CTU President Stacy Davis Gates says she's not trying to oust Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates said Thursday she’s not working behind the scenes to engineer the ouster of Schools CEO Pedro Martinez. She simply wants him to “do his job” and deliver the schools poor children deserve. 

“We give them an opportunity to remediate. I’m a high school social studies teacher. … I don’t offer the 'F' first. I offer a warning. I provide opportunity. I give support. I call home. I make [myself] available during lunch and after school,” Davis Gates told the Sun-Times. 

“ I am bringing warning. There is no reason why we shouldn't already have a contract. Pedro says he wants libraries and librarians. Pedro says he wants schools fully staffed. Pedro says he wants young people to have art, music, physical education. So why don’t we have a contract? ... It is not my job to say if he’s hired or fired. The job that I’m trying to do is to get a contract.”

The Sun-Times and WBEZ reported earlier this month that Johnson was laying the groundwork to fire Martinez after an unprecedented rebuke: Martinez and Johnson’s hand-picked Board of Education rejected the mayor’s request that they take out a short-term, high-interest loan to cover a $175 million pension payment for non-teaching school employees and the cost of the still-to-be-negotiated and finalized new CTU contract.

That fueled speculation that Davis Gates was the wizard behind the curtain, pressuring Johnson — the mayor her union helped elect — to dump Martinez. She added fuel to that fire by accusing Martinez of “insubordination” and writing a guest column in the Chicago Tribune this week making the case against him. 

But Davis Gates insisted Thursday all she really wants is for Martinez to seize the opportunity created by Johnson’s election.

“For the first time, we have … a Black mayor with Black children that attend Chicago Public Schools that is directing the CEO of the school system to resource the schools to make sure it’s fully staffed. To make sure that they have the art and physical education courses — not one or the other. To say 'no' to that and to not have a plan thereafter — that is insubordinate. … What you have is a status-quo superintendent who is missing an opportunity," she said. 

Martinez could not be reached for comment.

Interviewed earlier this week on WTTW-TV’s “Chicago Tonight” program, Martinez said he has not been told by anyone the mayor wants him out. 

He argued there has "never been better alignment" between CPS, the board, the mayor and even the unions.

"We all know that our schools need to be fully resourced and the challenge is, they’re not," Martinez said.

“I want to protect the investments that we have. We have 2,000 more teachers today than we did pre-pandemic. I’m seeing it in classrooms. Smaller class sizes. More elective teachers than ever. No more should we have a school without art, without music. They’ll even have a third option if they want world language or a STEM program. ... The challenge is that we’re being pushed to add even more investments. The resources are not there. Federal dollars are expiring.”

Tension between the CTU and CPS is largely spurred by differences over how to address a structural budget deficit and historical underfunding.

The union has advocated for a more aggressive approach: settling the contract, then joining with CPS officials to try to force Gov. JB Pritzker and state lawmakers to provide the money.

In addition to annual raises of 9% or the inflation rate, whichever is higher, the CTU wants every school to have art and physical education teachers, teacher assistants and enough teachers for what it deems as reasonable class sizes. The CTU also wants elementary school teachers to get more planning time and for teachers to be able to choose their curriculum.

Davis Gates said it’s not her job to figure out how to pay for a new teachers contract or where the money comes from.

 “You can go to Jamie Dimon at Morgan Chase and tell them to renegotiate those toxic payday loans from the Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Rauner era. ... You can figure out how to tax the rich and have those proceeds go to schools,” she said.

“This is an emergency for the entire state of Illinois. Adequate is inadequate. We need full funding. … We serve the highest number of children of color in this state. The highest number of … children existing in low-income environments in this state. At the same time, this city puts a whole lot into Illinois. How do you refuse the children of Chicago?”

 Early on, Martinez and Davis Gates appeared in sync, even joining forces on a lobbying trip to Springfield.

 What's changed?

“It’s hard out here for women leadership," Davis Gates said. "Men do lip service you sometimes. You do get the wrong impressions from the relationships you think you’re building. And they don’t necessarily like strong women who are very clear and direct. Maybe that was it."