Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union held a public bargaining session on “student experiences” recently that made it clear both sides are too focused on shedding accountability or lobbing attacks to help students experience better educations.
Parents, teachers and a student supporting the union painted a bleak picture of the education environment within many CPS schools, decrying the variability between facilities in different parts of the city. On the other side, CPS kept pointing to its new funding model, promising it will make schools more “equitable.”
Disparity is a real issue in the district — from sports to the arts to math classes, some facilities have more than others. But by concentrating on CPS’ wrongdoings and pressuring the district to pour in even more money or reshuffle resources, CTU ignored the elephant in the room: Much of the system’s failures and the rigidity that stops it from fixing inequality among schools is there because CTU demanded it.
CTU’s quest for money and power has crippled the district’s ability to address needs and fill holes. The last CTU contract added $1.5 billion in costs and hundreds of new positions. Since 2012, district spending has increased by 97%, according to an analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute and still student proficiency in reading and math has fallen. The money isn’t making it to the right places.
The union is now demanding funding for items such as solar panels and electric buses. Four years of spending like the nearly $10 billion budget CPS passed for 2024-25, plus the additional CTU demands, would mean $50 billion in district spending by the end of a four-year contract, according to our analysis. Paying for expensive demands that have nothing to do with education means the district has to de-prioritize what’s best for kids.
What’s more, many students don’t have opportunities at their schools because CTU has fought for over a decade to keep nearly empty schools from closing. The average school in Chicago has three in 10 seats empty. Six in 10 schools are underused. Pooling resources and creating fully attended, functional schools could allow the district to efficiently provide coaches, art classes, electives teachers and more.
Playing Robin Hood is CTU’s preferred strategy — take from kids who have to give to those who don’t. But it doesn’t work.
The union is waging a war against selective enrollment schools, supporting a resolution to undermine them in pursuit of a different school model — even though selective enrollment schools have the best outcomes in the city. Instead, CTU is promoting 180 more “sustainable community schools.” The 20 that currently exist have among the worst outcomes in the district, producing worse academics, greater absenteeism and many disciplinary problems despite most spending more than the district average.
That’s not to let CPS off the hook. It’s one thing for the district to say it has plans for adjusting resources and another for those plans to come to life. CPS must stop ignoring the reality that many schools will require substantial effort to get the resources they need. Yet its leaders seemed tone-deaf to families’ and teachers’ actual experiences during public bargaining. The district needs to listen to what’s really happening during the school day.
The way to help failing schools isn’t by taking away from those that have more, but by raising the standards to help those that are failing. Changing this dynamic is the only way to help our struggling children. To truly elevate and fix the student experience, both parties should be working toward that goal: it’s the only one that really matters.
As negotiations continue, CTU needs to drop the politics, drop the militancy and drop the expensive demands for “climate justice” and other non-education provisions. The union needs to stop taking extreme positions and stop attacking schools that help students.
To help taxpayers and students, CPS needs to hold CTU to modest salary and benefits gains. It needs to work with CTU to consolidate resources.
The old system has failed Chicago’s students for far too long. We have a chance to make it better.
Mailee Smith is senior director of labor policy and staff attorney at the Illinois Policy Institute.
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