Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates will lead the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the IFT announced Saturday after its election. This positions the progressive power player to have an even greater role in negotiations over state education funding.
As Davis Gates’ election could push the IFT further to the left, it remains to be seen whether her brand of progressivism will prove as effective in Springfield as it has been in Chicago. Best known for her forceful and sometimes controversial voice in advocating for teacher interests and the interests of Black and brown communities in Chicago Public Schools, Davis Gates is a key ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson. The mayor also rose to power through CTU and has advocated for additional state funding, though with a mixed track record.
In an example of its sometimes adversarial relationship with state legislators, CTU roiled some in Springfield last year when it called widely-supported legislation to extend a moratorium on school closures “racist.” The measure, which was also opposed by the Johnson administration, passed overwhelmingly in a 92-8 House vote but was not called for a vote in the Senate after a plea from Johnson.
As president of the IFT, Davis Gates will continue to fight for school funding and for changing Illinois’s “backwards” tax code, according to a news release from the union. “The belly of a child who just had their one hot meal a day cut from school budgets rumbles the same, whether that young person is on the southside of Chicago or in Cahokia,” Davis Gates said in the release.
She faces a General Assembly that has been cautious about increasing school funding beyond its existing obligations under state law. Just this year, Democrats cut back on the $350 million annual increase in school funding required under a 2017 state law, withholding $43 million that normally would go to a grant program designed to help school districts with high property tax rates and low real estate values.
Lawmakers characterized the move as a pause to allow for a study of whether the program is working as intended. This choice also helped balance the state’s $55 billion budget.
A longtime lightning rod for skeptics and detractors on the right, Davis Gates previously served as executive vice president at the 103,000-member IFT, alongside her position at CTU. The Illinois teachers union’s previous president of 15 years, Dan Montgomery, is leaving to lead the American Library Association.
Prior to Montgomery, multiple IFT presidents held local leadership roles, as Davis Gates will now, an IFT spokesperson said Sunday.
The IFT plans to hold a statewide lobbying day in Springfield next Wednesday, on the fifth day of the General Assembly’s planned six-day fall veto session, the union said in a statement.
Gov. JB Pritzker, one of the expected targets of the IFT’s lobbying, shared a stage with Davis Gates during a speech at the IFT’s Rosemont convention on Sunday. During the event, he praised the union and highlighted his administration’s role in school funding, according to the IFT spokesperson.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/19/stacy-davis-gates-illinois-teachers-union/
