CTU contract: Union's tentative agreement with CPS will cost $1.5 billion; how will the city pay?
The Chicago Teachers Union shared some details of what their new tentative agreement with Chicago Public Schools contains, including what the district says is the largest raise for teachers in 13 years.
The total estimated cost of the contract is $1.5 billion over the next four years, and also does not include the $175 million pension payment reimbursement. The cost of year one is reportedly covered, but what about the rest?
At a Tuesday morning press conference, CTU leaders said the agreement is what the young people of the city deserve. They recognized this one contract cannot solve all their problems, but said it's a path toward transformation for students and teachers.
The union called the deal "historic," and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez called it a victory.
"This agreement honors our teachers while keeping our students front and center," he said Tuesday.
"It creates opportunities for them to have real collaboration and agency," said CTU President Stacy Davis Gates at a separate media appearance.
The agreement includes a 4% pay raise in the first year, and then up to 5% in the next three years. CPS said this will be the largest raise for teachers in 13 years. It solidifies the city's teachers' position as some of the highest paid in the country, with the average annual salary set to exceed $110,000 at the end of the 4-year deal.
Other parts of the deal include smaller class sized, support for veteran educators, more prep time for teachers and 90 new librarian positions to be added over the next three years.
Class sizes will be limited to a maximum of 25 students for kindergarten, 28 students for grades 1 to three, 30 students for grades 4 to 8, and between 29 and 31 students for grades 9 through 12.
"This agreement is the product of 15 years of bargaining," said CTU Deputy Chief Thaddeus Goodchild. "We were always clear eyed about every problem facing the Chicago Public Schools, especially problems that have developed across generations of disinvestment and segregation."
But how will the city pay for it, especially when the district remains in a structural deficit? Martinez pointed to Tax Increment Financing funds, which divert revenue from property taxes to promote public and private investment.
"If we receive our full share of TIF funding that we are supposed to get based on the fact that, right now, TIFs are producing $1.2 billion every single year, half of that will be going to CPS every single year. We would be pretty close to eliminating that structural deficit," Martinez said.
Martinez said there's enough money for the contract's first year, but not for the $175 million pension payment for which CPS is reimbursing the city.
The Civic Federation weighed in on the budget back-and-forth Tuesday.
"That's the million-dollar question — or rather, the hundreds-of-millions-of-dollars question," the Civic Federation sad in a statement. "As of now, we don't have any further insight into how CPS plans to pay for the contract beyond the first year."
Mayor Brandon Johnson was asked about that $175 million pension payment.
"The contract is paid for by a separate entity of government, the Chicago Public Schools. And that, in part, is the responsibility of the CEO to be able to come up with mechanisms to be able to satisfy that," said Mayor Johnson.
Martinez's suggestion to cover the pension payment is a tax levy.
"There is a current tax levy the city has- it's part of your water tax bill and a few other bills. They have not raised it. They could raise it," he said.
Wednesday, CTU's House of Delegates will vote on the contract at a special meeting, and then the deal will be sent for a vote by the full rank-and-file membership.
