Chicago Teachers Union Chief: Conservatives Don’t Want Black Children to Learn to Read
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Gates told a Chicago radio audience that "conservatives" don't want black children to be educated because it is part of the "oath" they take to join the "right-wing."
Gates, who won't even send her own son to a Chicago public school, appeared on WBBM to defend the union's audacious CPS budget demands. The budget, which includes cash for illegals, free abortions for teachers, and, oddly, even free weight loss drugs, totals in at a massive $50 billion. Remember, this is just for Chicago's schools, not for the whole state.
To put this wild demand in context, the total amount of taxes the entire state of Illinois brought in for fiscal 2023 was only $50.7 billion. So, Gates thinks just her school district should receive almost every penny that the state realized in taxes.
The contract contains a number of left-wing agenda items such as annual retraining for teachers on LGBTQ issues, “gender neutral” bathrooms in every school, and a rule prohibiting teachers from telling parents if kids are transitioning from one sex to another in school.
The budget demand also wants to force the city to give every illegal migrant student a check for $2,000 to spend on transportation costs, “mental health counseling,” and tutoring. But instead of arguing on its "merits," such as they are, Gates is accusing anyone who objects to her budget of being a Jim Crow-pushing racist.
During her interview with WBBM's At Issue program, Gates went on the attack against nay sayers and insisted "conservatives don’t even want black children to be able to read."
Ms. Gates then expounded on that with a fact-free tirade that makes a mockery of the actual history of Jim Crow.
"Remember, these same conservatives are the conservatives who probably would have been championing Black codes, you know, during reconstruction or thereafter," she blathered. "So, forgive me again if conservatives pushing back on educating immigrant children, Black children, children who live in poverty, doesn’t make my anxiety go up. That’s what they’re supposed to say. That is literally a part of the oath that they take to be right wing."
All of that is a flat out, fact-free lie.
There were no "conservatives" as defined by today's political standards in the South where "Black codes" were implemented. ALL those codes were created and enacted by Democrats. Furthermore, there are also no "conservatives" in power anywhere in Chicago. There are no Jim Crow-pushing "conservatives" in the Chicago Public School system, none in the city's leading political power structure, and none in City Hall.
Meanwhile, with Gates and her Democrat pals in control, in February, it was reported 55 of Chicago’s public schools had zero children that were grade-level proficient in reading and math.
As she calls for huge pay raises for teachers, she also avoided addressing the fact that Chicago teachers are already in a more pleasing tax bracket than the average citizen.
In Chicago, the median salary for teachers is $61,062, which is considerably more than the median income for the rest of the Windy City at $40,068. So, the constant claim from teacher unions that teachers are treated shabbily in Chicago just doesn't add up.
Teacher salaries are one thing. At least one might justify that expense because they are performing a vital function, but administrators is a whole other question. In Chicago, there are 16,833 non-teaching staffers in the Chicago Public Schools, 21,974 teachers, and 516 principals. This means there are 140 administrators per student in Chicago (compared to 141 in the rest of the state)
Granted, the Chicago Public School system is set to shed some staffers at 150 of its 646 schools. But some schools are gaining staff and money even though they are losing students en masse. Take Douglass High School, for instance.
"On the flip side, Douglass High School in the west side neighborhood of Austin — where just 35 students were enrolled this year — would get the largest increase. It’s slated to add nine people to its staff of 23," Chalkbeat reported.
What sense does that make?
With Illinois spending hundreds of millions more than it is taking in, these exorbitant salaries, and ridiculous budgets are ripe for trimming. The state is set for a nearly $900 million deficit through 2025, but is cutting in the picture? Not a chance.
