\n\t\t\t\tStacy Davis Gates\u2019 tenure as president of the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Federation of Teachers has been riddled with scandals. Now, fewer than 1-in-3 Chicagoans have a favorable opinion of the union.
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Stacy Davis Gates\u2019 leadership record might cause members in the Illinois Federation of Teachers\u2019 200 affiliates to consider leaving the union.<\/p>\n
At least 15,600 education employees<\/a> have already chosen not to affiliate with IFT. With Davis Gates at the helm as president since October 2025, union affiliates risk losing the trust of both teachers and the communities they serve.<\/p>\n Davis Gates has tanked the Chicago Teachers Union\u2019s reputation in Chicago since becoming its president in 2022. Teachers in other districts can expect her to do the same to IFT.<\/p>\n She has subjected CTU to multiple federal investigations and been plagued with other scandals, from running a deficit and quadrupling the union\u2019s political spending to not paying her taxes and utility bills and sending her son to private school instead of letting her members educate him.<\/p>\n Teachers who don\u2019t want to answer to Davis Gates can join the thousands of other education employees who have rejected union membership. Learn more at LeaveIFT.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, we\u2019ve compiled a look at CTU and Davis Gates.<\/p>\n CTU hits record-low popularity among Chicagoans under Davis Gates<\/b><\/p>\n Just 28.8% of Chicagoans had a favorable opinion of CTU in an April poll conducted by M3 Strategies for the Illinois Policy Institute. More than half had an unfavorable opinion of the union.<\/p>\n The favorable percentage was 44%<\/a> in February 2023. That means Davis Gates has driven down CTU\u2019s popularity among Chicagoans by over 16 percentage points since taking over.<\/p>\n She and other union leadership have shown they prioritize politics<\/a> over students. Chicagoans have taken notice. Illinoisans in other IFT affiliate districts will, too.<\/p>\n CTU has undergone federal investigations with Davis Gates in charge<\/b><\/p>\n With Davis Gates at the helm, CTU has undergone multiple federal investigations concerning a lack of financial transparency.<\/p>\n The union\u2019s own rules require it to publish a financial audit annually. For five years<\/a>, leadership failed to do so. CTU finally\u00a0released<\/a>\u00a0the audits to members in January.<\/p>\n Union leaders didn\u2019t do so willingly. It took the mounting pressure of a\u00a0lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0filed by members and an\u00a0inquiry<\/a>\u00a0by a U.S. congressional committee. CTU has also admitted<\/a> being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service and audited<\/a> by the U.S. Labor Department.<\/p>\n Once released, the audits showed why Davis Gates and CTU leaders fought hard to keep members in the dark: Two of CTU\u2019s combined financial statements were seriously flawed<\/a>. An independent auditor issued adverse opinions about the statements, which means the auditor concluded that the union\u2019s finances were misstated in a material and pervasive way.<\/p>\n Davis Gates\u2019 leadership has been fraught with other scandals<\/b><\/p>\n Her tenure as president of CTU has largely been about politics, but it\u2019s also been about her gaffes<\/a>, her dust-ups and her personal misdeeds and hypocrisy.<\/p>\n September 2025:<\/b> CTU political spending quadrupled under Davis Gates\u2019 leadership<\/a><\/p>\n The union spent over $4.2 million on \u201cpolitical activities and lobbying\u201d in its 2025 fiscal year. That\u2019s a record high since it started filing federal reports. It is also quadruple its 2022 political spending, reflecting CTU\u2019s focus on politics since Davis Gates became president.<\/p>\n March<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>2025<\/b>:<\/b>\u00a0Davis Gates cursed at a senior SEIU executive<\/a><\/p>\n At a March 2025 fundraiser hosted by Illinois House Speaker Emanuel \u201cChris\u201d Welch, Davis Gates reportedly approached SEIU Illinois State Council Executive Director Anthony Driver and extended her hand for a handshake before pulling it back and saying to him, \u201cY\u2019all ain\u2019t shit and you ain\u2019t shit.\u201d<\/p>\n January 2025<\/b>:<\/b>\u00a0Davis Gates mocked former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez by comparing him to a \u201cterrible\u201d special education student who can\u2019t be suspended<\/a><\/p>\n At a January 2025 meeting of hundreds of elected union delegates members related to contract negotiations, Davis Gates compared then-CPS CEO Pedro Martinez to a \u201cterrible\u201d special education student who can\u2019t be suspended because of policy. She later\u00a0apologized<\/a>.<\/p>\n January 2024<\/b>:<\/b>\u00a0CPS principal and former CTU delegate files police report after Davis Gates threatens physical violence<\/a><\/p>\n Davis Gates allegedly made threatening comments at a January 2024 union meeting, urging members to commit violence against Stevenson Elementary School Principal William Hozian. According to the police report Hozian filed, Davis Gates said, \u201cIn talking to my Stevenson brothers and sisters, I told them they should punch their principal in the face.\u201d A police spokesperson said the incident was deemed non-criminal and the case was closed.<\/p>\n November 2023<\/b>:<\/b>\u00a0Davis Gates owed the city nearly $5,600 for utilities<\/a><\/p>\n Letting\u00a0past-due bills<\/a>\u00a0pile up is not new for Davis Gates.\u00a0At one point, she let her city utility bills go for over three years and hit nearly $5,600<\/a>.<\/p>\n As of December 2025, she remained behind on city utilities, with $1,544<\/a> in Chicago water, sewer and trash bills remaining, according to a Freedom of Information Act response. She also owed the city $1,843 for parking tickets and speed violations.<\/p>\n Davis Gates constantly calls for the \u201cwealthy\u201d to pay their \u201cfair share<\/a>,\u201d yet she just can\u2019t seem to pay her home utility bills and traffic fines on time. That\u2019s while she brings in over $273,000<\/a> as a union boss.<\/p>\n November 2023<\/b>:<\/b>\u00a0Davis Gates was taking a homeowner\u2019s tax break on an Indiana property she didn\u2019t live in<\/a><\/p>\n Davis Gates\u00a0was receiving an Indiana property tax deduction reserved for owners who occupy their homes, according to public records obtained by the Illinois Policy Institute. She should have been paying four times more in property taxes. The county\u00a0removed<\/a>\u00a0the deduction and compelled Gates to pay three years of back taxes.<\/p>\n October 2023<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>CTU ran its first reported deficit under the leadership of Davis Gates<\/a><\/p>\n CTU for the first time reported spending more money than it took in during its 2023 fiscal year, according to the union\u2019s report with the Labor Department. Specifically, CTU reported receipts of $35.5 million and disbursements of almost $36 million. This underscored members\u2019 concerns about union leaders failing to properly handle union money or to provide required reporting to members.<\/p>\n September 2023<\/b>:\u00a0<\/b>Davis Gates placed her son in private school while crushing educational options for low-income children<\/a><\/p>\n While advocating the end of Illinois\u2019 only private school choice program, which allowed donors to get a tax credit for funding scholarships for low-income children, Davis Gates\u2019 hypocrisy was exposed when it was revealed that she had placed her own son in a private school.<\/p>\n She\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0she and her husband made the choice \u201cso [their son] could live out his dream of being a soccer player while also having a curriculum that can meet his social and emotional needs.\u201d<\/p>\n But her advocacy against the scholarship program effectively\u00a0crushed the dreams<\/a>\u00a0of more than 15,000 low-income children who lost the money provided by the now-defunct program.<\/p>\n March 2023<\/b>:<\/b>\u00a0CTU bankrolled Brandon Johnson\u2019s mayoral campaign without consulting members<\/a><\/p>\n CTU funneled over $2.3 million into the campaign of Brandon Johnson, one of its former employees. Its spending was met with internal criticism from members and potentially violated union rules by using member dues for politics without their approval. The action\u00a0prompted<\/a>\u00a0an unfair-labor-practice complaint against the union.<\/p>\n Union members can opt out<\/b><\/p>\n