The Chicago Teachers Union has put forth many demands for new contracts with Chicago Public Schools.
In addition to demanding a contract that totals $50 billion, the union also wants other provisions included such as free abortion services, concessions for people who identify as LGBTQ+ and direct cash to migrants.
The union is demanding a huge pay hike even though student enrollment in the district has been falling in recent years, while rates of student proficiency have been getting worse as well.
The CTU will soon present its demands to Chicago Public Schools that will show a demand that teachers receive an annual raise of 9% through 2028. The average teacher in the school district already earns $93,182, which is roughly $20,000 per year more than the $73,000 annual average for all teachers throughout Illinois.
If the pay hike were to be approved, it would make teachers in Chicago among the highest paid teachers in the U.S.
Citing a report from the Illinois Policy Institute, Fox News reported that the annual rate for Chicago teachers would reach all the way up to $144,620 by 2027. That mark would put teachers in Chicago at almost double what the median household income is for the entire city of Chicago.
The demands become even more preposterous when you put it into context, which Fox News did in its report. In 2023, the state of Illinois brought in $50.7 billion in taxes. In other words, the Chicago Teachers Union believes its members are worth just about the same as the entire state’s tax earnings for the year.
According to the contract demands, teachers would have to go through retraining on LGBTQ issues if they want to continue teaching in the district. They also demand that the city builds “gender neutral” bathrooms at every public school.
In addition, the CTU is demanding that Chicago give every migrant student a check valued at $2,000 that they could use on help with their academics, transportation costs and “mental health counseling,” according to the demands.
All of these demands come at a time when student success is reaching horrific levels in Chicago. Back in February, reports highlighted that, at 55 of the public schools in the city, there weren’t any children who were grade-level proficient in either math or reading.
In addition to dropping success rates on proficiency testing, the number of students who are attending Chicago Public Schools has been dropping in recent years as well. This is coming as more and more people are moving out of the city, as it experiences significant budget crunches due in large part to the influx of migrants to the region.
Local media outlet WTTW-TV reported that CPS served more than 400,000 students during the 2013-14 school year. By the 2023-24 school year, that number dropped by almost 80,000 to 322,106 students.