Stacy Davis Gates throws down a ‘$50 billion and 3 cents’ CTU gauntlet
To no one’s surprise, the Chicago Teachers Union is preparing to ask for a lot — billions more — in the contract negotiations set to begin in earnest shortly. Union President Stacy Davis Gates threw down the gauntlet in an appearance Tuesday before the City Club of Chicago.
The union’s demands, she said, “will cost $50 billion and 3 cents. And so what? That’s audacity. That’s Chicago.”
But the fight would be tough, she allowed. The “systems,” she said, ominously, “are very, very stubborn. … These systems don’t easily give.”
And then came her piece de resistance.
Apropos of where the money is going to come from to pay for all these demands, Davis Gates had a firm instruction — heck, a demand — for Chicagoans: “Stop asking that question. Ask another question.”
Where to even begin with this kind of rhetoric? How about by noting that these “systems” are actually taxpayers’?
Taxpayers are the source of the money that supports Chicago Public Schools. And, no, taxpayers as a rule don’t tend to enjoy paying higher taxes. Many already are struggling to make ends meet.
The cost of running Chicago’s public schools has soared in recent years despite sharply lower student populations, the byproduct of a militant union that has steamrolled a couple of mayors now — first Rahm Emanuel and then Lori Lightfoot. The CPS budget well exceeds $9 billion this year, up nearly 30% from $7.4 billion just five years ago. Much of that increase is reflected in teacher salaries, which are among the highest of any big-city teachers in the country.
Each year Chicago Public Schools increases its property tax levy by as much as the law allows and it now accounts for more than half of Chicago property owners’ tax bills.
Surely, $50 billion is rhetorical hyperbole. But even given the theatricality of her City Club performance, Davis Gates still is being inappropriately dismissive of hardworking taxpayers. It’s hard to imagine the late Karen Lewis, who in our view is most responsible for forging the vision of CTU as something more like a political party than a labor union, setting up herself and her members for immediate public dismissal that way.
In one breath, Davis Gates invites the public to listen to what the union has to say about equity and why their demands are in everyone’s interests, not just their members’. In the next, she gives those already skeptical and fearful of CTU and its political might every reason to tune her out.
Stop asking that question? Does she really have that little respect for fellow Chicagoans?
Funding is always a key question when it comes to politics and government. Virtually every politician — and definitely every mayor Chicago ever has had — has dreams of building monumental public works or establishing groundbreaking programs that not only will contribute to the common good but leave a legacy. And it’s appropriate — it would be irresponsible otherwise — for Chicagoans to ask who will pay for those dreams.
Davis Gates already knows this page and every other self-respecting journalistic outlet in this city won’t stop asking that question.
We and many others have observed and rued the unprecedented situation in which Chicago finds itself as it girds for yet another CTU showdown. Mayor Brandon Johnson is a former CTU member and lobbyist and this hand-picked candidate owes the union, and its formidable skills at getting sympathetic voters to the polls, for his election win.
He should have recused himself from these negotiations in light of the stark conflict of interest. Of course he should. The ethics are clear. But he hasn’t, and we don’t believe he will.
That mayoral folly has caused much hand-wringing among those who didn’t vote for Johnson, and even many of those who voted for him think he should recuse himself in favor of someone clearly untainted by self-interest.
All that said, the situation may not be as one-sided as it first appears. There’s only so much public money available to pay for this contract. And CPS already faces a fiscal cliff to the tune of hundreds of millions beginning next fiscal year before a cent more is provided to teachers. Gov. J.B. Pritzker hasn’t responded to pleas from CTU and Johnson for more state money in his budget. It’s highly unlikely Springfield will foot the bill for even a fraction of CTU’s demands.
So, once reality sets in, the teachers could well be left to decide whether to walk off the job for the third time in the last 12 years. Only this time they wouldn’t be able to use Emanuel or Lightfoot as foils. They would be walking out on their friend and ally. The cards CTU holds in the latest chapter of this multiyear war may not be as strong as they seem.
Davis Gates gave a sardonic “shout-out” to “rich people” in her City Club appearance, and union officials have said they plan to suggest some creative revenue-generating ideas for their friends at City Hall, presumably involving yet more contributions from the well-to-do and business interests. There’s been a lot of talk from the CTU and Johnson camps about there being “more than enough” in this city to bankroll their vision of a progressive transformation.
Castigating those opposed to the CTU agenda as hostile to educating Black children, as Davis Gates did on Tuesday, will not help in that effort. The damage inflicted by that kind of divisive rhetoric is extensive. If it continues from both the Davis Gates and the Johnson spigots, taps flowing from similar springs, some of those high taxpayers may well decide this is no longer the city for them — exacerbating the problem.
So, in our view, this eventually will lead CPS and CTU to the inevitable discussion about how to reshape a school district that now is serving far fewer students than it has in decades. There’s an influx of migrant children whose likely addition to CPS needs to be appropriately accounted for. But the elephant in the room for CPS is dozens of schools that are serving 30% or fewer of the students they were built to instruct.
Under state law, CPS can’t close any schools until next January. But after that there’s no legal impediment. The savings from making some tough decisions could well yield more resources for the schools, and the teachers, that truly need the investment. Indeed, there are parts of the city where schools are over capacity.
Closures, of course, are anathema to CTU and to Johnson. Emanuel’s 50 school closures following the 2012 strike are referenced repeatedly in debates around CPS and its future today. But school closures aren’t unusual outside of Chicago. In the suburbs for decades, districts wisely have consolidated schools in response to reduced school-age populations.
All of this is to say that, once the illusions of pots of money at the end of rainbows are dispelled, the time will come to do some real negotiating and determine how best to deploy the resources at hand.
And Chicago’s teachers, whose jobs are critical to this city’s future, hopefully then can return to focusing on educating our children rather than fronting a radical socialist movement. An editorial board can dream, too.