Chicago Teachers Union: $4 Million on Luxury Hotels, Safaris, and Hawaii Trips While 80% of Students Can’t Read at Grade Level
- Jeremy Black
- 1 minute ago
- 3 min read
Chicago Teachers Union Dropped Millions on Safaris and Resorts While 4 Out of 5 Kids Can’t Read — And the Media Calls It “Protecting Education”
Chicago Public Schools 2024–2025 reality check:
• 79% NOT proficient in reading
• 83% NOT proficient in math
• Only 7% of Black 11th-graders read at grade level
• $33,000 spent per student — more than many private academies, and still near the bottom nationally
Meanwhile, the Chicago Teachers Union’s own financial disclosures (2022–2025) show they spent taxpayer-enabled dues money on:
• $1.25 million on luxury hotels (Palmer House Hilton, Waikoloa Beach Marriott in Hawaii, etc.)
• $65,000 African safari for leadership
• $220,000+ on catered retreats and conferences in Miami, Las Vegas, and Puerto Rico
• $500,000+ on food and entertainment labeled “officer training”
That’s over $4 million in four years, enough to hire 60 new reading specialists or repair 400 broken school bathrooms.
The Bloated Administration Nobody Talks About
Chicago Public Schools employs more administrators per student than almost any big-city district in America:
• 1 administrator for every 67 students (national average: 1 per 180)
• Central office grew 44% since 2014 while enrollment dropped 20%
• 400+ staff making $150k+ while thousands of classrooms have broken heat in winter
When anyone proposes trimming even 5% of that bureaucracy, the CTU and their media allies scream:
“This will hurt the children!”
“Republicans are defunding education!”
“These are cuts to the classroom!”
Translation: touching a single dime of administrative bloat or union slush funds is magically redefined as “cutting teachers and kids” — even when the money never reached a classroom in the first place.
The 100% “Satisfactory” Teacher Reviews Scam
During the worst academic collapse in Chicago history, guess how many teachers received an unsatisfactory evaluation?
Zero. Literally 0.0%.
The CTU contract guarantees that fewer than 0.5% of teachers can ever be rated below “proficient,” no matter how many kids fail. In 2023–2024, while test scores hit rock bottom, 99.8% of teachers were rated “excellent” or “proficient.” Even teachers with 90%+ of their students failing state exams got glowing reviews and automatic step raises.
That’s not accountability. That’s a jobs program with children as collateral damage.
Media: The Union’s Personal Bodyguards
Watch what happens when anyone points this out:
• Propose ending the safari budget → Chicago Tribune headline: “Attacks on Educators Escalate”
• Suggest performance-based pensions → WBEZ: “Threat to Teacher Morale”
• Question $33,000 per kid with nothing to show → CNN chyron: “GOP Wants to Privatize Public Schools”
They never ask the obvious question: How does a five-star Hawaiian resort help a third-grader decode a sentence?
Because the media, the union, and the administrative class are all on the same gravy train. They protect each other while the kids , especially poor Black and Brown kids they claim to champion — get warehoused in failing schools.
The Rare Sense Fix
This is textbook elite rule, and Rare Sense to Save America has the only solution that actually ends it:
1. Lifetime lobbying ban for every school board member, superintendent, and administrator the day they take the job.
2. End forced dues collection from public paychecks , let teachers decide if they want their money funding political activism and luxury travel.
3. Tie every administrator and union official’s pension to district-wide proficiency gains. Watch the safaris disappear overnight when their retirement depends on kids learning to read.
4. Transparency law: every single expenditure over $5,000 posted online within 48 hours, searchable by every parent.
Chicago is Ground Zero proof that pouring more money into a corrupt, unaccountable system only makes the elites richer and the children poorer.
We the People built these schools for the kids, not for union bosses to live like rock stars.
It stops when citizens demand the one-page Citizen First Act and refuse to accept one more excuse.
Share this. Forward it to every Chicago parent, taxpayer, and lawmaker.
Because no child should learn to fail while the adults in charge are on permanent vacation.
Read our plan to drastically curb elite influence at all levels of government Read the main hub