UNION REPRESENTATION DURING A PANDEMIC | The Case of K-12 School COVID Protocols, Public Health and Individual Autonomy

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the Illinois educational workforce, creating a complex interplay between public health measures, individual autonomy, and union dynamics. This report, based on a survey of Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) members, highlights these multifaceted responses to vaccine mandates and the intricate position of teachers’ unions during these … Read more

BARGAINING FOR INNOVATION | AN ANALYSIS OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS IN ILLINOIS PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS

More than two million children attend over 3,800 public schools in 852 local school districts across Illinois. Nearly all of these districts have collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) that determine the terms and conditions of employment. This study evaluates 543 collective bargaining agreements across Illinois, representing nearly two-thirds of all school district CBAs. While labor agreements … Read more

STUDENT BASED BUDGETING CONCENTRATES LOW BUDGET SCHOOLS IN CHICAGO’S BLACK NEIGHBORHOODS

In 2014, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) adopted a system-wide Student Based Budgeting model for determining individual school budgets. Our report examines the impact of Student Based Budgeting. Our findings show that CPS’ putatively color-blind Student Based Budgeting reproduces racial inequality by concentrating low budget public schools almost exclusively in Chicago’s Black neighborhoods. The clustering of … Read more

CLOSED BY CHOICE: THE SPATIAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHARTER SCHOOL EXPANSION, SCHOOL CLOSURES, AND FISCAL STRESS IN CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Over the past five years, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has confronted annual budget crises prompting CPS to cut resources from classrooms, reduce the number of teaching professionals inside schools, and close public schools. Our research examines how the proliferation of charter schools in neighborhoods of declining population has contributed to CPS’ fiscal stress resulting in … Read more

ALTERNATIVE STATE AND LOCAL OPTIONS TO FUND PUBLIC K-12 EDUCATION IN ILLINOIS 

Illinois needs to revamp its system of funding public education. Currently, school districts receive the bulk of their revenue from property taxes. With relatively high property tax rates and funding inequities across the state, raising property taxes in Illinois is often not an option for school districts. There are alternative policies that can be enacted … Read more

UNION PARTICIPATION AND THE WORK FIT-JOB SATISFACTION-NEXUS: A STUDY OF THE CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION

The exit-voice tradeoff has helped scholars explain lower job satisfaction among union workers compared to nonunion workers since. Scholarship has further extended the exit-voice tradeoff to within-union samples by examining job satisfaction’s relationship to union participation instead of between union and nonunion workers. But how exactly does the exit-voice tradeoff apply to moderately or highly-satisfied … Read more