Chicago Public Schools Should Reject Union Demands For 9% Annual Raise…

Authored by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner via Wirepoints.org,

In defense of the everyday Chicagoans that continue to be pummeled by higher taxes, fees and fines – and a city that’s increasingly at risk of some form of insolvency – Chicago Public Schools should reject the Chicago Teachers Union’s four-year contract demand for 9% yearly raises (6% raises plus step increases of around 3%). Instead, the board should implement a salary freeze immediately.*

We can hear the long list of objections now. Don’t you get it – the school board that’s negotiating with the CTU was hand-picked by CTU-activist-turned-mayor Brandon Johnson? The union would never go for it. They’d go on strike anyway. 

We get all that, but we’re still going to make four arguments for a freeze anyway. Because at some point, cuts have to happen. It’s just a matter of when.

Start with the fiscal argument. The city and CPS are both in deep fiscal trouble. Their finances have begun to unravel again after being held together for a few years by the billions in federal covid money. Now that money is gone and Chicago is back to its pre-pandemic reality: the worst financial standing among big cities in the country.

The city, CPS and the Chicago Transit Authority are all facing near billion dollar deficits in the next couple of years. ​​The risk of a doom loop persists. Pension debts are putting on the squeeze again. A New York Times article even dared to broach the subject of “bankruptcy” this month after the actuary for Chicago’s largest pension plan warned of “potential insolvency” for the fund “if an economic recession or investment market downturn were to occur in the near term.” 

Both the city and CPS are under threat of credit downgrades, with Moody’s rating Chicago just one notch above junk and CPS one notch into junk. 

And worries persist about population loss – the biggest risk to the survival of the city. Of the nation’s 15 most-populous cities in 2000, Chicago is the only city besides Detroit to shrink in population since then.

Then there’s the fairness argument.  How much more in taxes should Chicagoans pay when all-in spending at CPS is already at $30,000 per student for 2025?

As we recently noted in another piece, Chicago property taxes over the last decade have grown at 3.5 times the pace of inflation, putting a big squeeze on Chicagoans. All that money has helped push CPS spending on salaries and benefits up by nearly 50% since 2019 alone.

As a result, Chicagoans’ taxes have made CPS teachers among the nation’s highest paid educators when compared to teachers in the country’s 148 largest school districts. That’s based on a comparison of teacher contracts compiled by the National Council on Teacher Quality. CPS starting teacher salaries rank number 1 in that comparison. After adjusting for cost of living, they get $64,800 a year. That’s far more than New York’s $56,700 or Los Angeles’ $49,800.

In fact, across all the step and lane comparisons in the NCTQ database, CPS teacher salaries consistently rank 1st, 2nd or 3rd in the country.

There’s also the accountability argument. Despite all the new money and a spend of $30,000 per student, CPS increasingly fails to deliver. Most students can’t read or do math at grade level.

Chicago taxpayers, along with the contribution provided by state taxpayers, have nearly doubled per student spending at CPS in just seven years. And yet, SAT scores have dropped from already dismal levels to even lower levels. Today, just 12% of black students at CPS can read at grade level, while only 18% of Hispanics are proficient. In math, the percentages are even lower.

And last, there’s the “hold Chicago together till we can get real leadership in place” argument. Of course, Mayor Johnson and unions don’t give a damn about this argument. But we make this case for Chicagoans, who will eventually have to decide who and what they support. It’s a race right now between those of us pushing for reforms and the progressive policies that will continue the city’s decline. 

A recent piece in Crain’s provides what may best support our case for a CPS salary freeze:

“Chicago should make the interests of the current and future residents of Chicago its priority and central in planning a successful financial restructuring. Who speaks for them? The unions and creditors are fully capable of taking care of themselves.”

If the city keeps screwing things up, residents will increasingly escape, creating a vicious cycle of higher and higher taxes on fewer and fewer people. If and when reforms or bankruptcy finally come, it may simply be too late.