• Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • World News
  • Second Amendment
Saturday, July 12, 2025
Illinois Review
  • Login
  • Register
  • Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • World News
  • Second Amendment
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • World News
  • Second Amendment
No Result
View All Result
Illinois Review
No Result
View All Result
Home Illinois News

Hughes: Chicago Teachers Union Votes to Protect Power

Illinois Review by Illinois Review
December 15, 2015
in Illinois News
Reading Time: 5 mins read
A A
2
26
SHARES
432
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

597x227xchicago3-banner.jpg.pagespeed.ic.WNxE8sbPZe

You might also like

Chicago AM560 Axes Local Morning Radio Personality Amy Jacobson, Keeps Florida-based Host in Cost-Cutting Move

JB Pritzker Receives 2% in Presidential Poll, Ranks Lowest in Minority Support Among Democrats

Trump’s Jobs Boom Skips Illinois—Thanks to Pritzker’s Tax Hikes

By Patrick Hughes - 

Today, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted to strike because their egregious contract demands were not met.

One of the main sticking point in the negotiation is that the union is refusing to increase the amount their members contribute to their own pensions. Teachers should be paying 9% of their salaries to fund their exorbitant retirement benefits. They currently only pay 2%. Taxpayers are stuck picking up the rest. Of course, the standard CTU demands persist as well. For example, the union still wants to make sure it has a say in who gets rehired and how teachers are evaluated, regardless of whether it’s in the best interests of the children in the system.

That’s because what’s best for children has never been the priority of CTU and its members, their empty rhetoric notwithstanding. In the last decade alone, over 200,000 people have left Chicago. Today, nearly 100 of its schools are half empty or have been closed altogether. Families have fled the city's failing schools because the demands of CTU are not aligned with the needs of the children they serve.

A teachers strike is never about children. It is about the special interests of adults. In Chicago and elsewhere, the teachers unions are in the business of winning better salaries and benefits, protecting job security, pressuring for restrictive work rules and otherwise advancing the occupational interests of their members. The children are at best an afterthought, at worst cannon fodder, in political and contractual battles among those who divvy up power.

Because of the formal rules that unions fight for in labor contracts, district leaders can almost never get bad teachers out of the classroom. Nor can they allocate good teachers to the schools and classrooms where they can do the greatest good for kids. The teacher’s evaluation process is a full-blown charade, in which even the very worst teachers are regularly given satisfactory evaluations. Also, teachers are paid based on their seniority and formal credits, without any regard for whether their students are learning anything.

And so it goes.

CTU head Karen Lewis has complained that there are too many factors beyond the control of her members that impact their ability to teach "such as poverty, exposure to violence, homelessness, hunger and other social issues beyond our control." Of course those challenges exist (mostly because of the bad public policy imposed by the elected Democrats CTU supports). Still, the University of Chicago is able to run four public charter schools serving 1,700 students exposed to those same challenges and have 100% of its 2012 class accepted to college.

It is increasingly apparent that the leaders of CTU and the politicians they fund are the biggest obstacle to educational reforms that would give millions of children a better education and a fighting chance at a better life.

CTU has long opposed expanding school choice, which would give low-income and minority students greater opportunity to leave failing schools and utilize other educational options like charter and private schools. School choice would add accountability and opportunity to the city’s education bureaucracy. But it would also slow down the gravy train.

Despite the ruling class’ best efforts, however, change is looming on the horizon. As a result of newer policies – like school choice – that have widespread appeal and popularity, public opinion of teachers unions is falling fast. Forty-three percent believe they have a negative effect on public schools, up from 31 percent in 2009, according to Politico. “People increasingly view teachers unions as a problem, or the problem,” according to David Menefee-Libey, a politics professor at Pomona College who studies education politics.

Even teachers are questioning their unions. According to Education Week, the National Education Association has lost 230,000 members (7 percent of its total) in recent years. Increasing numbers of educators are realizing they do not need to be represented by a body that hurts eager students and holds back great teachers while stuffing the pockets of union bosses and campaign coffers. 

There are policy solutions on the table that will break up Chicago’s political power structure and ensure that the next generation of the city’s school children will have access to a quality education. The public is willing to listen. What we need now is courage from the parents and teachers who understand that special interests have empowered Machine Politics in Chicago at the expense of families and talented and dedicated educators. Instead of choosing the side of the union or the administration, they must stand up for families and demand reform to the city’s failed education system.

So, Chicago's teachers voted to strike. That is today's headline. Tomorrow’s headline can be different.

Patrick Hughes is the Co-Founder of The Illinois Opportunity Project

Related

Tags: Illinois Review
Share10Tweet7
Previous Post

WARN warns of mass layoffs

Next Post

Lincolnshire creates first “right to work” Illinois municipality

Illinois Review

Illinois Review

Recommended For You

Economos: Illinois’ Pension Crisis – A Tale of Mismanagement

by James P. Economos, DDS
July 8, 2025
0
Economos: Illinois’ Pension Crisis – A Tale of Mismanagement

By James P. Economos, DDS, Opinion Contributor There’s been constant debate over Illinois' pension system – and for good reason. It remains chronically underfunded and plagued with issues...

Read moreDetails

Mayor Johnson: Chicago ‘Police Dept. Will Not Ever Cooperate with ICE’

by Illinois Review
July 8, 2025
0
Mayor Johnson: Chicago ‘Police Dept. Will Not Ever Cooperate with ICE’

By Illinois ReviewAt a Tuesday morning press conference at Chicago City Hall, Mayor Brandon Johnson — whose approval rating hovers around six percent — reiterated that local law...

Read moreDetails

Chicago AM560 Axes Local Morning Radio Personality Amy Jacobson, Keeps Florida-based Host in Cost-Cutting Move

by Illinois Review
July 1, 2025
0
Chicago AM560 Axes Local Morning Radio Personality Amy Jacobson, Keeps Florida-based Host in Cost-Cutting Move

By Illinois ReviewIn a shocking cost-cutting move Tuesday, Chicago’s AM560 The Answer terminated longtime morning host Amy Jacobson, as the struggling conservative station grapples with declining relevance –...

Read moreDetails

JB Pritzker Receives 2% in Presidential Poll, Ranks Lowest in Minority Support Among Democrats

by Illinois Review
June 30, 2025
0
JB Pritzker Receives 2% in Presidential Poll, Ranks Lowest in Minority Support Among Democrats

By Illinois ReviewIn one of the first nationwide hypothetical polls for the 2028 Democratic presidential primary, Illinois Governor and billionaire JB Pritzker ranks at the bottom, receiving the...

Read moreDetails

Trump’s Jobs Boom Skips Illinois—Thanks to Pritzker’s Tax Hikes

by Thomas Mccullagh
June 26, 2025
0
Trump’s Jobs Boom Skips Illinois—Thanks to Pritzker’s Tax Hikes

Illinois is missing out on Trump’s U.S. manufacturing boom. While other states welcome new factories, Pritzker’s tax hikes and regulations keep businesses out—and force longtime employers to leave.

Read moreDetails
Next Post

Lincolnshire creates first "right to work" Illinois municipality

Please login to join discussion

Best Dental Group

Related News

IL Freedom Caucus calls on Lurie Children’s Hospital to cease gender services for kids

October 27, 2022

Beckman: Is the Brigham Young University racial slur controversy another hoax?

October 27, 2022

Salvi polling shows closer race

October 27, 2022

Browse by Category

  • America First
  • Education
  • Faith & Family
  • Foreign Policy
  • Health Care
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • Opinion
  • Science
  • Second Amendment
  • TRENDING
  • US NEWS
  • US Politics
  • World News
Illinois Review

© 2024 llinois Review LLC Editor in Chief Mark Vargas Publisher Thomas McCullagh Chief Counsel Scott Kaspar

Navigate Site

  • Checkout
  • Home
  • Home – mobile
  • Login/Register
  • Login/Register
  • My account
  • My Account-
  • My Account- – mobile

Follow Us

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Illinois News
  • Illinois Politics
  • US Politics
  • Health Care
  • US NEWS
  • America First
  • Opinion
  • TRENDING
  • Education
  • Foreign Policy
  • Second Amendment
  • Faith & Family
  • Science
  • World News

© 2024 llinois Review LLC Editor in Chief Mark Vargas Publisher Thomas McCullagh Chief Counsel Scott Kaspar

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?