* Fran Spielman…
Tension between the CTU and CPS is largely spurred by differences over how to address a structural budget deficit and historical underfunding.
The union has advocated for a more aggressive approach: settling the contract, then joining with CPS officials to try to force Gov. JB Pritzker and state lawmakers to provide the money. […]
[Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates] said it’s not her job to figure out how to pay for a new teachers contract or where the money comes from.
“You can go to Jamie Dimon at Morgan Chase and tell them to renegotiate those toxic payday loans from the Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Rauner era. … You can figure out how to tax the rich and have those proceeds go to schools,” she said.
* More from the interview…
Fran Spielman: Pritzker says there’s not going to be any more state funding. He has made increases that are fiscally responsible for the state, and that’s all he he is able to do.
Stacy Davis Gates: Well, maybe Chicago would like to have a word with him.
Spielman: What do you mean?
Davis Gates: How do you summarily dismiss people who need? We serve the highest number of children of color in this state, the highest number of children existing in low income environments in this state. At the same time, this city puts a whole lot into Illinois. How do you refuse the children of Chicago? Like, how do you do that? I don’t even understand why. I just don’t I don’t understand, I’ve never understood it. I didn’t understand it when it was Bruce Rauner. Right? I didn’t understand it when it was Pat Quinn. I just don’t understand it. I don’t understand why we are so okay with good enough. Good enough for those kids that go to the Chicago Public Schools, good enough for those kids on the South Side of Chicago. And here’s the trick, even the kids up North are getting cheated because their parents are both paying tuition by creating the ‘Friends of’ and they’re paying taxes. So whether you are White parent in Chicago or a Black parent in Chicago, you are not getting the reciprocity from our investment in this region and in the state. And I think we need to have a word on that.
Spielman: Your demands include a 9% annual pay raise or the rate of inflation, whichever is higher, and a host of other add-ons that the Martinez administration claims would push CPS into a $2.9 billion deficit next year. Where is that money supposed to come from?
Davis Gates: I said very clearly, Fran, that we need to create revenue streams that reflect the investment that Chicago puts into this region and in this state. I think that question has already gotten an answer. For me to be perfectly honest with you, the question is, why don’t we already fund schools? Why is it okay to have a teacher shortage? Why don’t we pay teachers their actual worth? See, the question about, where are you going to get the money. Actually, my job is to as a leader, a civic leader, a parent, a resident of this city, a union leader, is to create pathways where people who need the advocacy can get the advocacy. For years, our union has offered revenue idea after revenue idea. We’ve said, sue the banks, get some money back, figure it out. So the question about where you get it from, that question has been posed to us like no other labor union, I might add, no other labor union get asked the question, how are you going to bargain for what you need in your workplace, what you need in your space, and how are you going to pay for it? Actually, the boss gets to tell us how they get to pay for what are their ideas to win the revenue, our job is to push to envision, to make better. But at the same time, this union has taken on that responsibility, and we have provided clarity and guidance on how this could potentially work. But again, Fran, this is a group project, right? We’re not the only ones out here who should be doing the work. We need the governor. We need the mayor. We need the [garbled] education. We need CEO Pedro Martinez. We need state legislators to understand that the only thing we win at together, where no one loses, is figuring out how to fund our schools and offering our young people what they need in Chicago and Cahokia and East St Louis and in Pontiac, no one loses figuring out how to fund schools. Corporations don’t lose, small businesses don’t lose, politicians don’t lose, families don’t lose, unions don’t lose. But most of all, students win.
As we’ve discussed before, the total statewide amount the CTU wants is $5.47 billion a year. And the mayor has never asked the governor or legislative leaders for that money.
* Also, while Chicago is definitely a strong regional economic engine, it gets back most of the money it sends to the state. The suburbs send almost twice is much to the state as they receive…
[Research by the Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Paul Simon Public Policy Institute] breaks the state’s 102 counties into six specific regions, including Cook County, a five-county suburban section that surrounds Cook County, and the 96 remaining downstate regions which are subdivided into north, central, southwest and southern regions.
The research shows the south region receives $2.81 in state funds for every $1 generated. The Central Illinois region of 50 counties receives $1.87 back for every $1.00 sent to Springfield. All of the downstate regions receive more from the state budget than they pay in taxes. By comparison, Cook County receives 90 cents for every $1, and the suburban counties only 53 cents for every $1 generated.
- Excitable Boy - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:05 pm:
- I said very clearly, Fran, that we need to create revenue streams that reflect the investment that Chicago puts into this region and in this state. -
Your mayor and city council can do that without involving the state at all. Chicago property taxes are extremely low compared to the rest of the state, start there.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:06 pm:
=== Chicago property taxes are extremely low===
Residential, yes.
- hisgirlfriday - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:14 pm:
The CTU was so much better at politics under Karen Lewis.
If the CTU wanted Pritzker’s attention, they should have set up some strike or other action around a thing that Pritzker cared very much about - the DNC.
What is the CTU’s leverage here to be making all these demands on Pritzker?
- Alton Sinkhole - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:14 pm:
What exactly is her job, in her eyes?
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:18 pm:
===Like, how do you do that? I don’t even understand why. I just don’t I don’t understand, I’ve never understood it. I didn’t understand it when it was Bruce Rauner. Right? I didn’t understand it when it was Pat Quinn. I just don’t understand it.===
That seems pretty clear. Maybe CTU should elect a leader who understands how public finances work, and who then might be able to do something about it besides stomp her feet and hold her breath.
- Beep booop - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:20 pm:
She understands that private schools have better soccer teams, at the least
- ChicagoBars - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:26 pm:
I don’t read any permanent revenue solution proposed in that interview that isn’t a guarantee Mayor Johnson joins Lori Lightfoot as a one term wonder. Not sure I’ve ever heard one proposed either.
I’ve heard suing the banks offered a couple times but I’ve never heard how that would solve any CTU CPS funding gap on a permanent basis.
Refusing to do the obvious thing and take the property tax increase in Mayor Johnson’s first term only makes things much harder now. Springfield may not help those who help themselves, but the Statehouse sure is good at refusing to bend over backwards to help if you haven’t rifled your own municipal couch cushions first.
- sulla - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:31 pm:
“For years, our union has offered revenue idea after revenue idea. We’ve said, sue the banks, get some money back, figure it out.”
Brilliant. I can’t possibly imagine why the Governor isn’t engaging with CTU on this.
- SWSider - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:33 pm:
==That seems pretty clear. Maybe CTU should elect a leader who understands how public finances work, and who then might be able to do something about it besides stomp her feet and hold her breath.==
I’m reminded of an apocryphal quote from a Chicago great about how he feels about “them kids.” It was more succinct than yours, but the sentiment was identical.
- Juice - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:35 pm:
To Excitable Boy, as a Chicago resident and homeowner/property taxpayer, I agree 100%.
Look around at just about every other school district in the State, and the property tax rates for education are higher. Part of that is because Chicago has a lot of property wealth (and as Rich alluded to, a lot of that is in the commercial market). But no one in Springfield is going to shed a tear for CPS when CPS leadership and the 5th floor have repeatedly failed to even attempt to get our finances in shape on our own. The state has increased education funding by $350 million year over year for multiple years now, and included the CPS pension payment as a factor to increase how much CPS gets from that formula.
If the state has funds available to increase that $350 million and there aren’t other pressing needs that need to be met (hint: good luck) then absolutely, increase the formula by more. But CPS leadership needs to put its adult pants on, and put a referendum on the ballot like every other PTELL district in this state does when it is in need of additional funds.
- JoanP - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:35 pm:
“revenue streams” a/k/a magic beans.
- Chicagonk - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:37 pm:
There are 60 schools with occupancy rates of less than 30%. One way Springfield can help CPS is to allow the moratorium on school closings to expire in 2025. The state does tend to meddle in CPS issues when it is convenient politically, so I do think SDG has a point that Springfield could do something if they wanted to. It would benefit everyone involved to have a realistic conversation in 2025 about the future of CPS.
- SWSider - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:38 pm:
===Refusing to do the obvious thing and take the property tax increase in Mayor Johnson’s first term only===
Imo this is secretly a huge indictment of JBP who has had 2+ terms and is doing the same stuff.
- TheInvisibleMan - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:42 pm:
“I don’t even understand why. I just don’t I don’t understand, I’ve never understood it.”
She understands it perfectly. She doesn’t accept it, which is fine. But that’s much different than not understanding it.
Generally the educational model we use in primary education is still stuck in the 19th century at best, no matter how many tweaks are made around the edges to address its obvious core failures.
More money isn’t what is lacking in education.
- Rudy’s teeth - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:43 pm:
One might attribute the teacher shortage to individuals who teach for a few short years and leave to pursue union activities. Brandon Johnson and Stacy Davis Gates…I’m talking to you.
So much rhetoric from SDG but little in the way of solutions. Perhaps close underenrolled schools, end social promotions, and improve literacy so that students can build a future after high school.
- TJ - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:49 pm:
Their suggestion for raising revenues is to “sue the banks?”
That is Underpants Gnomes levels of municipal revenues.
- EP1082 - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 2:54 pm:
“For years, our union has offered revenue idea after revenue idea.” Have you offered any cost saving ideas?
- JoeMaddon - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:02 pm:
**One might attribute the teacher shortage to individuals who teach for a few short years and leave to pursue union activities. Brandon Johnson and Stacy Davis Gates…I’m talking to you.**
LOL - seriously? This is most definitely not why we have a teacher shortage.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:03 pm:
What JoeMaddon said.
People, take a breath already.
- LastModDemStanding - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:05 pm:
-sue the banks-
Excuse me…what are we suing the banks for again?
The following suggestion wouldn’t fly with CTU and couldn’t occur until the fully elected school board was in place, but CPS could just a City wide consolidation and 5 year plan that tracks with population distribution and development. There are schools bursting at the seams and schools with 20% capacity which makes 0 sense.
- Larry Bowa Jr. - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:08 pm:
“What exactly is her job, in her eyes?”
She told us: advocacy. Her job is advocacy. Understanding how anything on earth works is not relevant.
Anyway let’s get the big brains in the city’s law department moving on this “sue the banks” plan. It’s brilliant! Sure to conjure billions for the Chicago public schools.
- Alton Sinkhole - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:20 pm:
I remember often in school math teachers would ask me to “Show my work”.
Perhaps SDG could talk to some of the math teachers in the union and get advice on how she can show her work on these pie-in-the-sky solutions.
- Teve Demotte - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:21 pm:
Let me get this straight. The CPS 2025 budget: Total expenditures is $8.4B. Headcount is 45,965. Not long ago, the CPS expenditures were $5.7B and the headcount was 36,511. From my math, the budget has increased by $2.7B. Enrollment has been declining significantly over the past twenty years.
- DuPage Saint - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:22 pm:
Thank you thank you Rich for pointing out the true economic engine of the state. Maybe the collar counties should demand their fair share .
I think the Union and the Bears should just go down together and let the Governor explain the facts of life to both of them
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:29 pm:
===the true economic engine of the state===
It’s Chicago. But the city gets back a lot of the money it sends to the state.
- Rudy’s teeth - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:31 pm:
Decades ago women who attended college had limited opportunities outside of education. Today women study law, medicine, finance, research, IT, business and science. Women have opportunities in multiple fields for those who choose to pursue these fields of study. Hence, there is a shortage of teachers.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:38 pm:
The dog caught the car and figured out that it does not know how to drive so it just barks all day.
CTU got their mayor in office. Instead of figuring it out, they are demanding that someone else do it for them.
- pragmatist - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:44 pm:
CTU and Brandon Johnson are not honest brokers. The governor tried to move a progressive income tax. It did not pass. Is CTU suggesting another run at it? If that is the case, that revenue—if somehow there was political will and the voters agreed—is at least a few years away. Suing the banks? Do Stacy and Brandon think, assuming litigation against the banks has merit, it can be resolved in time for this contract? The ideas make CTU and the Mayor sound like unserious goofballs. If the goal is revenue, then CTU should extend a hand to the governor to the general assembly and put some money on the table to organize—instead, Stacy rants, Brandon raves, and City Hall flounders.
- Old IL Dude - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:50 pm:
A friend of mine who is former CTU brought up the point of declining birth rates due to the Great Recession: The reason? Kids are expensive.
In 2000, CPS had 430K students. In 2024, CPS has 330K. Rahm closed 50 schools in 2013, and the CPS school population is still shrinking 11 years later bc Kids are Expensive. CTU wants to maintain lightly attended schools, even though there is no sustainability when the current kids graduate, and no population growth to justify keeping them open. Instead, SDG & CTU want librarians, nurses, art teachers, P.E. teachers, social workers and restoration specialists, to serve far fewer students.
I don’t understand that.
- Gravitas - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:55 pm:
My extremely low residential property taxes have DOUBLED.
A single installment now equals what I once paid for an entire year.
The largest portion of the tax bills is for the Chicago Public Schools. Enough Stacy Davis Gates.
- Tony T. - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:56 pm:
They want to sue the banks for the high interest loans Rahm took, but also want to take out a new high interest loan to pay for their raises? I have whiplash.
- Anyone Remember - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 3:58 pm:
SDG is the most tone deaf union leader since AFSCME’s Henry Bayer. Bayer said if a governmental unit signed a labor contract, there could be no layoffs, and the employer was obligated to raise taxes. (He said that in about 7 sentences in the Blue Room, when the press digested what he’d said, they asked him to repeat himself, and he got that “deer in the headlights” look.) Or telling Pate Philip that as the collective bargaining agree specified how many failed drug tests it took to fire correctional officers (3), the GA couldn’t change it legislatively (they did). SDG’s becoming CPS’ worst enemy.
- Three Dimensional Checkers - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 4:22 pm:
===assuming litigation against the banks has merit===
It has no merit, and they know it. Small minded and resentment filled people are easier to control.
- low level - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 4:23 pm:
My grade school in downtown Chicago had one classroom of every grade. Gym was in a basement and recess in a parking lot. No music or art. No nurse. If we were sick we went home. And yet we not only learned but 90% of my 8th grade graduating class went to top performing high schools. Im tired of hearing money is the answer to everything. Listening to SDG is likr hearing nails on a chalkboard.
- DuPage Saint - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 4:34 pm:
Sorry Rich Chicago definitely is the economic engine of the state. the collar counties are the piggy bank
- Friendly Bob Adams - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 4:57 pm:
Gates does not do a good job in the interview. Part of being a good advocate is presenting yourself as someone that others can do business with. I don’t think she’s doing that so far.
- City Zen - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 5:25 pm:
==Hence, there is a shortage of teachers.==
Yet BLS tells a different story. Employment numbers for state government education have never been higher. Since 2000, K-12 enrollment is up 5% while the number of school employees has increased over 30%. And teacher turnover rate remains the lowest of any profession.
- CPS Parent - Tuesday, Sep 3, 24 @ 5:29 pm:
Why is there no talk of auditing the books?