Thanks to a leaked document, parents and taxpayers in Chicago can fully let go of any lingering hope that the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) exists to help facilitate public education.
According to the document, CTU plans to demand an additional $50 billion in contract negotiations. That’s an additional $50 billion. These funds – to be extorted from already stretched taxpayers – will cover large annualized pay increases for staff, fully fund abortions for members, provide new services and accommodations for migrants, and more LGBT requirements for classrooms.
Even as taxpayers tried to pick their collective jaws off the floor, the union’s boss referred to the brazen leftist shakedown as being “transformative.”
Consider this opportunity for transformation: 80% of 8th graders in union-controlled Chicago schools are not proficient readers.
This shameful reality is not of interest to the union. They don’t care about failing the children whose parents pay for the public schools.
Johnny might not be able to read, but it’s time for his parents to pay up to make sure migrants are accommodated.
“The union also wants more taxpayer funds to go to migrants in its far-reaching plan – earmarking $2,000 to be given to each migrant to help with academics, transportation and mental health counseling.
The union additionally wants each of the 646 public schools to have a “newcomer liaison” for new students as well as migrant students and unused school facilities to be converted into housing for migrants.”
A lot of ink and airtime will be spent going through the myriad ways CTU is scorning the students they claim to serve, and openly robbing taxpayers who are still shocked by high prices at the grocery store.
This is the takeaway: Chicago may seem like an outlier, but their behavior is the end result for any teacher union that gets enough money to exercise power. The pretense of education falls away, and nothing is left but radical politics and greed.
There is no reform in public education until public sector unions are cleanly removed from the process. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your local NEA affiliate would never go the way of Chicago. They just don’t have enough power yet.