Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) President Stacy Davis Gates is probably the most powerful and most radical union leader in the country with more than 300,000

School children under her control.

She is pushing for a new contract that raises teacher pay by 9% a year and includes initiatives from housing subsides for teachers to “restorative justice” programs. She also sees standardized tests as a target, dismissing data that shows that in 2022, 9% of Chicago’s black eighth graders were proficient in reading and 4% were proficient in math.  She claims that student testing “at best is junk science rooted in white supremacy.”

The CTU also knows how to shut down competition. Last year, the union instigated a shutdown of an Illinois school choice program, putting the futures of 10,000 low-income students at risk. Gates recognizes educational quality when she sees it. She sends her own son to a private school.

Gates told the City Club of Chicago on Monday:  “(Author James) Baldwin says the children are always ours. Every single one of them, all over the globe. And what comes next is ‘CTU thinks your children are its children.’ Yes, we do. We do.”