Where pathological greed meets radical leftism, there you will find teachers unions. In Chicago — launchpad of Barack Obama’s political career — the union has degenerated into a mob of looters:

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is negotiating a new contract with the public schools system and is understood to be calling for an extra $50 billion to pay for wage hikes as well as other demands such as fully paid abortions for its members, new migrant services and facilities and a host of LGBT-related requirements and training in schools.

To put the figure into context, the total base tax receipts for the state of Illinois last year were $50.7 billion.

Only 21% of Chicago 8th graders are proficient at reading. But no doubt they are well versed in alternative pronouns and know how to put a condom on.

Uselessness pays well where the woke are in charge:

Union President Stacy Davis Gates’ audacious plan calls for members to bank at least 9% wage increases each year through fiscal year 2028.

The average salary of a teacher in Chicago Public Schools is $93,182, according to research by the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative nonprofit think tank. Therefore, the average teacher’s pay will increase by half to $144,620 in the 2027-2028 school year, it says.

Not bad for unskilled part-time babysitters who take summers, weekends, and every conceivable holiday off.

That figure would equate to more than double the median household income in Chicago, according to Census Bureau statistics.

Yet the media bleats piteously that teachers are unpaid.

If you think the outrageous demands will be laughed off, consider that the mayor is ultraleftist Brandon Johnson:

Johnson, a former CTU legislative coordinator who was put forward by the union to run for mayor. As of June 30, 2023, CTU had funneled more than $2.6 million into Johnson’s campaign while he received more than $6 million from teachers unions altogether, according to the Illinois Policy Institute.

Chicago already spends $21,000 per year per student, producing so little benefit for the money that Davis herself sends her son to private school — though the preferredly pigmented Davis has proclaimed that school choice is racist.

Meanwhile, Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza reports on what the liberal locust swarm has been doing to the state’s finances:

Illinois is on pace to spend an additional $6.2 billion more than it receives in revenue this fiscal year alone if the state continues its current rate of spending without a budget.

She observes that “the spending is open-ended and our fiscal path is catastrophic.”

Progressives interpret this to mean they had better grab fast before Illinois collapses and there is nothing left to grab. Those in charge in Chicago are the equivalent of a Black Lives Matter mob going through a department store.

On tips from Varla, Jack D, and WDS 2.0.