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Teachers’ unions already exert more power in
Illinois over students’ health and safety than parents or school administrators,
but that might grow if voters approve a union plan to enshrine their powers in
the state constitution.
Already, Illinois teachers unions have some of the most extreme powers in the
nation. They proved that with their influence over delaying returns to in-person
learning and by keeping students masked following initial COVID-19 school
closures.
Now, the constitutional change on the Nov. 8 ballot seeks to give teachers
unions more power than state law. It is an example of special interest groups
having a louder voice in the lives of Illinois children than their own parents
or elected lawmakers. The change is called Amendment 1, and would grant Illinois
public workers union bosses powers that no other state allows them.
Besides the health and safety issues, teachers unions, such as the Chicago
Teachers Union, are scaring parents with myths about a teacher shortage, despite
data suggesting otherwise. Across Illinois, the number of public school teachers
is rising. Meanwhile, the number of students enrolled in public schools is
decreasing.
Illinois parents have already expressed concern over public schools by leaving
the public education system. From 2021 to 2022, Illinois saw a 3.5% decrease in
public student enrollment. This trend has been consistent during the past decade
and especially in Chicago Public Schools, Illinois’ largest public school
district, where nearly 80,000 students have left the district since 2010.
Simultaneously, the number of teachers in Illinois is rising, despite claims by
teachers unions, including the Chicago Teachers Union, about a teacher shortage.
CTU even secured a $35 million per year package to fund class size relief
following their 11-day strike in 2019. Although CTU was not legally allowed to
strike over class size prior to 2021, the union leveraged its power and refused
to agree on wages and benefits until class size relief had been addressed.
Following the passage of Gov. J.B Pritzker’s House Bill 2275 in 2021, CTU has a
mandatory right to bargain over class size. Taxpayers are held responsible to
pay for any demands included in its collective bargaining agreements.
If Amendment 1 passes this November, CTU will have even more leverage. Because
of the broad language in the proposed amendment, unions such as CTU will have
bargaining rights over virtually anything. Its broad language guarantees the
right to bargain over “safety at work,” which includes provisions such as
COVID-19 policies.
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This language allows teachers unions to take away parents’ and school
administrators’ voices on what is best for the health, safety and learning
environment of their children. In January 2022, CTU went on a five-day strike
over COVID-19 issues.
Now, delegates of the National Education Association, the national affiliate of
one of Illinois’ largest teachers unions, called for mandatory masking,
vaccinations and remote learning options for the coming school year. Those
demands contradict the expertise of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, which moved to optional masking in schools in spring 2022.
Continued remote learning and enforcing strict COVID-19 policies against the
judgment of the CDC will continue to contribute to the decreasing number of
public school students in Illinois and across the country. In 2020, more than 1
million students nationwide did not enroll in public school.
Illinois saw a decrease of 12.4% of its kindergarteners at public schools since
the 2019-2020 school year. For many of these families, the intense COVID-19
restrictions, such as remote learning and masking for young children, compelled
parents to move their children to private schools or to home-school them.
Not only is mandatory masking of children no longer recommended by the CDC to
prevent disease, but masking can have adverse effects on students’ learning.
This is especially true among children with cognitive delays, speech and hearing
issues, and autism. According to teachers, parents and speech pathologists,
mandatory masks make learning particularly difficult for these students.
If Amendment 1 passes on Nov. 8, CTU would be given more power and its
collective bargaining agreements could trump state law, giving union bosses more
power than elected leaders and even parents. Amendment 1 would also allow union
bosses to strike over more issues. Given the past two years of remote and hybrid
learning, children cannot afford to miss more days in the classroom.
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