Will the CTU Come Clean on its Politics
By Jim Vail
The delegates to the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) will vote on a budget next month that has mandated major cuts to its operations.
Will the union have to cut services for its members? How many field reps will we have to protect teachers and enforce the contract? What's going on?
The CTU appears to have very little transparency when it comes to spending money politically.
There are rumors that certain candidates favored by the CTU brass get a whole hell of a lot more money than others. Why? What is the process? Those are questions delegates would like answered.
For example, who is the Chicagoans United for Economic Security PAC? How much did a failed candidate who worked with a South Side community organization called COCO receive (rumors say $300,000).
I asked when endorsements were made in the last primary why the CTU backed machine candidate Kwame Raoul for Illinois Attorney General. I said Aaron Goldstein, an exciting progressive public defender who beat the machine's Dick Mell to become the 33rd ward's new committeeman, was a much better candidate. He vowed to take on the banks, something our union made a big deal about when the city was/is paying the big banks heavily.
The CTU made a huge campaign against Bank of America getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars off penalties from toxic loans the city took out, at the expense of closing public schools and not properly funding them.
Goldstein told me that the machine and Raoul would never take on the banks.
The Political Action Committee (PAC) is a closely-run group in which you have to apply and be accepted, not democratic at all. After initially serving on the committee when we helped get CORE elected in 2010, I was then rejected by CTU President Karen Lewis. They don't like questions and dissent from the party line.
And now we hear all kinds of rumors about extravagant money being spent on the campaigns of these candidates, and we don't know who they are or how much they are getting.
I certainly hope the CTU comes clean at the last House of Delegates (HOD) meeting in June before the summer break and presents delegates with a transparent picture of who's getting what in terms of CTU dollars, especially after we realize the CTU "loaned" a million bucks to get Chuy Garcia elected mayor, and now we're paying dearly for it.
By Jim Vail
The delegates to the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) will vote on a budget next month that has mandated major cuts to its operations.
Will the union have to cut services for its members? How many field reps will we have to protect teachers and enforce the contract? What's going on?
The CTU appears to have very little transparency when it comes to spending money politically.
There are rumors that certain candidates favored by the CTU brass get a whole hell of a lot more money than others. Why? What is the process? Those are questions delegates would like answered.
For example, who is the Chicagoans United for Economic Security PAC? How much did a failed candidate who worked with a South Side community organization called COCO receive (rumors say $300,000).
I asked when endorsements were made in the last primary why the CTU backed machine candidate Kwame Raoul for Illinois Attorney General. I said Aaron Goldstein, an exciting progressive public defender who beat the machine's Dick Mell to become the 33rd ward's new committeeman, was a much better candidate. He vowed to take on the banks, something our union made a big deal about when the city was/is paying the big banks heavily.
The CTU made a huge campaign against Bank of America getting paid hundreds of millions of dollars off penalties from toxic loans the city took out, at the expense of closing public schools and not properly funding them.
Goldstein told me that the machine and Raoul would never take on the banks.
The Political Action Committee (PAC) is a closely-run group in which you have to apply and be accepted, not democratic at all. After initially serving on the committee when we helped get CORE elected in 2010, I was then rejected by CTU President Karen Lewis. They don't like questions and dissent from the party line.
And now we hear all kinds of rumors about extravagant money being spent on the campaigns of these candidates, and we don't know who they are or how much they are getting.
I certainly hope the CTU comes clean at the last House of Delegates (HOD) meeting in June before the summer break and presents delegates with a transparent picture of who's getting what in terms of CTU dollars, especially after we realize the CTU "loaned" a million bucks to get Chuy Garcia elected mayor, and now we're paying dearly for it.
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