How Stacy Davis Gates made the Chicago Teachers Union toxic
The union saw an unprecedented drop in public support during Gates' first term as president.
Chicagoans love Chicago. Chicagoans love teachers. And Chicagoans (mostly) love unions.
That’s why, for decades, the Chicago Teachers Union ranked among the most popular political players in the city.
Constant across mayors Richard M. Daley, Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot, internal and public polling showed a strong majority of Chicagoans liked the CTU.
But those days are gone.
The city’s good will toward the union has largely disappeared.
According to polling conducted earlier this year by M3 Strategies – the most accurate pollster in the 2023 Chicago mayoral election – public opinion on the CTU has flipped.
For the first time in modern city history, the union is underwater with Chicago voters.
Just 29% of Chicagoans had a favorable opinion of the CTU while 60% had an unfavorable opinion (-31 net). Asked about CTU President Stacy Davis Gates, 18% had a favorable opinion while 55% had an unfavorable opinion (-37 net).
Gates and CTU Vice President Jackson Potter are now facing a unified opposition slate in the May 16 internal elections for union officers. In the race for CTU president, members will decide between Gates and veteran CPS educator Erica Meza.
In an April 21 interview with Fox 32’s Paris Schutz, Meza laid out why she’s running:
“Our leadership is very obsessed with politics…we have really fractured our union members. There’s a lot of dissenting voices that are ignored. And we’ve fractured our relationships with our sister union allies, our labor allies, our community members, and some of our parents.”
While CTU’s brand is toxic among many Chicagoans, it will be a stunning upset if Gates and Potter are unseated as leaders of the union.
There is a powerful incumbency advantage in these internal elections, as leadership maintains control of the union’s lines of communication with 28,000 members. Those lines constantly reinforce a positive image of Gates and Potter.
But credible opposition is a big development within the union. And the upcoming election provides an opportunity to look back at how Gates made the CTU a polarizing force not only among teachers and voters, but also with elected officials and longtime allies in the labor movement.
How Gates came to power
Stacy Davis Gates acquired power in CTU through the Caucus of Rank and File Educators, or CORE. The caucus formed in 2008 as a reading group focused on Naomi Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine.”
According to CORE member Jen Johnson, who worked as Gates’ chief of staff and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s deputy mayor of education, the caucus’ early leadership included people with “deep radical roots” while others were “novices in the world of organizing.”
CORE united around the belief that the union’s incumbent leadership, the United Progressive Caucus, was too deferential to district officials, too focused on meat-and-potatoes bargaining issues like pay and benefits, and didn’t engage enough in far-left political struggles.1
CORE swept the 2010 CTU officer elections and has controlled the union ever since, bringing in more than $35 million a year from teacher dues.
After rising through CORE’s ranks as a lobbyist and political director, Gates ran for president of the union in 2022 and won with 56% of the vote.
Alongside CTU Vice President Jackson Potter, Gates in her first term made CTU the single largest spender on Chicago politics by hiking dues and running the first reported deficit in modern union history. CTU now spends just 17 cents of every dollar on teacher representation, with the remainder going to overhead, politics, and other union leadership priorities.
That’s coincided with a long list of controversies created by Gates, which have harmed the union’s standing with the public.
Gates’ long list of controversies
Here they are, listed in no particular order, with receipts.
Threatened a principal and former CTU delegate with physical violence
Called a prominent local journalist a “stalker” for reporting on her actions as union president
Told a senior SEIU executive: “Y’all ain’t shit and you ain’t shit”
Called the Chicago Tribune “bullshit” and the Illinois Policy Institute “freak shows”
Failed to pay $5,700 in city trash, sewer and water bills despite making more than $289,000 a year
Pushed for a $300M high-interest payday loan to fund a new CTU contract
Fought for lower property taxes on CTU headquarters while advocating for higher taxes on others
Threatened a principal and former CTU delegate with physical violence
Gates allegedly threatened violence against a Chicago Public Schools principal, saying in a speech at Stevenson Elementary School, “In talking to my Stevenson sisters, I told them that they should punch their principal in the face,” according to a police report. The principal, Bill Hozian, is a former CTU delegate.
Insulted critics as “slow”
In December 2024, Gates wrote “Y’all slow in real life?” in response to a critic on social media.
Mocked Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez by comparing him to a “terrible” special education student who can’t be suspended
In January 2025, Gates mocked Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez by comparing him to a “terrible” special education student who can’t be suspended. She later apologized. Mayor Brandon Johnson pushed his hand-picked school board to fire Martinez as CEO in December 2024 after a months-long opposition campaign led by Gates and Potter. Martinez has since been tapped to lead Massachusetts public schools.
Called a prominent local journalist a “stalker” for reporting on her actions as union president
Gates called Chicago journalist Paris Schutz a “stalker” in an appearance on The Ben Joravsky Show after he and three other news stations questioned Gates following her public media appearance on WTTW. Journalists had been seeking information about her role in attempting to fire Martinez after his refusal to endorse a $300 million payday loan to fund the union’s contract demands.
Told a senior SEIU executive: “Y’all ain’t shit and you ain’t shit”
In March 2025, Gates allegedly approached SEIU Illinois State Council Executive Director Anthony Driver at an event and extended her hand for a shake. When Driver reached out, she pulled her hand back and told him: “Y’all ain’t shit and you ain’t shit.” After Gates denied this accusation in a private Facebook group, SEIU Local 73 President Dian Palmer accused her of “bullying and dishonesty.”
“Working with CTU in 2019 was one of my proudest achievements,” Palmer wrote in an email to members. “I have no idea why they picked this fight seemingly out of nowhere against one of their strongest allies.”
Hid four years of union audits from CTU members and then bullied teachers who were forced to file a lawsuit to see those audits, calling them “extreme right wing” and claiming they were associated with Project 2025
Gates retaliated against union members who filed a lawsuit demanding access to financial audits.
In October 2024, members of the CTU filed a lawsuit against the union, demanding that Gates produce an audit after failing to do so for four years. (The union’s bylaws require that leadership produce an annual audit for members.)
The plaintiffs are represented by the nonprofit Liberty Justice Center, whose attorneys sent the following cease and desist letter to CTU lawyers after Gates harassed the members who filed the lawsuit:
“[Y]ou requested the names of our clients, ostensibly to confirm their membership. As a professional courtesy, we complied. The retaliation from CTU against our clients was swift. That evening—during a delegate meeting where one of our clients was introduced as a candidate for the Pension Board—CTU's President attacked our clients by name, associating them with ‘Project 2025’ and baselessly labeling them as ‘extreme right wing.’”
“Most concerningly, it is our understanding from a whistleblower that, on Friday, one of our client's in-school union reps received an ‘apoplectic’ call from someone at CTU insisting that they try to stop our client from pursuing this lawsuit. If true, this represents a drastic escalation of CTU's intimidation tactics.”
Notably, the Liberty Justice Center is currently fighting the Trump administration in court, filing an application for a temporary restraining order and motion for preliminary injunction on behalf of five small business owners seeking to overturn the administration’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.
Called the Chicago Tribune “bullshit” and the Illinois Policy Institute “freak shows”
Killed a school choice scholarship program that served thousands of low-income Chicago children, including several who attended the same private school as her own child.
Gates came under fire for using the union’s political muscle to successfully kill a school-choice program for low-income families while sending her own child to a private school.
Illinois’ Invest in Kids program gave nearly 10,000 students the opportunity to attend private school through privately funded scholarships. That included at least five students who had the opportunity to attend the same private school in which Gates enrolled her own child. Gates’ income is six times higher than that of families who were eligible for the scholarship program. CNN’s Abby Phillips confronted her about this hypocrisy in an on-air interview.
After lobbying by the CTU, Illinois became the first state in the nation to kill a school choice program.
Took an illegal property tax break on a home in Indiana
Gates was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana. And she claimed a homestead exemption on a home she owned there, which cut her property tax bill by more than 75%. But that exemption is reserved for people who own and occupy the home as their primary residence. Gates lives in Chicago. In 2023, Indiana officials determined her homestead exemption was “unlawful” and compelled Gates to pay three years’ worth of back taxes.
Failed to pay $5,700 in city trash, sewer and water bills despite making more than $289,000 a year
No one should be ashamed for sincere financial hardship. But Gates repeatedly criticized other people for not paying their “fair share” in taxes while she was skipping payments for city services she personally enjoyed. Gates was $5,100 behind on her city water, sewer and garbage bills before starting a payment plan in July 2023. She then defaulted on that plan despite making more than $289,000 a year from her various union positions. She has since paid off the debt.
Improperly funneled CTU member dues into Brandon Johnson’s campaign for mayor, forcing teachers to file an unfair labor practice complaint
The CTU member handbook promises that “dues are not used for political purposes.” But Gates and Potter funneled nearly $2 million in member dues to the CTU PAC. And that PAC then gave $2.2M to Brandon Johnson for his mayoral campaign. Three CTU members filed an unfair labor practice, saying the union “breached its duty of fair representation to its members.”
CPS teacher and plaintiff Froy Jimenez stated, “We became public school educators to do one thing: improve the lives of Chicago’s students. CTU membership dues should not be diverted away from the needs of the membership … Our hard-earned money should not be used as fuel for political campaigns without the proper consent of individual members.”
Spent $400K on Johnson’s signature ballot referendum to hike taxes on Chicago real estate transfers and lost
The Chicago Teachers Union was among the top financial backers of Brandon Johnson’s “Bring Chicago Home” campaign in 2024, contributing $400,000 in member dues to the ballot initiative.
If approved by voters, the measure would have raised an estimated $100 million in new tax revenue by tripling the real estate transfer tax on all properties sold for more than $1 million. But Johnson refused to release a detailed plan of how the money would have been used to reduce homelessness.
Chicago voters rejected it.
Pulled CPS students out of class for the explicit purpose of voting “yes” on the “Bring Chicago Home” referendum, in clear violation of CPS ethics rules
Ahead of election day for Brandon Johnson’s “Bring Chicago Home” referendum, CTU Vice President Jackson Potter emailed union members telling them to pull students out of class to attend a forum co-sponsored by Bring Chicago Home at CTU headquarters, followed by a “Parade to the Polls.”
This was a clear violation of the CPS Code of Ethics, so the Illinois Policy Institute filed a formal complaint with the CPS Ethics Office and CPS Inspector General.
In response, the CTU told journalists that Bring Chicago Home was not part of the event, and told CPS officials that the event would adhere to the district’s ethics policy.
But footage from the event showed that wasn’t true.
Event organizers were leading chants in favor of the tax increase on the way to the polls. And one student told a reporter he felt pressured to vote for the measure.
Lost 6 of 9 competitive school board elections
The CTU and its affiliates spent more than $2.3 million backing candidates for Chicago’s first-ever school board elections in 2024. But only three of their nine endorsed candidates won in competitive elections. The top recipient of the union’s political money was Rev. Robert Jones, with the CTU and affiliates giving more than $500,000 to Jones’ campaign, only for him to come in third place among four candidates.
Pushed for a $300M high-interest payday loan to fund a new CTU contract
Gates fought to fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez after he refused to support the union’s push for the district to take out a $300 million high-interest loan in order to cover the CTU’s contract demands.
The entire school board resigned en masse rather than fire Martinez and take out the loan, while 41 of 50 City Council members signed a letter opposing it.
Spurred local and national backlash after claiming standardized testing is “junk science rooted in white supremacy.”
In a 2024 appearance on Chicago’s most popular Black news radio station, Gates was asked to address critics of the union who point to low reading and math scores in CPS.
Gates responded by saying standardized testing was designed to fail Black students, calling it “junk science rooted in white supremacy.”
Listeners were not pleased.
“I’ve passed every standardized test and I want my children to be able to do it,” one caller said. “Even though I’m Black that does not mean I cannot achieve on standardized testing. And our children need to do that so that they can be competitive. Our focus needs to be on the literacy gap Black children have that’s not being addressed.”
The comments drew attention from Bill Maher and the Wall Street Journal, among others.
Claimed supporters of a bill to protect against closure of selective enrollment CPS schools were “racist.” The bill then passed the Illinois House 92-8.
Gates cost the union credibility in Springfield after CTU issued a fiery statement on House Bill 303, calling it “cynical” and “racist.”
The bill, filed by state Rep. Margaret Croke, D-Chicago, was inspired by fears that a CTU-dominated school board would close or significantly alter selective enrollment schools. It would have barred CPS from any school closures until a fully elected board was seated in 2027.
“That kind of criticism is uncalled for,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in response to the union’s attack. “Especially about the bill that was being discussed and about the person that was leading that bill.”
“We don’t need that. What we need to do is discuss policy. We need to either make change or don’t make change. I think accusing people of something quite personal that isn’t true ought not be part of this process.”
The Illinois House ultimately voted 92-8 in favor of the bill. It did not advance in the Senate following a deal between Senate President Don Harmon and Brandon Johnson.
Fought for lower property taxes on CTU headquarters while advocating for higher taxes on others
Gates drew headlines after the union filed an appeal to lower the property tax bill on their West Loop headquarters. The appeal would have cut the CTU’s property tax bill by more than $540,000.
Notably, CTU built their new headquarters under CORE leadership by using money generated from the $50 million sale of a union-owned skyscraper meant to provide affordable housing for retired teachers.
The overused term “far left” is an accurate description of CORE, as chronicled throughout the documentary Local 1 in members’ own words. Prominent CORE leaders such as Jesse Sharkey, Jackson Potter, Matthew Luskin, Norine Gutekanst, and Brandon Johnson have all funded, organized on behalf of, or endorsed explicitly socialist political organizations.
Thank-you for your honest, ethical and accurate reporting.
Glad the focus over there is on teachers and students. And learning.