As of Sept. 1, the CTU had spent almost $236,000 on eight candidates running for Chicago Public Schools’ first fully elected school board.
The Chicago Teachers Union has spent almost $236,000 on eight candidates it has endorsed for the first fully elected Chicago school board, with most of it going to the CTU staffer running for president.
CTU deputy political director Hilario Dominguez, a former CPS special education teacher, has gotten $207,293, or about 87% of the money the union has spent so far on board races.
While money so far has gone to eight candidates, the union has endorsed 15.
CTU gave $1,372 to candidate Brenda Lee Anderson but is endorsing Anusha Thotakura for that district, 6A.
In the 2024 school board election, the union funneled $2.8 million to candidates. While there’s still time for CTU to bankroll its chosen candidates, its leadership got a wake-up call earlier this year when members resoundingly voted down a dues hike intended to fund CTU’s political agenda.
Political spending is a common use of member dues
In its 2025 fiscal year, the union spent over $4.2 million on “political activities and lobbying” — a record high since CTU started filing annual reports with the U.S. Labor Department.
In 2024, the CTU and its affiliates spent almost $2.8 million on school board races, squandering $2.1 million on six union-supported candidates who lost.
Meanwhile, just 18 cents of every dollar CTU spent was on “representational activities” in its fiscal 2025, according to the union’s own accounting.
That accounting shows teachers are not CTU leadership’s priority.
Members defeated a dues hike that union leaders wanted for political activities
The union wanted to increase dues by as much as $800 a year to fund even more political activity, but almost 63% of members voted against the proposal.
It’s no wonder Chicago teachers didn’t want to see more of their paychecks siphoned off for politics. The union’s political spending has already quadrupled since Stacy Davis Gates took over as president in 2022.
Educators’ rejection of CTU’s money grab sends a clear message: They want union leaders to put teachers and students first — not politics.
