Chicago columnist Clarence Page, who is Black, said he shifted from being anti-school choice to pro-school choice back in the 1980s.
“I swung from the anti-school choice, or school voucher position, to pro back in the 80s when this was a very hot issue back in the Reagan days,” Page told host Dan Proft on Chicago's Morning Answer radio show. “"I realized that school teachers in my own family and friends of my family, most of them were public school teachers who had their kids in private school."
“Black folks are very much in favor of school choice, too,” said Page.
Page is a columnist and member of the Chicago Tribune's editorial board. Born on June 2, 1947, in Dayton, Ohio, Page received the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1989. He writes columns on politics, culture, and social justice. He has also appeared on television as a commentator and analyst.
His recent column, “Yes, black parents like school choice, too,” discussed the news that Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates, an opponent of school choice, sends her kids to the exclusive De La Salle Institute, while claiming that private schools are “segregation academies.”
Page’s column notes that “a 2004 Fordham Institute study found that 39% of Chicago’s public school teachers sent their children to private schools, compared with a national average of 12% of all children who were educated privately.”
“Democrats, bless their hearts, have been just about as stubborn on this issue as their donkey mascot in failing to listen to their own constituents, many of whom like the idea,” wrote Page.
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