* Background is here if you need it. And subscribers know more. CTU President Stacy Davis Gates testified to the Chicago School Board meeting today about its budget vote…
We’ve spent our entire summer, teachers who got layoff notices asking this city to invest in young people. Yesterday, they had an interaction with Speaker Chris Welch, and he said, ‘I have your back.’ And then some reporter went to the Senate President, and he says the same thing. I don’t think you know how monumental it is at this juncture in this fight because I do this every year. I’ve done this every year as an employee of the Chicago Teachers Union since 2011.
That ’some reporter’ was me. And Harmon’s statement was not nearly as emphatic as Welch’s. The Speaker said he was taking the lead in sending more state money to Chicago Public Schools during veto session. Harmon said this…
You will find no greater supporter of public education than the Senate Democratic caucus. The Senate President looks forward to working with our allies and partners to identify resources, and he shared this with the IFT executive board earlier this week.
* Now, let’s flash back to when CTU was vigorously defending the previously embattled House Speaker. From December of 2019…
Alaina Hampton, the political consultant who recently settled a sexual harassment case with Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and his Democratic organization, is still in a battle with the Chicago Teachers Union. During her suit with the Dems, Hampton had claimed CTU did not hire her because she had been blackballed by Madigan’s organization. Hampton had sought documents from CTU, but the organization initially refused. It eventually was compelled to turn over the documents.
The case is now settled, but Hampton says CTU has continued to disparage her on social media, so her legal team filed a cease and desist order.
Hampton revealed the legal move Monday in a tweet directed to CTU after a spokeswoman described the case as having “factual distortions, hyperbole and outright lies.” The spokeswoman’s tweet was deleted, but not before Hampton responded with her own tweet: “You can’t hide from the truth. That’s one reason my attorneys sent you and CTU a cease and desist for defamation a month ago.”
Background on that story is here.
A familiar playbook is being used right now. But that old battle plan didn’t end well.
- Think Again - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 12:23 pm:
=Welch support for more CPS money ‘monumental=
Crisis management 101 - gather as many allies as you can before it really hits the fan.
- pragmatist - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 12:28 pm:
CTU leadership is consistent about who they are. And Alaina is brave.
- Fayette County - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 12:39 pm:
Maybe CPS shouldn’t have used all that one time money as funding for permanent bills. They dug the hole, let them find their own way out. The rest of the state shouldn’t have to supplement the bad decisions they made.
- Flashback - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 12:41 pm:
In 2015, the late great Karen Lewis was calling out the unelected school board for banking phantom revenue.
“The moneys that they claim are there aren’t really there, and how do you budget when you’ve got a $500 million hole?” Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis said to reporters Monday. “So you’re going to start school and in November you run out of money? Now what?”
https://news.wttw.com/2015/08/11/karen-lewis-grades-cps-budget-math
Flash forward to 2026. The CTU president is now pressuring the (majority) unelected board to count on phantom revenue.
- Pistol Pete - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 12:42 pm:
Maybe before asking for more money the stakeholders should work on efficiencies considering 1/3 of all schools are half empty
- Frida's Boss - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 12:43 pm:
CTU has a track record of being more concerned for who they want than for the victims, even when the victims are children. This is not new.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2019/10/04/chicago-teachers-union-didnt-help-investigation-of-student-sexual-violence-consultant-says/
Welch is smart to seek out their help. Could be the only chance he has. SDG controls IFT. They will be sending out their members to do whatever they can to get “those” legislators, as Maze put it, in the suburbs to do what they want.
- Just Me 2 - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 1:15 pm:
I saw this movie already. Can we watch something else please?
- JS Mill - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 1:22 pm:
CTU operates like an organized crime family.
The CTU track record on standing up for women is incredibly poor and should be looked into as well. But I don’t thinks Gates has any shame so they will keep on keeping on.
- City Zen - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 1:31 pm:
How is the state gonna come up with an additional $875 million for all the other school districts?
- Shytown - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 1:46 pm:
Aligning with SDG is a bad (and obvious) move - her and the CTU brands are in shambles. More members are saying no to member dues and members said no thank you to her push to raise member dues for political use. There’s no legit justification for this ask outside of trying to add members to their rosters to beef up their political funding with taxpayer dollars.
- Big Tent - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 1:47 pm:
~~~How is the state gonna come up with an additional $875 million for all the other school districts?~~~
Keep that tax increase in Chicago only please.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 1:53 pm:
===additional $875 million===
Oh, it’s a whole lot more than that.
- Oklahoma - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 1:56 pm:
For such a small d democratic organization such as CTU, they sure do put all their eggs in a very few baskets, rather than doing the (much harder) organizing work required to get to 60-30.
- Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 1:57 pm:
===60-30===
71-36 in veto session.
- Principal Skinner - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 2:04 pm:
If im a public union, Id be pushing the tier 2 fix hard right now.
- Oklahoma - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 2:06 pm:
All the more reason they should have put in the work in April, March, February, January, 2025, etc.
- Principal Skinner - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 2:09 pm:
To clarify, push the tier 2 fix because it will get momentum due to the Speakers predicament. Same as Speakers support for additional CPS funding.
- 40,000 ft - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 2:17 pm:
Do Welch and Harmon know the CTU is under federal investigation, and being sued by members, for not supplying members with financial audits for 5 years?
Not a good look for people claiming they’re being transparent.
- soccermom - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 2:17 pm:
I don’t think the tier 2 issue affects teachers? I could be wrong…
- soccermom - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 2:21 pm:
Okay, IEA says it does. Any experts out there?
- Adroit Opiner - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 2:33 pm:
==I don’t think the tier 2 issue affects teachers? I could be wrong…==
Teachers are going to be the largest single group it affects, as they are not coordinated with social security, and tend to have the highest final average salaries among affected parties (the tier 2 issue is with the wage cap, so higher paid employees are most affected).
- Pragmatist - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 2:39 pm:
CTU is better suited to be the permanent opposition; terrible dance partners. So if the speaker pulls a rabbit out, great. If not, they’ll throw him and anyone else under the bus.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 3:08 pm:
==How is the state gonna come up with an additional $875 million for all the other school districts?==
@City:
SDG is asking for something like $5 billion statewide.
- Ducky - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 3:17 pm:
If only this state had a real alternative party of fiscal discipline.
- Walker - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 3:36 pm:
@pragmatist
Smart
- JS Mill - Thursday, Jul 30, 26 @ 3:48 pm:
=Okay, IEA says it does. Any experts out there?=
It does. Any teacher that began service as of 1/1/2011 is in Tier 2.