Chicago Teachers Union

CTU Protecting Chicago Schools Calculator

Your alder has a choice: Invest in our school communities or protect ultra-wealth corporations and downtown developers.

Use our new calculator to see how much your school stands to lose if City Council votes against the historic $1 billion TIF surplus.

protectingchicagoschools.com/

Members of City Council just sent a loud and clear message to Chicagoans. 25 alders would rather protect the biggest corporations in Chicago than protect you from another property tax hike.

Call your alder. Tell them to vote YES on the Protecting Chicago Budget.

Thank you to all guest teachers, clinicians, and PSRPs! Your flexibility, dedication, and willingness to step in and step up make a tremendous difference for Chicago’s students and school communities. We appreciate you, today and every day.

#SubstituteEducatorsDay

CTU: Violence at Bright Shows the Need for City, State and CPS to Join Educators and Community Members to Fill Budget Gaps, Provide Safe Passage, Restorative Justice and After-School Programming

Chicago City Council Voted with Ultra Wealthy Corporations and Against Chicago’s Families Today, Now They Have to Actually Present Their Own Ideas

Trumpet Papi hit the Belmont Cragin Blue Line with one question: who should pay for Chicago’s budget?

And the message was clear: Chicagoans want the wealthiest corporations to pay their fair share, working families have paid enough.

Tell your alder to vote yes on the Protecting Chicago Budget.

Grocery taxes, garbage taxes, beer taxes, property taxes, rising rents — Chicagoans can’t shoulder any more. City Council has a choice: protect Chicago’s working families OR give in to ultra-wealthy corporations. ctu.sh/budget

CTU Responds to Senate Spending Deal and Government Reopening

This Veterans Day, veterans, educators, and union members came together to sayNO to war on our cities.

We stood with@vetsaboutface - Veterans Against the War,Illinois National Guard members, and allies demanding an end to ICE raids, federal occupation, and billionaire-backed austerity.

At this year’s Baile de Muertos, CTU members came together to honor life, culture, and struggle — celebrating Latine heritage while standing united with Black, Brown, and immigrant communities across Chicago.

Our communities will continue to organize, celebrate, and protect each other.

CTU’s Research Director Pavlyn Jankovmakes clear that while Trump gives big corporations like Salesforce over $1 billion a year in tax cuts while working families are left to shoulder rising costs.

Tag your alder in the comments and tell them: stand with working families, not the billionaires.

Speaking outside Benito Juarez High School, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez denounced ICE’s violent assault on students in Little Village. He vowed that Chicago’s educators, families, and neighbors willstand between our children and federal attacks terrorizing our Black, brown, and immigrant communities.

Last week at the Board meeting, Ayola Showola from EPIC Academy highlighted the power of dedicated educators and community support.

Thanks to collective efforts, the Board approved $1.4 million to keep EPIC open through the year. This is a testament to educators standing up for their students.

Thursday, educators, childcare workers, and community partners stood together to demand that Salesforce, Inc. stop profiting from the Trump administration’s deportation machine.

Families are living in fear while Salesforce collects over $1B in tax breaks and avoids paying its fair share in Chicago.

CTU E-Board member, Dr. Venisa Beasley-Green, took the mic in Springfield during our Lobby Day with a message for Gov. Pritzker and lawmakers:

“Our students and teachers should not be a gamble. Bet on your schools.”

Governor Pritzker can still act. It’s time to tax the rich to fund our schools.

CST: CPS board votes to absorb ChiArts, fund Epic Academy through end of school year

This week, the Chicago Board of Education voted to manage ChiArts and fund EPIC Academy through June.

A win for arts students, but questions remain. The treatment of EPIC families highlights a double standard. Let's keep fighting for respect and resources for all Chicago schools!

CB: Families ‘horrified’ after daycare teacher pulled out of preschool by armed federal agents: parents

Armed federal agents stormed a preschool on Chicago’s North Side and ripped a daycare teacher away from her students in front of crying children, parents, and staff.

Governor Pritzker and Chicago’s City Council must act now: tax the ultra-wealthy to invest in our schools' safety.

Numbers don’t lie.

If alders choose corporations over funding schools, your schools lose educators, programs and support.

Use the Protecting Chicago Schools Calculator to see the projected cuts to your school and email your alder in one click.

protectingchicagoschools.com/

Pastor Phil Jackson asked everyday Chicagoans what City Council should do this budget season.

Residents of the mighty West Side said City Council should vote for the Protecting Chicago Budget.

Tag your alder and tell them:stand with working families, not the billionaires. ctu.sh/budget

Chalkbeat: Families’ uncertainty over SNAP makes school food pantries a critical resource

As the federal government attacks our neighbors yet again, taking away food assistance from students and families,Governor Pritzker and the Chicago City Council must tax the ultra-wealthyto ensure schools can remain a resource and a sanctuary in difficult times.

Use the Protecting Chicago Schools Calculator to see what your school stands to lose mid-year and tell your alder to support the historic $1B TIF surplus for our schools, parks and libraries. Tell them to vote YES on the #ProtectingChicago Budget.

CTU on Zohran Mamdani’s Election As Mayor of New York.

CTU and IFT President Stacy Davis Gates on Rep. Jesús Chuy Garcia’s Retirement from the U.S. Congress

Jacobin: The Labor Movement Needs a Collective Anti-Trump Strategy

When fascism rises, the labor movement decides whether democracy survives.

CTU Vice PresidentJackson Potterand UTLA’s Alex Caputo-Pearl write that unions must lead a national anti-Trump strategy, one that’s rooted in collective power, community solidarity, and the courage to disrupt.

A music conservatory teacher at ChiArts, spoke before the CPS Board to defend the school’s structure that blends academics with artistic training from professionals across Chicago.

We urge the Board to protect the model and ensure any transition happens with inclusion with all stakeholders.

On this Día de los Muertos, we remember our loved ones and all of those gone from our communities too soon.

Their memory is sacred.
Their stories fuel our fight.
We carry them with us, in grief, in love, and in struggle. ✊🏽

#DíaDeLosMuertos #CTUStrong

AP News: ‘We have to be good or ICE will get us': Takeaways from Chicago children caught in immigration raids

Children have been whispering to dolls, “we have to be good or ICE will get us.”

That is why the City Council must fight back against Trump’s attacks and pass the Protecting Chicago Budget. We cannot ask traumatized children to learn while cutting the very supports that keep them safe.

Ashley Bailey, a pre-K teacher & CTU delegate, stepped up to lobby Rep. Will Guzzardi — and got a YES on taxing millionaires and billionaires to fund our schools.

Now it’s your turn. Call your state rep and senator. Demand they do what Ashley did — say YES to funding schools and taxing the rich.

Yesterday, CTU members went to Springfield to tell Governor Pritzker and the Democratic supermajority to fully fund our schools.

We are fighting for the schools our students deserve. And there is only one way to do this—taxing the rich and billionaires.

#FundOurSchools #TaxTheRich

CTU members sounded off early in the morning as we boarded buses, all with 1 message: We’re heading to Springfield to share our plan with Illinois' Governor & Democratic supermajority.

We’re demanding full funding for every public school in this state and the only way to do that is to tax the rich.