Chicago Teachers Union leader opposed school choice, reportedly sends her child to private school

Many leaders who oppose school choice have been known to send their children to private schools.

This includes both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, and a handful of United States Senators. Teachers’ union leaders, including the Chicago Teachers Union’s president, Stacy Davis Gates, also sends her child to a private school according to recent reports.

According to prominent school choice advocate Corey DeAngelis, Davis Gates is also the vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers.

DeAngelis also shared a screenshot of a Facebook post from an admin running a Chicago Teachers Union private Facebook group defending its leader. “We were informed of this 3 weeks ago and the majority of us believe where you choose to send your child is a family decision,” it read. 

“We do dislike the hypocrisy of CTU when they have gone after people who made the same choice,” the post continued. 

SubX.News also reported Davis Gates sends her child to Da La Salle, a private school in Chicago. Its tuition is around $14,750. 

DeAngelis also cited a 2013 study from American Enterprise Institute which found around 39% of Chicago public school teachers enrolled their own children in private schools, more than three times the national average. 

Despite Davis Gates sending her child to a private school, she appears to have mocked school choice and private schools in the past. 

“*School choice* was actually the choice of racists. It was created to avoid integrating schools with Black children,” Davis Gates said on X, formerly known as Twitter, in August of last year. “Now it’s the civil rights struggle of our generation?” 

She also said in an interview with Chicago Magazine she cannot “advocate on behalf of public education and the children of this city and educators in this city without it taking root in my own household.” 

In an endorsement for Bernie Sanders for president, she said the Chicago Teachers Union “fought against racial and economic disparities, attempts to close and privatize our public schools, and powerful special interests.” 

Davis Gates also called private schools “segregation academies,” and the year before she shared an article from the left-leaning think tank Center for American Progress, as it claims private school vouchers are racist.  

“We are concerned about the encroachment of fascists in Chicago,” she said in an interview last month with South Side Weekly. “We are concerned about the marginalization of public education through the eyes of those who’ve never intended for Black people to be educated.” 

She said she wants to “fight tooth and nail” to make sure that school choice and privatization of education does not exist on Chicago Public Schools’ Board of Education.  

The Lion reached out to the Chicago Teachers Union for comment by email and phone, but it did not respond in time for publication.