Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates will lead the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the IFT announced Saturday after its election, positioning the progressive power player to have an even greater role in negotiations over state education funding.

As Davis Gates’ election could push 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 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, then passed overwhelmingly in a 92-8 House vote, but it 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 changing Illinois’s “backwards” tax code, a news release from the union said.

“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 news release.

She faces a General Assembly that has been cautious to increase school funding beyond its existing obligations under state law.

Democrats just this year 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.

They characterized the move as a pause to allow for a study of whether the program is working as intended, a choice that allowed them to help balance the state’s $55 billion budget.

A longtime lightning rod for skeptics and detractors on the right, Davis Gates was previously executive vice president at the 103,000-member IFT, along with 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.

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, it 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, where he praised the union and touted 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/