Tipsheet

CNN Host Calls Out Chicago Teachers Union Boss for Sending Her Child to Private School

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  September 16, 2023 7:00 AM

A CNN host put a Chicago teacher’s union boss on the spot when she confronted the leader about sending her son to private school, despite previously speaking out against them.

"You've likened in the past private schools of today to quote ‘segregation academies’ of the Jim Crow South,” noted CNN host Abby Phillip. “Why then send your child to a private school after speaking out so publicly against them?" 

Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates then tried to claim she had just criticized school choice, not private schools. 

“School choice and private schools are two different entities," she argued. 

Phillip then confronted her with more of her past comments, including a November 2018 tweet in which she said, “'Segregation Academies' …Call them private schools supported by taxpayer funds-vouchers-so your northern cousins understand better. #RaunersLegacy." 

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"In your tweet, you describe basically private, I mean, you've described private schools of the North," Phillip said. "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?"

Davis Gates, a former history teacher, explained her past comments were in regard to how private schools were formed after desegregation.

Phillip said she, too, knew the history, but went back to a letter Davis Gates wrote explaining 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?"

Davis Gates, noting that she has two other children enrolled in public school, 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 back and forth on the issue, with Phillip circling back to the argument from critics: "what you just described for your son is choice that you made for your family, and I think that's what your critics are pointing out here."

Conservatives applauded the CNN host for confronting her on the hypocrisy of the situation.