News/Commentary

Chicago teachers’ union boss grilled for sending son to private school after calling school choice racist

September 16, 2023 | | Print Article

A Chicago teachers’ union boss stepped in it Tuesday during a CNN interview where she was grilled on hypocritically putting her son in a private school after calling school choice racist.

(Video Credit: Fox News)

“You’ve likened in the past private schools of today to quote ‘segregation academies’ of the Jim Crow South,” CNN host Abby Phillip surprisingly told Chicago Teachers’ Union President Stacy Davis Gates. “Why then send your child to a private school after speaking out so publicly against them?”

After getting over the shock that a host at a leftist network like CNN would dare to ask such a question, she attempted to parse her words, asserting that she criticized school choice, not private schools. Which is a distinction without a difference.

“School choice and private schools are two different entities,” she contended.

Phillip wasn’t done, much to the chagrin of Davis Gates, confronting her with more of her past comments. One of them was made in November 2018 and was illustrative of her stance on the issue, perfectly making the CNN host’s point.

“In your tweet, you describe basically private, I mean, you’ve described private schools of the North,” Phillip pointed out. “That was literally your language. But you’ve also said this, that ‘school choice was the choice of racists.’ I think at the end of the day, people are asking here about whether the rhetoric matches your actions. What do you say to them?”

“’Segregation Academies’ …Call them private schools supported by taxpayer funds-vouchers-so your northern cousins understand better. #RaunersLegacy,” Davis Gates wrote on X.

The former history teacher tried to cloud the issue by asserting that her past comments dealt with how private schools were formed after desegregation.

Phillip was not intimidated by the union boss and told her that she knew her history too. She cited a letter that Davis Gates wrote claiming that she sent her son to a private school for a sports program.

“The question I think your critics are asking is why not afford that nuance to the families who might live in the South Side of Chicago and in other major cities, and they want the same choice that you were able to afford to give to your child?” Phillip asked her.

At that point, Davis Gates brought up the fact that she has two other children she sends to public school.

She then said, “The public accommodation has to be invested and resourced in black communities because we have been defunded and destabilized in those same communities.”

The two went at each other back and forth over the topic.

Phillip bulldogged it referring to Davis Gates’ critics, “What you just described for your son is a choice that you made for your family, and I think that’s what your critics are pointing out here.”

Davis Gates, who was elected president of the Chicago Teachers’ Union in 2022 and who serves as executive vice president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, enrolled her teenage son in a Catholic high school located on Chicago’s South Side, according to a report by NBC Chicago.

“She said last year that having her children in public schools helps to ‘legitimize’ her position within the union and that she could not advocate on behalf of public schools if that were not the case,” the media outlet reported.

Conservatives were pleasantly surprised that a CNN host would call out the union head’s hypocrisy on the issue and they were thoroughly disgusted with Davis Gates:

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE

Latest posts by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles