Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates has been elected to lead its parent organization, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, signaling the statewide union is moving into a greater progressive role as it advocates for education funding throughout the state.
More Top Picks Best Wok
The election of Davis Gates creates a dynamic shift in educational politics in Illinois, elevating the issue of school funding in Chicago to a level higher than it has been traditionally factored into the state’s overall allocation of funds to elementary and secondary schooling.
With Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU activist, being elected mayor in part due to the union’s efforts in the city, there are also questions about how far the IFT’s influence will extend beyond Chicago to statewide financial support for schools.
In an example of its sometimes-adversarial relationship with state legislators, CTU roiled some in Springfield last year when it called widely supported legislation to extend a moratorium on school closures “racist.” The measure, which was also opposed by the Johnson administration, then passed overwhelmingly in a 92-8 House vote, but it was not called for a vote in the Senate after a plea from Johnson.
As president of the IFT, Davis Gates will continue to fight for school funding and changing Illinois’ “backwards” tax code, a news release from the union said.
“The belly of a child who just had their one hot meal a day cut from school budgets rumbles the same, whether that young person is on the southside of Chicago or in Cahokia,” Davis Gates said in the news release.
The IFT declined to disclose the salary of Davis Gates as head of the statewide union. Though she’s taking on the new role, Davis Gates will also remain head of CTU.
She faces a General Assembly that has been cautious to increase school funding beyond its existing obligations under state law.
Democrats just this year cut back on the $350 million annual increase in school funding required under a 2017 state law, withholding $43 million that normally would go to a grant program designed to help school districts with high property tax rates and low real estate values.
They characterized the move as a pause to allow for a study of whether the program is working as intended, a choice that allowed them to help balance the state’s $55 billion budget.
In addition to the CTU and IFT, another major state teachers union is the Illinois Education Association, whose membership is largely concentrated in suburban areas that were once Republican-dominated but have since shifted to the Democratic side due to the heavy influence of suburban socially moderate women.
The IFT’s previous president of 15 years, Dan Montgomery, is leaving to lead the American Library Association. Prior to Montgomery, multiple IFT presidents held local leadership roles, as Davis Gates will now, an IFT spokesperson said Sunday.
The IFT plans to hold a statewide lobbying day in Springfield next Wednesday, on the fifth day of the General Assembly’s planned six-day fall veto session, it said in a statement.
Under Davis Gates, CTU has regularly criticized Pritzker for not moving to increase school funding and pushing for more progressive funding sources to support public schools. But Pritzker shared a stage with Davis Gates at the IFT’s Rosemont convention on Sunday, where he praised the union and touted his administration’s role in school funding.