You might have missed this in the fine print, but for the second consecutive contract, the Chicago Teachers Union negotiated what’s called a “side-letter” (an addendum to their contract) that puts a moratorium on charter school growth. 

According to Chalkbeat Chicago: “The charter moratorium in the tentative agreement says charter student enrollment by the end of the contract will not exceed 101% of charters’ enrollment capacity as of last school year. Furthermore, there will be ‘net zero increase’ in the number of charter schools.” 

The CTU’s advocacy against charter public schools is curious, to say the least, especially given charters’ proven track record of delivering great results for Chicago families, and the fact that CTU represents hundreds of Chicago’s charter school teachers and staff at the bargaining table.

Unfortunately, this anti-charter advocacy is par for the course for the CTU. In the past, they’ve advocated against fair funding for charter public school students, calling the new funding a “bribe” to “privatization vultures”. They actively lobbied against legislation that would have ensured that charters at least got close to similar funding as district schools. They’ve also fought against the opening of a number of Elevate Chicago schools.

So this moratorium language after all of that really begs the question – what’s the CTU’s real agenda when it comes to Chicago’s charter public schools?