Chicago City Wire

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates continues to defend the "hypocritical" decision to send her kids to the exclusive De La Salle Institute despite her opposition to school choice and claims that private schools are "segregation academies …created to avoid integrating schools with Black children."

During a Tuesday appearance on CNN Primetime with host Abby Phillip, Davis Gates said she did not regret her statements regarding state funding for school choice and private schools.

"Regret rhetoric? What I have said are facts. Again, I am a history teacher," Davis Gates said. 

Later in the interview, Phillips asked Davis Gates's anti-school choice rhetoric went too far given that some parents can't make the same choice she did because they can't afford private school tuition.

Davis doubled down on previous statements, claiming that school choice "anchored to a very racist and angry right-wing."

"I can show you a whole host of emails that have come to me and my family detailing that level of violence and racism," she said. 

Davis Gates made at least two statements during a contentious interview that disregard facts about the state of Chicago public schools. 

For instance, Davis Gates said she chose to send her son to De La Salle – the same high school as former mayors Richard J. Daley, Richard M. Daley and Michael Bilandek — to give her son the opportunity to play sports "that are not offered at our neighborhood school or any school close to our address."

In fact, at least three selective enrollment Chicago Public High Schools — Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy, Lindblom Math and Science Academy and Kenwood Academy High School — have soccer teams that are closer than the 9 mile commute between De La Salle and the CTU president's home.

Davis Gates, who appeared on the CNN broadcast wearing "Battle of Montgomery" folding chair earrings, also attempted to deflect criticism of her hypocrisy during the CNN interview by saying that the "real scandal" is "students in Chicago, especially Black students, on average travel almost two hours back and forth to school."

According to the 2020-2021 CPS Annual Regional Analysis, that's an exaggeration. The report says that 105,000 high school students averaged a one-way commute of 29 minutes. About 11,800 of those students had a commute between 45 and 60 minutes. Nearly 5,900 students commuted over 60 minutes, the analysis shows. 

Phillip, the CNN host, concluded the interview saying, "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."