With a possible teachers strike now just three days away, it would be nice to report that the parties at least are working from the same set of facts in trying to craft a settlement.

Unfortunately, the folks at the Chicago Teachers Union continue to use their own math. I guess I can understand that in the context of a heated labor dispute, but that's really regrettable for an organization that represents math teachers.

CTU’s “new math” centers as it has for a while on the roughly $1 billion in increased tax dollars that have flowed to Chicago Public Schools since the 2016-17 school year, money the union argues really ought to go to its members and other spending priorities set by the union.

As the union said in a press release over the weekend, “CPS gets upwards of $1 billion additional dollars a year from the state of Illinois to lower class sizes, which are among the largest in the state; support students in poverty . . . and address CPS’ demonstrated need for wrap-around supports for students who confront trauma and violence. Yet CPS and the mayor have refused to commit to investing that billion dollars in real equity on the ground for school communities.”

Wow. Sounds very convincing, doesn’t it? How could anyone be against reducing class sizes, helping poor kids and those impacted by gang violence, etc?

But, in fact, CTU’s own filings with the independent fact finder in the labor dispute (see page 13) indicate that most of that $1 billion went to CTU members' pensions.

Yes, according to CTU’s own filings, $380 million from a property tax increase and $211 million from the state went specifically to shore up the fiscally weak Chicago Teachers Pension Fund. And revenue from the property tax hike is expected to bring in almost an additional $100 million a year on top of the $380 million.

That, for those who know how to add, makes up more than two-thirds of that $1 billion in increased tax dollars. For pensions. And for those who have forgotten, CTU members pay just 2 percent of salary for their defined-benefit pension.

Now, CTU argues that such income replaces cash that CPS otherwise would have had to divert from classroom needs, including paying CTU members. That’s true. But as I previously reported, it’s also true that it returns total CPS contributions to the pension fund only to about where it was several years ago, before CPS slashed spending on pensions to pay current bills. Those events left CPS on the verge of insolvency, and though the new money has pulled it back from the brink, the hangover of bad credit, high debts and low financial reserves continues.

Chris Geovanis, CTU’s spokeswoman, concedes in an email that taxpayers—in particular Chicago property owners, and those with taxable state income—“are paying” for that $1 billion. But, she adds, “Hopefully when the state installs a graduated income tax, cheap, grasping wealthy tax dodgers who are reaping hundreds of billions from (Donald) Trump’s tax cuts for the rich will be paying more of their fair share and we can ease the burden on the working class.”

Of course, the earliest that tax could be enacted by voters is after the 2020 elections, quite likely in 2021, or even later if there’s a court challenge. The fat new contact CTU wants would go into effect immediately. In fact, it likely would be retroactive to July 1.

Geovanis also mentions the $1.3 billion city tax-increment financing subsidy for the proposed Lincoln Yards development, saying Mayor Lori Lightfoot has a “slush fund to bankroll rich people’s projects for rich people.”

Even if that was right—the truth is somewhere in the middle—the fact is that the $1.3 billion will come from taxes paid by Lincoln Yards’ developers over coming decades. If there’s no development, the tax take will be drastically slashed. To put it a different way, there’s not $1.3 billion sitting in a bank somewhere that Lightfoot somehow can hand out to hardworking teachers, librarians and school nurses.

Even in labor negotiations, you’ve got to be able to count. You ought not say city property tax hikes for pensions came from the state for classroom needs. But welcome to Chicago as the strike countdown continues.