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Stacey Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union and executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, confirmed that she is currently sending her oldest son to a private school.
Local journalists initially suggested that her son be on the soccer team at De La Salle Institute, a private Catholic school with a 96% college acceptance rate for former students, according to the website MaxPreps, which specializes in tracking high school sports. It was reported that it was listed.
Administrators of a private Facebook group made up of members of the Chicago Teachers Union said shortly afterwards that they had learned of the news three weeks ago and that they “hated the hypocrisy of CTU going after people who made the same choice.” ” he said.
Needless to say, Mrs. Gates is a fierce opponent of school choice, at least when it comes to other people’s children. Just last year, she posted that “school choice was actually a racist choice” and that school choice has “racist origins.” The union she represents has consistently taken a hard line against private school choice programs.
Chicago Teachers Union leader who denounced school choice as racist has son attending Catholic school
Most recently, the Chicago Teachers Union opposed the state’s Child Tax Credit Scholarship Program for low-income students, which Illinois Democrats eliminated this year. It’s a slap in the face to families without the resources of Mrs. Gates that union leaders would reverse course and make the same choice in a Congress that just removed their union and its members for poor families. .
In an interview with Chicago Magazine last year, Mrs. Gates said, “You can’t advocate on behalf of public education unless it’s rooted in your own family.” At the time, she sent all three of her children to Chicago public schools. Well, it didn’t last long.
Mrs. Gates was paid a total of about $150,000 as vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union in 2022, according to the Union Fact Center. Presumably, as the new president of the union, she will have increased her income than last year and probably now has enough money to cover her son’s private school tuition of $14,750.
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Good for her. She’s glad her family was given that opportunity. But why shouldn’t all families have access to the education that best suits their needs? Her union is doing a great job of ensuring a good education for children in Chicago Public Schools. But why would she pay out of pocket to send her son to a non-union private school?
Mrs. Gates should not oppose school choice for disadvantaged families who currently remain in Chicago’s failing public schools. The latest Illinois state assessment revealed that only 17% of Chicago Public Schools students are proficient in math (and 26% in reading).
The union president said her decision to send her son to a private school “represents a harsh statement about the disinvestment of public schools,” according to WBEZ Chicago. But these flimsy defenses are rubbish. Because these failing factories cost each student more than $29,000 per year, roughly twice the cost of her son’s private school tuition.
Mrs. Gates issued a statement attempting to defend her hypocrisy. In it, she acknowledges that “for black families in black communities, high-quality neighborhood schools are a dream, not a reality.” She went on to say that public school was so bad that she was ultimately forced to choose private school.
She knows that the Chicago public school system is a complete dumpster fire that has let her son and many others down. Why should children, especially those from low-income families, be confined to failing facilities staffed by her union?
In her letter, Mrs. Gates says she and her union will never stop fighting against others’ school choice, and four times harshly criticizes her own hypocrisy. “We continue to oppose the siphoning of public school resources to private institutions through voucher programs,” she said. Because public schools are funded based on enrollment, she believes that her decision to withdraw her son from his assigned public school diverts resources away from the school, similar to school choice efforts. You need to understand that there are
A car caravan brings together teachers and supporters to demand a safe and equitable return to in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chicago, December 12, 2020. Stacey Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, spoke before the event. Some Chicago Public Schools teachers plan to return to the classroom on January 4, 2021 (Photo by Max Herman/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (Max Herman/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
She concluded her statement by saying she and her union would “fight against devastating and racist school closures that have left a trail of devastation in Black and brown communities.” Her hypocrisy knows no bounds. This comes from the same union that deleted a tweet in December 2020 that said “the push to reopen schools is rooted in sexism, racism, and misogyny.”
Around the same time, a Chicago Teachers Union director was arrested while vacationing in Puerto Rico, saying it was too dangerous to reopen schools and return to work in person. The union posted embarrassing interpretive dance videos protesting school reopenings and even went on strike in 2022, forcing schools to close again. The Chicago Teachers Union is a complete clown show.
Progressives like Mrs. Gates are hypocrites because their salaries depend on it. Her job as union boss is to protect the public school monopoly at all costs, and giving her family a choice would force union members to compete.
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Democratic politicians like President Joe Biden, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker have all shown the same hypocrisy, even though most of their voters support school choice. ing. Because they are owned by teachers unions. The nation’s largest teachers unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, have funneled more than 99% of their 2022 campaign contributions to Democrats.
All families, regardless of income, should have the right to send their children to the public or private schools of their choice with state-funded education funds. At a fraction of the cost that public schools spend to push many Chicago children into poverty, this opportunity would be a game changer and give them a real chance to succeed.
Click here to read more from Corey Deangelis
