“It’s gonna get a little hot in this city in the next few months” over contract negotiations with teachers. That’s from Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates’ address to the City Club of Chicago yesterday.
That sure sounds right based on the rest of her speech. Gates told us what the CTU is. “We are a whole bunch of people who have been told no. Don’t, Forget about it. Don’t even think about it. No. Poo.” And this time, they won’t accept those answers, which was the primary point of the speech. It’s all part of the CTU’s broader “movement,” a term she used throughout the speech.
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates at the City Club
On that nasty subject of (dare I say this?) money, Gates was most stridently indifferent.
“They’re gonna say, ‘these are great proposals and can’t nobody pay for it and CTU with all of this, that and the other and who’s gonna pay for it, Stacy?’ ”
“Stop asking that question,” she said. “Ask another question.”
This is in a city, mind you, that already spends an astonishing $29,000 per student, including all sources and money for the capital budget. And Chicago Public Schools already faces a $391 million deficit for next and nearly $700 million for the following year when “Covid relief” money will have run out.
Maybe, actually, Gates did offer a number on cost. The problem is that opinions differ on whether she was joking or serious: $50 billion!
Specifically, she said it will cost “$50 billion dollars and three cents… And so what? That’s audacity.”
Sarah Karp at WBEZ reported that Gates said that jokingly, but I asked a CTU member who knows Gates quite well if she was kidding.
The answer I got: “Nope. She is insane.”
A clip of that part of the speech is here so judge for yourself. In the City Club Q&A, predictably, nothing was asked about the cost of CTU demands. For a little context, $50 billion would be roughly five times the current Chicago school budget and over double what the State of Illinois collects every year for income taxes.
NEW: Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates says the union’s contract demands from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will cost the city more than $50 billion. ⬇️
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) March 5, 2024
“$50 billion dollars and three cents…”
“And so what?”
“That’s audacity.”
For context, total base tax… pic.twitter.com/EZesxJV2Xw
Later in the day, Gates added that she expects some of the money needed for new contract demands will come from TIFs — tax increment finance districts — that Mayor Johnson is overhauling. “Billions” will be available, she claimed. We’ll see.
A particular galling part of the speech is what Gates said about schools closed when Rahm Emanuel was mayor.
“When you ask me why I don’t compromise or am so strident,” she said that’s what happens when “you watch black women beg for their schools to be open. It felt like a theme from Roots.” Good grief. Nobody fought more relentlessly than the CTU to keep schools closed because of Covid, long after they had jumped the line on most everybody else for vaccinations.
Gates’ speech was peppered with claims of sexism and racism against Chicago teachers and schools.
In this country and this society, “Women are supposed to ask and beg. We are supposed to ask and to beg for an abortion, we are supposed to ask and beg for a child through iVF, beg for a wage, are supposed to ask somewhat for a fair wage,” she said. “The city is light years behind in the justice and equity owed to its people…. MAGA wants me on a plantation.”
Regarding private schools, she said “y’all don’t want a place for black kids anyway.” Regarding her alleged influence over former CTU worker Brandon Johnson, she said, “I’m not going to be part of the narrative of Lady Macbeth to a Black man that doesn’t have a brain. Like, that ain’t my role. My role is to run the Chicago Teachers Union.” About Texas enforcing the border on its own and sending migrants to Chicago, she said that “feels like Confederate behavior.”
The history teacher also said history books used to say blacks “got on a luxury ship on the west side of Africa and came to learn artisanal skills on a large farm.”
Gates did say something very sensible. When trying to enlist supporters for her movement, she said the CTU labels people they contact from 1 through 5.
To paraphrase, she said 1s and 2s are likely allies, though maybe with a little work. “The 3 are people who want to ask more questions and may come back later,” she said. The 4s and 5s are not likely to help or are opponents. “I like the 3s,” Gates said, “because threes show discernment, threes have good questions, threes are engaged.”
Which leads me to the first memory I have about Chicago Public School, from when I was in school in the suburbs. It was while my dad was driving me to school listening to WGN AM, as he usually did. A story ran about mismanagement or corruption of some kind at “Pershing Road.” What’s that? I asked my dad. It was another name for Chicago schools, he explained, because that’s where Chicago schools were headquartered.
“Wait, that can’t be right,” I said, or something to that effect. “Schools are good. Their people are good. That can’t be happening with their schools.”
No, sorry, my dad explained, that’s not always quite so with Chicago schools and the teachers’ union.
As the CTU ranks people, I went from a 1 to a 3 that day many years ago. Count me as a rock solid 5 today.
