Plaintiffs welcome House committee request for Chicago Teachers Union
audits
[December 02, 2025]
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – While a congressional committee awaits financial
audits from the Chicago Teachers Union, the Liberty Justice Center is
moving forward with its lawsuit seeking the documents.
The Liberty Justice Center filed suit in the Circuit Court of Cook
County on behalf of four CTU members on Oct. 8, 2024 after they said the
union failed to produce the audits for four years. The move came after
Liberty Justice Center previously sent a demand letter to the union on
behalf of several CTU members, offering the opportunity to comply and
avoid litigation.
On Nov. 20, 2025, the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce
requested that the union submit audits and financial documents no later
than Monday, Dec. 8.
In a letter to CTU President Stacy Davis Gates, the committee asked the
union to produce the reports from 2019 to 2024.
The letter said the committee is concerned that "CTU has undertaken a
half-decade long, concerted effort to deny its members the complete
audit information to which they are entitled under the union's by-laws.”
The Chicago Teachers Union responded the next day with a statement on
the union’s website.
“The House Committee on Education and Workforce is investigating our
union, based 100% off of [Illinois Policy Institute] blog posts and the
false allegations made in the lawsuit filed by a disgruntled member,
Phil Weiss, partnering with the Liberty Justice Center,” the statement
said.
CTU added that the request is not about transparency, which it said the
union believes in.
“It’s a political witch hunt to take down the power of the labor
movement and check the collective power behind our Black woman
President,” the statement added.
CTU’s official letter of response to the House committee expressed two
initial concerns.
“First, the allegations in your letter appear to closely mirror
allegations made in a civil lawsuit recently filed,” the letter stated.
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A member of the Chicago Teachers Union wears a shirt with the
organization’s logo during a rally at the Illinois State Capitol,
May 15, 2024. Photo: Catrina Barker / The Center Square
“Second, we express our strong objection to the press release issued
in connection with your letter. The press release, as well as the
letter itself, make serious allegations and declare conclusions
about CTU’s conduct before the union has had any opportunity to
respond or the Committee has reviewed a single document,” the letter
continued.
Ángel Valencia, Senior Counsel for the Liberty Justice Center, said
the House committee’s action is welcome, but the court case would
proceed.
“Well, for us, we’re awaiting a couple of rulings from the court,
because we are very much interested in obtaining these audits
through a court discovery,” Valencia told The Center Square.
Valencia said the Liberty Justice Center is representing CTU
members.
“We believe that CTU has an obligation to provide its members with
these audits as part of the unit’s own constitution. To the extent
that that contract is violated, we are definitely going to step in
and help our clients and these members,” Valencia said.
When asked how Congress would know if CTU submits legitimate
documents, Valencia said the union provided full, independent audits
before 2020.
“The CTU did attempt to tell the court in our case that they had
complied with the audits by providing self-drafted and really
self-serving summaries that were clearly not full audits,” Valencia
said.
In the case of Weiss v. Chicago Teachers Union, the Liberty Justice
Center is representing the union members pro bono.
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