The president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) is defending her decision to send her son to a private school after facing backlash for the decision.
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates is sending her freshman son to a Catholic school on the South Side of Chicago.
In her defense of the decision, Davis Gates criticized school choice, blaming such policies for the lack of resources at Chicago’s public schools.
“It was a very difficult decision for us because there is not a lot to offer black youth who are entering high school” in Chicago, Davis Gates told WBEZ.
“In many of our schools on the South Side and the West Side, the course offerings are very marginal and limited,” she said. “Then the other thing, and it was a very strong priority, was his ability to participate in co-curricular and extracurricular activities, which quite frankly, don’t exist in many of the schools, high schools in particular.”
In the past, Davis Gates has been vocal about her opposition to school choice and private schools, even going as far as saying school choice is “racist.”
“School choice was actually the choice of racists. It was created to avoid integrating schools with Black children. Now it’s the civil rights struggle of our generation?” she wrote on X last year.
*School choice* was actually the choice of racists. It was created to avoid integrating schools with Black children. Now it’s the civil rights struggle of our generation? #BoyBye https://t.co/jYbiKV48aJ
— Stacy —We Deserve OUR Humanity—#BLM (@stacydavisgates) August 27, 2022
Davis Gates strongly opposed the Illinois Invest in Kids program, which offers tax credits to people who help fund scholarships for low-income students to attend private schools.
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In June, the Illinois legislature opted not to renew the school voucher program.
“I’m also a mother,” Davis Gates said on March 6 of last year. “My children go to Chicago Public Schools. These are the things that legitimize my space within the coalition.”
The revelation of Davis Gates’ decision to opt for private school sparked immediate backlash, with critics accusing her of hypocrisy.
“You have to wonder: If the teachers union leader who wants to kill school choice has made the private school choice for her own child, how convincing are her arguments against school choice for low-income children with few options for breaking the cycle of generational poverty?” the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think tank, wrote Wednesday in an article.
In her remarks this week, Davis Gates slammed the news outlet SubX.News for revealing her son’s high school and publishing his name and picture. The Daily Wire is not publishing the minor’s identity.
“We live in a time with extremist political rhetoric, and it has led to violence,” she said. “My children, my family should not have to endure this. And doxing a child is violent, and it’s unacceptable, and it needs to be rejected and decried by every institutional leader. It’s just not okay.”
Davis Gates is not the first school choice opponent to reap the benefits of private school education.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, strongly opposes school choice, but is herself a beneficiary of a private school education.
Her education plan for Arizona, released during her campaign, includes cracking down on the state’s school voucher program and allowing Arizona’s public schools to spend more money.