Plaintiffs welcome House committee request for Chicago Teachers Union audits

By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – While a congressional committee awaits financial audits from the Chicago Teachers Union, the Liberty Justice Center is moving forward with its lawsuit seeking the documents.

The Liberty Justice Center filed suit in the Circuit Court of Cook County on behalf of four CTU members on Oct. 8, 2024 after they said the union failed to produce the audits for four years. The move came after Liberty Justice Center previously sent a demand letter to the union on behalf of several CTU members, offering the opportunity to comply and avoid litigation.

On Nov. 20, 2025, the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce requested that the union submit audits and financial documents no later than Monday, Dec. 8.

In a letter to CTU President Stacy Davis Gates, the committee asked the union to produce the reports from 2019 to 2024.

The letter said the committee is concerned that “CTU has undertaken a half-decade long, concerted effort to deny its members the complete audit information to which they are entitled under the union’s by-laws.”

The Chicago Teachers Union responded the next day with a statement on the union’s website.

“The House Committee on Education and Workforce is investigating our union, based 100% off of [Illinois Policy Institute] blog posts and the false allegations made in the lawsuit filed by a disgruntled member, Phil Weiss, partnering with the Liberty Justice Center,” the statement said.

CTU added that the request is not about transparency, which it said the union believes in.

“It’s a political witch hunt to take down the power of the labor movement and check the collective power behind our Black woman President,” the statement added.

CTU’s official letter of response to the House committee expressed two initial concerns.

“First, the allegations in your letter appear to closely mirror allegations made in a civil lawsuit recently filed,” the letter stated.

“Second, we express our strong objection to the press release issued in connection with your letter. The press release, as well as the letter itself, make serious allegations and declare conclusions about CTU’s conduct before the union has had any opportunity to respond or the Committee has reviewed a single document,” the letter continued.

Ángel Valencia, Senior Counsel for the Liberty Justice Center, said the House committee’s action is welcome, but the court case would proceed.

“Well, for us, we’re awaiting a couple of rulings from the court, because we are very much interested in obtaining these audits through a court discovery,” Valencia told The Center Square.

Valencia said the Liberty Justice Center is representing CTU members.

“We believe that CTU has an obligation to provide its members with these audits as part of the unit’s own constitution. To the extent that that contract is violated, we are definitely going to step in and help our clients and these members,” Valencia said.

When asked how Congress would know if CTU submits legitimate documents, Valencia said the union provided full, independent audits before 2020.

“The CTU did attempt to tell the court in our case that they had complied with the audits by providing self-drafted and really self-serving summaries that were clearly not full audits,” Valencia said.

In the case of Weiss v. Chicago Teachers Union, the Liberty Justice Center is representing the union members pro bono.