A couple of weeks ago, Stacy Davis Gates, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), made an aggressive claim during a radio interview. According to what she said, conservatives don’t want black children to learn how to read.
Gates made the statement during her appearance on WBBM 780 AM to defend the union’s contract demands. Conservatives were resisting the contract. As far as Gates was concerned, it was proof that they didn’t want black children to be able to read.
She even went as far as putting them under the same umbrella as people who would have championed black codes. Gates claims these conservatives, like those back then, seem to be against educating immigrant children, black kids, and poverty-stricken children.
Gates said their stance was the expected reaction, claiming it is “part of the oath they take to be right-wing.” The union’s demands she is defending are an expensive undertaking, estimated to cost over $13.9 billion.
It includes climate-related provisions, such as electric school buses, expanded use of heat pumps and solar panels, and creating “climate champion” positions to put together crucial initiatives and activities.
The union also wants the city’s board of education to collaborate with the city to provide more affordable housing units and prioritize Chicago Public School families. Gates drew attention to the statistics that show there are 20,000 classified unhoused young people in the city.
According to her, it spells instability for the city, so the union will push the Chicago Housing Authority to prioritize those families when providing housing.
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Testing results from last year proved that Gates does have a valid point. It showed that about 83% of CPS students were bad at math, while nearly 75% were illiterate at grade level.
Nicki Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, has tackled Gates on the topic. In a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation, Neily pointed out that the Chicago Teachers Union knows more than anyone that many students cannot read.
She highlighted federal statistics that revealed 85 percent of Black and 78 percent of Hispanic 4th graders in CPS are not good readers despite the district spending nearly $30K per child this year.
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Neily reminded people that the union Gates represents did not want schools reopened in 2020 even though their continued closure hurt low-income students. She recommended that Gates focus more on getting members of her union to teach the kids rather than pointing fingers.
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