(The Center Square) – Chicago’s public school teachers have overwhelmingly approved a four-year labor contract to raise their average salary to more than $114,000 per year.
Chicago Teachers Union leaders announced Monday that 85% of CTU members participated in the election, and 97% of those who voted cast ballots in favor of the tentative agreement.
CTU president Stacy Davis Gates cited the union’s democratic process and thanked members for their robust participation.
“Last Thursday and Friday, they voted in overwhelming, historic levels to ratify this (tentative agreement) to a contract. This agreement was bargained by 65 rank-and-file members of our union, people who are educating your children right now,” Gates said.
CTU financial secretary Maria Moreno said the election was conducted by paper ballot at over 500 CPS schools and central locations. Moreno said the results showed historic support and unity.
“That’s what it means to care about your schools. That’s what it means to see that what we won is coming out to vote,” Moreno said.
In order to cast a ballot, voters were required to present state-issued identification and proof of CTU membership.
Mailee Smith, senior director of labor policy and staff attorney at the Illinois Policy Institute, said CTU spent years pushing for this kind of massive contract.
“They bankrolled [Chicago Mayor Brandon] Johnson into office in order to get a sweet deal, and it’s to the tune of $1.5 billion on the backs of taxpayers,” Smith told The Center Square.
The Chicago Board of Education can make the labor contract official at its next meeting, which is scheduled for April 24. The average salary for CPS teachers would rise to $114,429 before the deal expires.
Union leaders aimed criticisms at both Washington D.C. Republicans and Chicago Democrats at Monday’s CTU press conference.
Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter said President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon are deconstructing education infrastructure.
“And what that means is, we’re no longer gonna be able to depend on the Department of Education to lead us nationally,” Reiter said.
Gates was asked if she was worried about Chicago potentially losing education funding from federal taxpayers due to recommendations by the Department of Government Efficiency and changes at the Department of Education.
“Let me tell you why I’m not worried. What DOGE and Elon Musk are doing to America is what Paul Vallas, Arne Duncan, Rahm Emanuel already did in Chicago,” Gates said.
“Think about everything that we’ve been fighting: school closings, the privatization of schools, the firing of women, Black women in particular,” Gates said.
Gates criticized Duncan and Emanuel several times during the news conference.
Duncan served as CPS CEO before becoming U.S. Secretary of Education under President Barack Obama. Emanuel was a U.S. congressman and Obama’s chief of staff before serving as mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019.
Vallas is a former CPS CEO who lost the 2023 mayoral runoff election to Brandon Johnson.
If the school board approves the contract, current Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said the board would have to pass an amendment to fund the first year of the deal.
Martinez said the agreement gives teachers their largest annual raises in over 13 years and allows the district to add hundreds of additional staff members.
CPS currently spends about $20,000 in taxpayer funds per student annually.
