With all the predictability of sunrise, the Chicago Teacher Union has doubled down on reminding the world that they just exist to extort money from taxpayers.
The union’s most recent demand for $50 Billion in more funding was outlandish enough that even the entrenched bureaucrats at Chicago Public Schools started sweating. In a desperate effort to tap the brakes, the district’s budget chief, timidly pointed out that if the district gives in to the union, the district will no longer exist.
“The Chicago Teachers Union made over 700 contract proposals to the school district, which included 9% salary increases and the hiring of additional staff, but district budget chief Mike Sitkowski said granting even just 52 of the proposals would spike the projected $509 million deficit for the next fiscal year to $3 billion and reach $4 billion by 2030.
“We believe our educators deserve fair raises, but we must acknowledge what is responsible and sustainable,” Sitkowski said, according to Chalkbeat Chicago. Even without the new proposals, the district is set to see deficits increase over the next five years.”
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates helpfully reminded Mr. Sitkowski that the district’s solvency is his problem, not hers.
“Come hell or high water, and I don’t give a damn who pay,” Davis Gates said of the contract proposals.”
While it is hilarious that the Chicago Public School’s budget chief was forced into this singular and historic instance of being the voice of reason, the grim reality remains. Teacher unions exist to pull as much money out of the public education system as possible, and funnel it into radical politics. That is the whole story. The Chicago Teacher Union does not care about the students, and certainly does not care about the taxpayers. If the school district they purport to represent is driven under to meet their demands, it’s fine with them. If the entire city is financially ruined in the process of making sure they can turn school buildings into migrant housing, and have a fleet of electric buses, it’s a win.
If the teacher union in your state hasn’t gone this far, it’s only because they can’t get away with it yet.