A majority of likely voters in Chicago showed low trust in the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) ahead of the upcoming school board election, according to a poll conducted in August.

Around 36% of likely Chicago voters have a favorable opinion of CTU compared to 46% who have an unfavorable opinion, according to a press release Monday from the Illinois Policy Institute that commissioned a survey from M3 Strategies. The poll found that 17% of likely voters held a favorable opinion of the president of CTU, Stacy Davis Gates, while 39% held an unfavorable opinion and 6% had no opinion.

CTU has spent over $175,000 for candidates running for this year’s Chicago Board of Education election, according to a report by the Illinois Policy Institute from Wednesday. Budget documents show that CTU is planning to spend as much as $1 million across 10 school board districts.

“For the first time, Chicagoans have a chance to vote on radical CTU leadership,” Mailee Smith, senior director of labor policy at the Illinois Policy Institute, said in the press release. “The city is facing a battle over its future: follow CTU’s path into increased spending and worsening student outcomes, or say no to an extreme political agenda.”

“The CTU has grown increasingly unpopular, and its leaders are desperate to pad their ranks with allies in advance of key conversations about the district, union and taxpayers’ money,” Smith went on to say in the press release. “Voters get to decide if they want CTU to officially take over the school board and decisions about the district and city at large.”

Several Chicago public schools have been plagued with various issues for years, including a steep drop in enrollment over the past two decades as well as ongoing budgetary stresses, according to a September report from Wirepoints. While many experts have called for these schools to be consolidated or closed, the CTU has opposed these measures.

CTU has been engaged in ongoing contract negotiations with Chicago Public School CEO Pedro Martinez, according to Chalkbeat Chicago. The teacher’s union had previously opposed Chicago schools reopening after pandemic closures and demanded that teachers be vaccinated before they would return to classrooms from working from home.

“Chicago Teachers Union is a former employee of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, they poured millions of dollars into his campaign to help get him elected,” Dylan Sharkey, assistant editor at the Illinois Policy Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “And now, in a similar vein, he is appointing members of the school board, and on the other half, they are endorsing who would be the elected candidates. So essentially, they have their hands in the underscoring for the entire school board and every decision that would be made regarding Chicago public schools.”

The CTU declined to comment to the DCNF, while the Chicago Board of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Featured Image Credit: Charles Edward Miller from Chicago, United States