The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is launching another offensive against public charter schools, a move that potentially jeopardizes school choice for families in Chicago.
Charter schools, which pose a significant challenge to the CTU’s monopoly over public education, have long been viewed as the union’s primary adversary.
In a recent report released on May 22, the CTU criticized charter schools for various issues, such as abrupt closures, financial mismanagement, poor student outcomes, and labor violations.
This report coincided with the Chicago Board of Education’s review of charter school contracts, culminating in shortened contract renewal times for several schools.
Meanwhile, similar allegations regarding mismanagement and unsatisfactory academic performance could just as easily be directed at the union-led Chicago Public Schools (CPS).
Despite boasting the nation’s highest teacher salaries, highest per-pupil funding, and lowest student-to-staff ratios, CPS continues to deliver disappointing academic results.
In a diverse city like Chicago, where the majority of students are Black or Latino, charter schools provide essential alternatives to struggling neighborhood schools.
Out of the more than 54,000 students enrolled in Chicago’s 122 public charter schools, 98% are Black or Latino, with 86% qualifying for free or reduced lunch.
This number may be even higher if not for the capped charter school enrollment and restrictions imposed by the district.
The CTU has engaged in a longstanding campaign aimed at destabilizing, defunding, and ultimately eliminating these charter schools, a strategy that raises serious concerns about discrimination against students seeking educational alternatives.
Key tactics of the union include capping charter school numbers and enrollment, where the collective bargaining agreement locks in these limits irrespective of existing demand or waiting lists.
Additionally, the union has been known to block access to essential facilities by preventing the Chicago Board of Education from leasing closed public school buildings to charter operators.
Despite serving nearly 17% of CPS’s student body, charter schools receive less than 2.3% of the capital budget, further limiting their resources.
Funding is another significant challenge; charter schools receive about $8,600 less per student than district-run schools.
Moreover, they are excluded from the annual tax increment financing surplus, which has amounted to $1.3 billion for CPS since 2019.
The CTU has also introduced longer contract renewals to create instability.
Many charter schools are now offered only two- or three-year renewals instead of the five-, seven-, or 10-year options allowed by state law.
This uncertainty threatens long-term strategic planning for these schools, causing distress for both educators and families.
Moreover, the CTU’s push for labor mandates strips charter schools of the autonomy initially intended for them.
With the passage of a “union neutrality” law championed by the CTU and signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker, charter schools are effectively required to support efforts by a union to organize its staff, thus undermining their independence.
Charter schools were intended to foster innovation, flexibility, and accountability free from traditional school system bureaucracy.
However, CTU’s regulatory actions threaten to inhibit this innovation, leaving families seeking alternatives to the failures of union-controlled schools with fewer options.
The case of Acero Charter Schools illustrates the CTU’s approach to destabilizing charter schools.
After successfully unionizing Acero staff, the CTU spearheaded the first-ever strike at a charter school, which resulted in an expensive labor contract filled with restrictive work rules.
As a consequence, the school network faces operational difficulties, and in 2023, received only a three-year renewal from the CPS Board, which complicates future planning and investments.
Predictably, Acero has been compelled to close multiple campuses due to financial burdens and diminishing enrollment.
Once the schools became unionized, the CTU exerted pressure on CPS to absorb the closed campuses as district-run schools, a scenario that only expands the existing failures within CTU-run schools.
The union has also guided the school board to adopt an official procedure for closing and reabsorbing charter and contract schools, which raises concerns about the systematic eradication of public school choice.
Acero’s experience is not an isolated incident but is indicative of a broader strategy being employed by the CTU.
As traditional public schools continue to lag in performance, the CTU is ensuring that families are left with no alternatives, even as other cities across the country embrace both public and private school choice options.
Furthermore, the CTU’s attack on public school choice extends beyond charters to encompass Chicago’s selective enrollment schools, which are among the district’s highest-performing institutions.
The union falsely characterizes these schools as “tools of inequality,” despite the fact that they spend less per student compared to the district average while also serving a student body that is over 70% Black and Hispanic and more than 50% low-income.
The CTU’s ultimate aim appears to be to minimize the disparities between top-performing selective enrollment schools and the many failing neighborhood schools, not by improving those neighborhood schools but rather by bringing down the more successful institutions.
In a landscape where every family deserves the right to access quality education for their children, the apparent restrictions being imposed by the CTU seem unfair.
Chicago’s working-class families seek no special treatment; they are simply asking for the same freedom of choice that wealthier families and CTU members already enjoy.
image source from：https://www.illinoispolicy.org/vallas-chicago-teachers-union-destroying-even-public-school-choice/
