Joking about the “European model” for paid time off has been standard water cooler fare for a very long time. Through a joining of political power and zero accountability, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is looking to bargain this joke into reality for its members.
According to illinoispolicy.org,
“Currently, teachers can take at least 43 days off during the year and can apply for at least 15 different types of paid or unpaid leave. But that’s not enough for CTU.
Leaked documents show the union is demanding at least two more days off each year. It also wants to add or extend at least nine forms of leave.
Not only is such extensive time off practically unheard of in the private sector, but it also means additional days students within CPS won’t have their regular teachers in attendance.
The current CTU contract provides at least 43 paid days off during the school year – but CTU wants 45”
The write up goes on to lay out how – if the union gets its way – teachers could be out on some variety of leave for 15% of the time students are actually in school.
As far as extending and adding new opportunities for union members to avoid the workplace –
“CTU wants leave time for teachers who are appointed to municipal office. The clear implication of such leave is that elected leaders – such as Mayor Brandon Johnson – who are bankrolled by the union into office can then appoint union friends to office without those friends having to permanently step away from their CPS jobs. In the meantime, those friends can continue to accrue pension credit by working other jobs.”
There are a host of problems to consider in this particularly brazen example of union greed, but what every parent and taxpayer should see first and foremost is that none of this is about educating students. It never has been. In 2023, 74% of students in Chicago Public Schools did not meet the state standard for English. That number is even higher in the lowest performing schools across the city.
These union-controlled schools are failing the students who have no other option, and the union’s response is to push for more taxpayer-funded union benefits, and more days out of the classroom for union members. Political power coupled with no accountability is a powerful weapon, and public sector unions exist to wield it in the constant pursuit of more.
“My teacher union isn’t like that,” is a common rejoinder to these tales of shameless grifting and the defrauding of students. Yes. Yes they are. Just consider how they respond to the tiniest push back on how much control they exercise over teachers and classrooms.
If any reform is going to take place in public education, parents and taxpayers must refuse to let teacher unions control the system they fund to educate children. They must refuse to let “teacher unions,” and “public education,” be used interchangeably. They must demand an education system accountable to themselves, not unelected unions who continue a decades-long tradition of failure.