The Chicago Teachers Union is demanding another $50 billion in its contract negotiations for things like free abortions, migrant services, and LGBT training, all while students continue to score poorly.
The union’s contract demands, which have not been publicly released but leaked recently, include a minimum 9% pay increase every year through fiscal year 2028 and more days off.
The average Chicago teacher’s salary is currently $93,182, according to the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative nonprofit think tank. It would rise to $144,620 by 2028 under the union’s demands.
Other demands include free abortions for public school employees, free mass transit for all public school students and employees, and $2,000 for each migrant to help with things like academics and mental health counseling. The union also wants to turn unused school facilities into homeless migrant housing.
The teachers union also wants school employees to receive mandatory LGBT training and require every school to have at least one gender-neutral bathroom. It also demands the school board ensure no school employee is forced to tell parents about a student adopting a new gender identity.
The budget for Chicago Public Schools is already $9.4 billion this year, up almost 30% from $7.4 billion just five years ago. The teachers union’s current contract expires at the end of June.
The union’s president, Stacy Davis Gates, defended the aggressive demands.
“We are asking you to give us an opportunity to tell our story,” Davis Gates said during a speech in March. “It will cost $50 billion and three cents. And so what, that’s audacity. That’s Chicago.”
Davis Gates, a vocal critic of private schools, sent her freshman son to a Catholic school last year, sparking outrage from her critics.
In defense of her decision, Davis Gates criticized school choice, blaming such policies for the lack of resources at Chicago’s public schools.
“It was a very difficult decision for us because there is not a lot to offer black youth who are entering high school” in Chicago, Davis Gates said at the time.
Chicago’s Democratic mayor, Brandon Johnson, is a former teacher and organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union. He helped organize the union’s 2012 strike.
The teachers union also donated heavily to Johnson’s campaign, prompting critics to question the mayor’s impartiality in the contract negotiations.
Mailee Smith, an Illinois parent and director of the Illinois Policy Institute, called it the union’s “most radical agenda yet” but said the demands were to be expected.
“CTU’s leadership has a long history of progressive activism,” Smith told Fox News. “It focuses on power and politics over what’s best for teachers and students.”
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She added that the union has fought against linking teacher evaluations to pay or benefits.
“In fact, in these contract demands they are trying to water down evaluation criteria for teachers,” Smith said.
Last year, Chicago Public Schools spent nearly $22,000 per student, much higher than the national average of $14,347.
Meanwhile, in 2022, only 12% of Chicago’s eighth graders were proficient in math, and only 19% were proficient in reading.
The district serves about 322,000 students across 644 schools.