Teachers union boss is a fierce opponent of school choice, at least when it comes to other people's children
Chicago’s public school system is a ‘complete dumpster fire’: Corey DeAngelis
American Federation for Children senior fellow Corey DeAngelis joins ‘Fox & Friends Weekend’ to discuss the Chicago teacher’s union boss and her continuous opposition against school choice.
The president of the Chicago Teachers Union and executive vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, Stacy Davis Gates, confirmed that she now sends her eldest son to a private school.
Local journalists initially reported that MaxPreps, a website devoted to tracking high school sports, listed her son on the soccer team at De La Salle Institute, a private Catholic school boasting a 96 percent college attendance rate among its former students.
Admins of a private Facebook group of Chicago Teachers Union members shortly thereafter mentioned that they had become aware of the news three weeks prior and that they "dislike the hypocrisy of CTU when they have gone after people who made the same choice."
It should go without saying, but 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 the choice of racists" and that school choice has "racist origins." Her union she represents has consistently taken a hardline stance against private school choice programs.
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION BOSS WHO DENOUNCED SCHOOL CHOICE AS RACIST HAS SON IN CATHOLIC SCHOOL
Most recently, Chicago Teachers Union opposed the state’s Invest in Kids Tax Credit Scholarship Program for low-income students, which Illinois Democrats killed this year. For the leader of the union to turn around and exercise the same choice her union and its representatives in the legislature just eliminated for poor families is a slap in the face to families who do not have the means Mrs. Gates does.
In an interview with Chicago Magazine last year, Mrs. Gates said "I can't advocate on behalf of public education without it taking root in my own household." At the time, she sent all three of her children to Chicago Public Schools. Well, that didn’t last long.
Mrs. Gates made about $150,000 in total compensation as vice president of Chicago Teachers Union in 2022, according to the Center for Union Facts. Presumably, as the union’s new president, she makes more than she did last year, and perhaps now has enough money to cover her son’s $14,750 private school tuition.
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Good for her. I’m glad her family has that opportunity. But why shouldn’t all families have access to an education that best meets their needs? Why does she pay out of pocket to send her own son to a non-unionized private school if her union does such a fantastic job at ensuring a good education for kids in Chicago Public Schools?
Mrs. Gates shouldn’t fight against school choice for less advantaged families who are currently stuck in Chicago’s failing government schools. The latest Illinois state assessments reveal only 17% of Chicago Public School students are proficient in math (and 26% in reading).
According WBEZ Chicago, the union president said her decision to send her son to a private school "represents a stark statement about disinvestment in public schools." That flimsy defense is garbage, however, as these failure factories spend over $29,000 per student per year, about twice as much as the her son’s private school tuition.
Mrs. Gates issued a statement attempting to defend her hypocrisy. In it, she admits that "If you are a Black family living in a Black community, high-quality neighborhood schools have been the dream, not the reality." She goes on to say that the government schools are so bad that it ultimately "forced" her to choose a private school.
She knows the Chicago Public School system is a complete dumpster fire that failed her son and so many others. Why should any kids, particularly ones from low-income families, be trapped in those failing institutions that are staffed by her union?
In her letter, Mrs. Gates quadruples down on her hypocrisy by saying that her and her union won’t stop fighting against school choice for others. "We will continue to oppose siphoning public school resources off to private institutions through voucher programs," she said. She must realize that her decision to pull her own son out of his assigned government school diverts resources away from it just as much as a school choice initiative allegedly does, as government schools are funded based on enrollment counts.
Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates speaks ahead of a car caravan where teachers and supporters gathered to demand a safe and equitable return to in-person learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chicago on December 12, 2020. Select Chicago public schools teachers are expected to return to classrooms on January 4th, 2021. (Photo by Max Herman/NurPhoto via Getty Images) (Max Herman/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
She concludes her statement by mentioning she and her union "will fight against destructive and racist school closings that have left a trail of devastation in Black and Brown communities." Her hypocrisy knows no bounds. This is coming from the same union that, in December 2020, deleted a tweet saying "the push to reopen schools is rooted in sexism, racism and misogyny."
Around that same time, a Chicago Teachers Union board member was caught vacationing in Puerto Rico while saying it was too dangerous to reopen schools and go back to work in person. The union posted an embarrassing interpretive dance video to protest reopening, and even went on strike in 2022, forcing schools to close again. Chicago Teachers Union is a total clown show.
Progressives like Mrs. Gates are hypocrites because their salaries depend on it. Her job as a union boss is to protect the government school monopoly at all costs, and giving families a choice would force her members to compete.
Democrat politicians like President Joe Biden, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker all demonstrate the same hypocrisy – even though most of their constituents support school choice – because they are owned by the teachers' unions. The National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s largest teachers' unions, funneled over 99% of their campaign contributions to Democrats in 2022.
All families, regardless of income, should have the power to take their children’s state-funded education dollars to the public or private school of their choice. At a fraction of the cost of what the government schools spend on dooming so many Chicago children to a life of poverty, this opportunity would be a game changer, giving them a real shot at success.
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Corey DeAngelis is a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children.
