care Fertility is also taken into account, including full coverage of embryo storage and other cryo-storage needs.
In its far-reaching plans, the union also wants more taxpayer funds to go to immigrants, allocating $2,000 to each immigrant to help with academics, transportation and mental health counseling.
The union also wants each of the 646 public schools to have a “Newcomer Contact Center” for new and immigrant students, and to convert unused school facilities into housing for immigrants.
Other social justice provisions in the plan include ensuring that workers and educators receive annual training on LGBTQ+ issues as part of their job descriptions. The union also wants to require every school in the district to have at least one gender-neutral restroom.
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The committee also wants to adopt a policy that would prohibit members from being forced to tell parents if a student rejects their gender, according to the document.
“They don’t want teacher evaluations and performance to be tied to teacher pay or benefits or what’s going on in the schools at all,” Smith said. “In fact, in these contract demands, they are trying to water down teacher evaluation criteria so that teacher evaluations are lower and actually mean less.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU legislative coordinator, was endorsed by the union to run. As of June 30, 2023, CTU has poured more than $2.6 million into Johnson’s campaign, and Johnson has received more than $6 million in total from teachers unions, according to the Illinois Policy Institute.
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacey Davis Gates (left) arrives with Mayor Brandon Johnson at the Legler Regional Branch of the Chicago Public Library to read to students at Genevieve Melody STEM Elementary School on February 7, 2024. . (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Smith said “fair negotiations” between the city and the teachers’ union are essential to moving forward. She urged Johnson to step aside to make that happen.
“We need to make sure there’s a fair negotiation,” Smith said. “Regardless of what the demands are or what should be in the collective bargaining agreement, Mayor Johnson is not a partial negotiator. What we have with him is collusion with unions, not negotiation. Someone. We need him to step aside so we can negotiate.” Who is actually at the negotiating table representing teachers, parents and city taxpayers? ”
FOX News’ Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.
