The Chicago Teachers Union and its president, Stacy Davis Gates, have filed suit against the Illinois Policy Institute and its legal arm, a move host Chris Krok, filling in for Dan Proft, described on Chicago’s Morning Answer as an attempt to intimidate a news organization for reporting on the union’s activities. Krok raised the topic with Mark Glennon, founder of Wirepoints.org, at the top of the interview.
Glennon said he had not yet seen the complaint itself, noting that the story appears to have been given exclusively to the Chicago Sun-Times, which he said did not publish or link to the filing. He argued the suit lacks legal substance, pointing out that the union and Davis Gates would likely be treated as public figures under defamation law, requiring plaintiffs to meet the high bar of proving actual malice. He singled out the union’s objection to being described as “toxic,” calling it ordinary rhetorical language that would not support a defamation claim.
Glennon also connected the timing of the lawsuit to Governor JB Pritzker’s endorsement from the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which Davis Gates also leads, calling it evidence of the close ties between state government and the union. He renewed his longstanding call for what he described as a “nuclear option” for Chicago Public Schools, modeled on Michigan’s dissolution of Detroit’s school district, arguing the current district should be shut down and restarted under new rules.
The conversation turned to a George Will column, drawn from Wirepoints reporting, on Frederick Douglass Academy, which Glennon said was built for 1,000 students but currently enrolls only 27, with 28 full-time staff and per-pupil spending near $93,000. He said Wirepoints first reported on the school roughly two years ago without prompting any state intervention. Krok and Glennon also discussed a reported $150 million gap in Chicago Public Schools’ budget, which House Speaker Chris Welch has said he is committed to closing, with Glennon predicting the state may ultimately turn to property tax increases to cover the shortfall, citing a recent column by Paul Vallas.
On the Chicago Bears’ stadium search, Glennon declined to predict whether the team would relocate to Hammond, Indiana, saying negotiations remain unresolved and that league approval questions around placing two NFL franchises in a single state may still be a factor. Asked to guess between Arlington Heights and Hammond, Glennon said his best guess was that the team stays at Soldier Field for the near term, citing the roughly $1 billion in infrastructure costs Arlington Heights would require.
The interview also covered a Wirepoints report on a South Side call center that has avoided cuts from Capital One so far, with Glennon citing a Chicago Tribune editorial warning that Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed head tax on large employers could cost the company nearly $400,000 annually. Glennon criticized the proposal as economically damaging, and the pair discussed reported fraud in state unemployment and pandemic-era staffing programs during Pritzker’s tenure, as well as Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton’s — referred to in the conversation as Kenny Bailey’s comments on tolls — proposal to eliminate tolls and cap property tax growth, which Glennon said would require the state to specify how it plans to offset the lost revenue.