The Chicago Teachers Union is the death knell for the success and growth of any school.
That’s the case in Chicago Public Schools, where the CTU’s Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators (CORE) leadership brought on falling student proficiency, decreasing enrollment and skyrocketing costs, according to Illinois Policy Institute research.
And now it’s the case in the Acero Schools charter network, where the administration recently announced it is closing seven of its 15 schools.
These closures are no aberration; they are the product of the CTU’s yearslong anti-charter strategy to eliminate charter schools they never wanted to exist in the first place. The plan: Unionize charter school employees, undermine them and then absorb them into the district’s public schools. The result: Chicago families suffer.
In 2018 — the same year Acero’s teachers voted to unionize and merge with the CTU — former CTU President Jesse Sharkey explicitly admitted his motivation to “undermine further charter expansion,” such as the unionizing and merging of charter schools into the CTU.
Later that year, the CTU employed its go-to tactic in leading Acero’s teachers out on strike, marking the first charter school strike in the nation, which forced the cancellation of classes for the 7,000 students in the network’s 15 schools.
Now as seven Acero schools are closing, current CTU President Stacy Davis Gates claims she wants to save them by absorbing them into CPS.
It’s game, set, match — or unionize, close, absorb — for the CTU.
Among other things, Acero administrators cite declining enrollment and significant operating costs — two of the many negative effects the CTU has also had on CPS. “Unlike CPS, Acero Schools cannot operate with a budget deficit; we must legally balance our budget,” its statement reads.
But there’s more here than a simple budgetary issue. The CTU purposefully undermined the very schools it was unionizing.
The CTU directly attacked charter schools in its last two teacher contracts with CPS, requiring a moratorium on their growth. A side letter negotiated under Sharkey in its recently expired contract mandated a “net zero increase” in the number of charter schools over the term of the four-year contract and limited enrollment to 101% the capacity those schools were at in 2019-20.
In other words, the CTU purposefully prevented the growth in the number of new charter schools and the enrollment of students in those already in existence. Its demands for the new contract continue that assault, limiting the number of students enrolled in charters by the 2027-28 school year to the same capacity as enrolled during the 2023-24 school year.
The union was also instrumental in CPS’ decision to limit the length of charter school contracts to just three years, as opposed to the 10-year maximum allowed under state law. The shortened contract length makes it harder for charters to plan or invest in the schools. The situation is also less attractive to potential staff or students, who realize their school may not exist in just a few years.
The CTU’s goal to undermine charters has played out at the Illinois statehouse as well, affecting not just Chicagoans but also students and families statewide. In the six legislative sessions from 2011 to 2022, the union lobbied lawmakers on at least 50 bills related to charter schools and educational choice, according to an Illinois Policy Institute analysis.
For example, the union opposed at least three bills removing limits on the total number of charter schools that can operate statewide or in Chicago.
Of course, the CTU’s fight against educational options isn’t just about charters. The union also advocated for killing the Invest in Kids tax credit scholarship program, declaring that it should be terminated “for good.” When state lawmakers allowed the program to sunset, at least 15,000 kids were left stranded without scholarships. At least four private schools in Illinois closed after Invest in Kids expired.
Unlike the CTU, the people of Illinois didn’t want the scholarship program to end. A poll of 800 voters conducted by Echelon Insights for the Illinois Policy Institute found that respondents supported the program 3-to-1, with at least 60% support from voters regardless of political party.
It’s no wonder parents in Chicago want options, whether that be provided through charter schools or private schools. Since CORE took over leadership of CTU in 2010, enrollment at CPS has dropped and student proficiency has plummeted. Only about 1 in 4 students can read at grade level and, for math, it’s even fewer.
Families chose Acero charter schools because those schools were a better fit for their children. If the CTU completely has its way, those students will be tossed back into a school system that is not working, possibly condemning families to the worst performing schools in the city.
Amid the CTU’s abysmal record at CPS and its ardent fight to undermine charter schools, it’s unclear why anyone thought it was a good idea to unionize charter schools under the CTU banner. But it happened, and now the CTU’s own members at the schools that are closing are suffering the results of the CTU’s yearslong strategy. Acero students at those seven schools are losing the teachers and environments they know. Parents are once again losing options.
Unfortunately, the families affected by the Acero closures are nothing more to the CTU than strategic collateral damage in its anti-charter, anti-parent strategy.
Mailee Smith is senior director of labor policy and staff attorney at the Illinois Policy Institute.
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