The Chicago Teachers Union exerts power not only over the city of Chicago, but also statewide. Southern Illinois schools and their funding is the target of CTU leaders’ latest attack.
The Chicago Teachers Union’s political agenda doesn’t only impact what happens within city limits, with it now claiming Southern Illinois school districts get too much money.
CTU’s demand for more state money went from $1 billion to $2 billion, without explanation. Not they’ve made it clear where they think that money should come from: Southern Illinois schools.
A recent post on X by CTU Vice Present Jackson Potter, retweeted by CTU President Stacy Davis Gates, clearly shows animosity toward school districts in Southern Illinois. It begrudges them the funding they receive and indicates CTU doesn’t think schools in Southern Illinois are as deserving of state funding as Chicago.
It’s just the latest example of CTU’s efforts to control not just schools in Chicago, but issues throughout the state.
Davis Gates also went on X recently to urge a special session in the Illinois General Assembly to increase funding for education as well as for transit and health care. CTU tried to address those three issues in its 2024 contract negotiations with Chicago Public Schools as well as in its 2025 legislative session agenda.
It isn’t just on social media where CTU weighs in. CTU also saw lawmakers do its bidding on nearly 1-in-3 bills it lobbied over during the 2025 spring session of the 104th Illinois General Assembly.
It invested about $1.8 million in nearly half of the sitting state lawmakers. Of those, 2-in-5 represented areas outside of Chicago and none were Republicans.
CTU doesn’t restrict its lobbying efforts to workplace or education issues. Nor does it focus on Chicago-specific bills. Instead, its lobbying efforts extend to bills affecting Illinoisans from Rockford to Cairo.
Take House Bill 3247. While the enacted bill ensures all children, regardless of immigration status, can receive a free education, it also requires all districts to develop policies that could restrict when law enforcement agents can enter a school facility. It applies to all school districts throughout the state.
The union also attempted to restrict charter schools statewide. If passed, House Bill 1387 and Senate Bill 144 would have imposed additional restrictions on who could be authorized to operate a charter school and how charter schools spent their budgets.
But many bills had nothing to do with education or its union rights. For example, House Bill 2706 would have amended current law to further restrict law enforcement cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Other bills would have prohibited landlords from requiring any fees or charges before the beginning of tenancy, changed minimum wage for tipped workers or created an expensive “Workplace Extreme Temperature Safety Act.”
With CTU lobbying over a myriad of issues unrelated to its members and purpose and putting campaign cash behind so many lawmakers from outside Chicago, its success in lobbying threatens Illinoisans statewide.
With the union now targeting school districts in Southern Illinois in its quest for cash, those districts should be worried and watching.
