Chicago Teachers Union Jessie Sharky and Stacy Davis Gates at a rally for striking teachers

Rules for Boss of the Chicago Teachers Union: Good Schools for Me but Not for Thee

by John Kass

Sept. 15, 2023

If you told me I’d share anything in common with the vicious racist hypocrite and Marxist Chicago Teacher’s Union boss Stacy Davis Gates, I would have said you were a drooling madman.

But wait: Stacy Davis Gates and I share one thing in common we share with our kids. And it’s beautiful. It’s so damn beautiful that I could cry.

We appreciate The Beautiful Game, which Americans call soccer, but those who love it call it futbol. Our twin sons played it growing up through high school and college, and still play today. But we did not move to the suburbs for soccer. We moved to the suburbs, and paid those crushing property taxes, for the schools.

Davis Gates used soccer as the excuse for engaging in school choice and enrolling her son in a private Catholic high school, after loudly declaring that school choice was racist and fascist, even as she tried to use union power to kill Illinois Opportunity Scholarships and deny school choice to thousands of black and brown families.

Is Stacy Davis Gates a hypocrite for trying to prevent black and brown parents from finding freedom from lousy public schools even as she sends her son to a private parochial school?

Of course she’s a hypocrite, a malevolent one at that. Only her fellow hard-core Bolsheviks would support such blatant hypocrisy. I’ve been in this business 40 years and know there’s still a tiny handful of mincing, simpering lefty journos eager to kiss her hand and curry favor for union clicks. They pose as contrarians.

And there are hard core lefties in the media unions who’ve run interference for her, and carried CTU Local 1 water in news story after news story. But I won’t name the creatures who are defending Davis Gates now. They’re just too pitiful to name.

Would you waste time giving names to the maggots crawling at the bottom of the garbage can in the garage?

Instead of honoring them as they fall to their knees before the hypocritical union boss to seek favor, perhaps we might think of the tens of thousands of hard-working minority families–most living in poverty–who are trying to use good education as a way out. Think of them struggling and sacrificing as Davis Gates calls them fascists and racists.

Don’t play the fool. She’s a gold star hypocrite, an Olympian in the Hypocrite Arts.

And even though she revealed herself to be a liar and phony, she muddled through her interviews with reliance on tired Jacobian themes.

But few exposed her, like NewsBusters.org. Her greatest line?

“I didn’t speak out against private schools. I spoke out against school choice. School choice and private schools are two different entities.”

However moronic she appears, Stacy Davis Gates and the Covid Democrat shut-down artists reveal much about themselves whenever they speak. They prevented most of us from attending school and church and synagogue during the pandemic to “protect” us, even as they themselves went out and got their hair done (Lori Lightfoot, Nancy Pelosi); sent their kids to Florida to escape government shut-downs (Gov. JB Pritzker); or shut down schools and businesses while going maskless at Michelin restaurants like The French Laundry (California Gov. Gavin Newsom) and getting their hair done (Lightfoot, Pelosi) again.

It’s always for thee but not for me with these people, flaunting power before the peasantry.

And this is a variation on that Democrat Party standard theme, Schools for Me but Not for Thee.

But there’s more.

“Dear Union Sibling,” begins Davis Gates trembling email to her fellow teachers by way of explanation. She argues that black students have “limited” options on the city’s south and west sides and this “limited” option forced us to send our son, after years of attending a public school, to a private high school so he could live out his dream of being a soccer player while also having a curriculum that can meet his social and emotional needs.”

But she forgets to mention the obvious: What group is most responsible for the sorry state of public education?

The school unions. Yet when she brays out her stupidities, media doesn’t challenge her. Why not? Because in Chicago at least, and in big blue cities across America, the school unions and the lefty media unions are on the same team. And if you’re not on their team, you don’t count. You don’t matter and your kids don’t matter to them. To them you’re the enemy, even if you’re somewhat liberal, to the hard core Bolsheviks of CTU Local 1 you’re a hapless Menshevik to be crushed.

Chicago Teachers Union Local 1 is the most powerful political union in the state. And Stacy Davis Gates is the undisputed boss, for now. The Illinois Policy Institute put together a fascinating documentary on the union and I’m linking to it here so you can learn more.

You’ll see her puppet, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson talking about compelling union members to wear red tee-shirts like all good socialists. Chicago has yet to hit rock bottom with Johnson and Davis Gates.

What do I say to her claim that as a loving mommy she had no other choice but to enroll her son in the private school so he could realize his dream of becoming a soccer player at the expense of others?

Horse poop.

Any soccer parent will tell you that high school is not the place to grow a soccer player. It begins and ends in the soccer clubs and that costs far less than private school tuition.  There can be good soccer at some high schools. My sons played at one, and went on to play in college. But it is at the club level where young soccer players improve. There were a few top clubs when the boys were playing, the Sockers, PSG, Schwaben and the Chicago Fire Academy team to name a few. College and pro scouts attend club matches. They’ll attend a few top high school games, but not many.

The boys had to fight for playing time at the clubs. High school is for fun, even at the state-ranked top 10 high school teams. I’m not knocking high school soccer, I loved it but it’s different than club. In high school you’re playing with the guys you grew up with. On a club you’re playing for playing time and promotion up through the ranks. And on the top clubs, your mommy or daddy’s political clout won’t protect you.

Soccer parents know this. Betty and I learned it late, but we learned it. But Stacy Davis Gates is counting on parents not knowing this. She gaslights them in so many ways.

And clearly the news media is mincing around the Stacy Davis Gates private school story, walking lightly lest they break eggs and bending over backwards so as not to mention the name of the Catholic school her son attends, to not “dox” the student.

Was the Chicago press corps so concerned about protecting our boys? No. When the left tried to cancel me for daring to write about George Soros’ influence in selecting do-nothing local prosecutors, one writer for the left wing Reader posted the name of my sons’ high school–commenting that it looked like a nice small college.

“I’m also a mother, my children go to the Chicago public schools,” she once said. “These are things that legitimize my space within the coalition.”

More horse poop now that she’s been revealed.

“I can’t advocate on behalf of public education without it taking root in my own household,” she was quoted as saying before she dug out the root,

Oh and one of my favorites: “School choice was actually the choice of racists. It it was created to avoid integrating schools with Black children. Now it’s the civil rights struggle of our generation.”

More horse poop. And dangerous, insulting horse poop.

The only racists here are those who’d use the accusation of racism to shame parents for seeking better schools for their children. And again, most of the kids seeing Illinois Opportunity scholarships are poor and black and brown. Public dollars are not used. This is driven by tax credits, and still CTU and Johnson and the rest would deny kids a fighting chance.

After so many lies–and the lefty maggot press agents defending her–I see only one way to  clean out Stacy Davis Gates’ mouth.

Redirecting the Chicago River in the way Hercules cleaned out the Augean stables.  But you’ll need a large bar of soap.

-30-

 

 

Comments 37

  1. So right and spot on, John. You miss the most obvious in it all though. She is PAYING (or maybe not) to send the kid to the private school. Lots of money (I’m sure). It obviously means she ain’t getting paid peanuts in her position, maybe even double dipping through CPS as well as CTU.

    And in todays world, don’t you look in the dictionary under the word hypocrite and next to the synonym find the word Democrat ? I mean, aren’t they all ??

    1. she makes at least 150 k from CTU local 1 and meets regularly with her lap dog the mayor of Chicago. the meetings are not on his schedule. they’re incognito, in case the media even thinks about doing its job. what does that tell you about who runs Chicago? It’s not Brandon. They keep him in the play pen and don’t let him touch sharp objects.

      1. Stupids. Don’t know how to behave when day got the power. “It’s my time, fuck you and da horse you rote in on”
        Hey babe, ever hear the one about keeping ur mouth shut? Ur right about club soccer. I don’t think most peeps know that. I didn’t til I worked at a hs down here

  4. John, Gates’ salary is paid by Chicago Taxpayers, and she is using taxpayer money to send her child to a Catholic School. She is using taxpayer money for school choice.

  5. This is very well done John. You’ve outlined the hypocrisy, elitism and tone deafness of Davis Gates and also touched on the love of children that you both have in common.

    John, the kids are being held hostage in the city in order to protect the power and clout that come with a robust teachers union.

    One thing you’ve not touched on much is how hard this is on the teachers themselves. As Im sure you’re aware, most teachers want to do a good job, want to make a difference, and many have great affection for the students entrusted to them.

    It is the teachers we must appeal to in order to affect change. They are the ones on the inside, in the trenches, doing this work every day.

    The incestuous relationship between public employee unions and the politicians who write their labor rules, set their pay, and give them a virtual monopoly must be untangled.

    Back to the teachers, some them get physically and verbally assaulted on a daily basis. It is a very stressful job. There is very little discipline and order in the schools. There is chaos and a lack of leadership.

    You should ask yourselves, how can an employer who pays 100k a year with great benefits and summer off, have trouble filling keeping employees and have positions un filled?

  6. Democrat hypocrisy on schools is a long tradition. Pushing back against choice in the cities whose remedial management is protected by Democrat machines, the Kennedys, the Clintons, the Obamas and local apparatchiks like Gates have always sent their own precious darlings to private schools. Only the Carters braved Washington’s public schools, maybe because Jimmy figured he had to do one thing right.

    At the next Democratic National Convention — in Chicago, keep your heads down, attendees! — note the #1 profession of delegates: teacher union leaders celebrating their exclusive private school choice. These people long ago stopped celebrating real democracy, replacing it with real hypocrisy.

    If they had a hammer, they’d hammer poor families in the inner cities. Actually, they have that hammer and use it, defended by the creature-journalists noted above.

    Just keep writing columns like this one, JK. I’m looking forward to the day when your subscriptions pass those of the Hedge Fund Boys.

  8. School choice, as in parents deciding to send their children to a non-public school (private, elite, boarding, religious) has been in the US since we were colonies (ok, the choices were more limited then, but they existed). It did indeed become more popular in areas when desegregation was forced, but never was what is now termed school choice: tax dollars following students to private schools. Davis Gates is disingenuous at best in her claim. Additionally, IF we allow her to claim that school choice is about segregation, then how can she not support it helping those children who would be forced out to actually attend those private schools? She appears (as always) to be hoping that her double-talk is hiding the fact that her refusal to find ways for all parents to try to access the best schools for their children is the real segregation.

  10. Chicago public schools are beyond redemption…but there are other explanations, as well, such as Neighborhood gang crime rates, and dysfunctional family home environments.

  11. Hey John-Outstanding column, again. On fire! Calling these people out for what they really are….Not the soft term “socialist” that gets lightly tossed around and overused when they are indeed Marxists, Bolsheviks, liars and, certainly, hypocrites. It’s about time the verbal gloves come off and it’s refreshing to see you in prime form and firing away. Keep your powder dry and your hand steady!

  12. The hypocrisy shown by Ms Gates is no surprise. The rules for thee but not for me has been the hallmark of the left for decades. Agree there are many dedicated teachers in Cos But the Union and system work against their best efforts.
    Keep it up John, sanity and common sense needs a clear voice.

  13. Hypocrisy runs through their veins in every area. School choice is just another arena for them to perform.

    Hell, the same people demanding we give up our firearms, (Pritzker, Lightfoot, Durbin, et. al.) are guarded 24/7 by paid bodyguards carrying the same guns they don’t want us to own.

    When challenged about it, their pat answer is always; “Well it’s different for me, I’m under threat from dangerous right wing people.” In other words, “I’m far more important than you or your family are”. I guess they’ve never taken a stroll though Englewood or Austin on a warm Summer’s evening?

    As you so accurately pointed out, the media never whispers a word about the hypocrisy, unless they can find a way to turn it against the right somehow.

    They’re doing it again right now, “Pay no attention those ‘minor’ gun charges against Hunter Biden”. (Never mind that they’d put you or me in Club Fed for 10 years.). “Look, look over there, Jared Kushner probably did something crooked or criminal. Never mind those racist Abraham Accords.”

    No wonder the Left hated it when Elon Musk bought Twitter and fired all the far left “Fact Checkers”. He gave people access to other, unfiltered sources for information to evaluate for themselves. The left can’t survive in an open information environment with the fair exchange of ideas.

    In his own way, just like John Kass did with this website. Thanks again for the chance to share thoughts and ideas John.

  15. You nailed it yet again, JK. This is a fine column speaking truth to power. I more than admire your spunk, and your love of our city. The current mayor would’ve never gotten to a runoff, let alone win the mayoralty, in the days when the wards and precincts were well run and the captains made sure that enough people came out to vote. For all of its inherent flaws, and granted there were many, the Machine ran our city far better than the current commissars of culture ever can imagine doing. I never thought I’d say it, but those days sure do look golden from here.

  16. Come on man, didn’t you read the leftist entitlement book? We are not to question we are to shut up, bend the knee, and accept their power and reason.
    What will happen if her child doesn’t get a soccer scholarship? You can bet your bippy she will expect and demand one.
    She will pull out all those cards. You know the ones race, and identity as her child identifies as a soccer player.
    As we were told during the riots these people are stealing to feed their families. And as we watch continue looting of high end stores and more and more businesses are closing doors. All they have to do is hold up that shiny entitlement badge and all is ok.
    Nothing to see here folks.
    Thank you for your column.

  18. Spot-on column, John! And I’m so glad you posted a link to Illinois Policy’s documentary video, “Local 1: The Rise of America’s Most Powerful Teacher’s Union”. I shared this with whomever I could prior to that doomed election. Honestly, I learned more in an hour about the intricate web & incestuous vat of bile that is Chicago politics than ever before – & I thought I knew a lot. Highly recommend.

  19. John, great column calling her BS out with club soccer as that is also the way for many other youth sports. The lefties have sold their souls and are a bunch of liars, grifters, and bad actors.
    The media is now included in all this and should be openly shamed at every turn.
    The tide will turn sone day but not soon enough.

  20. Great column, John! It burns me up when Davis Gates says school choice is racist and fascist.
    Most parents want to give their children the best education they can afford.
    For some it is moving to the suburbs where they pay by coughing up local taxes.
    Generations of Catholic parents saw better opportunities for their children in Catholic schools.
    For most it was a tremendous financial sacrifice they were willing to pay.

    In the nineteenth century anti-Catholicism was rampant in Chicago and other American cities,
    thus, Catholic schools were founded on the principles of faith and education.
    These schools and parishes were originally founded with the nickels and dimes
    of very poor ethnic immigrants.
    They sacrificed for the future of their children.
    It wasn’t perfect with overcrowded classrooms and few fringe activities.
    Even in the 1960’s, I went to a Catholic grammar school with 60 kids to a room and one teacher.

    The Chicago Public Schools had a long time great reputation for education.
    It wasn’t perfect either.
    They were overcrowded and poor, too, but students learned to read, write, do math and go on to high school.

    Today is a different story for CPS. Reading, math and other skills are abysmally low.
    This is a human tragedy, CPS schools today are not working.
    Money is poured into a system that does not reach the child.
    School choice gives parents an opportunity to try and give their children something better.

    Davis Gates has been in a position of power for years – what difference has she made in learning scores and sports for CPS students? She and her husband can send her children to whatever school they choose. But don’t deny other people that same choice.
    Double speak and labeling doesn’t work.

    Moutza of the month definitely – Nah!

    1. Marie, you are so right.

      You know the real solution to the problem would be for public schools to be required to teach only English (oops, that’s racist), math (not good for the taxing pols), reading (not good for the media, I mean they wouldn’t want to be understood in what they are really saying) and maybe real honest to gosh history (general fact type of stuff, not the individual slanted racial crap) and less of the other unnecessary stuff you don’t need to know about until you reach the age which you can understand the true ramifications of the acts.

      I’m just saying

  23. ….and yet the idiot (or PTSD surviving) voters of Chicago will continue to vote in the same cogs of this failing, malignant machine. The voters are more concerned about pizza than politicians and they deserve exactly what they voted in! Glad I left.

  25. First off; great insights John Kass.
    I think back to when I was a kid growing up with 7 sisters…I would cut me a bigger piece of cake to which they would say, “you have a bigger piece than me”. And I would say, “so what; what you going to do about it?” Knowing that nothing would be done about it.
    “So what; what you going to do about it” should be chiseled on every gravestone of every hypocrite since the beginning of Time.
    Stacy Davis Gates, as the Mayor’s puppet master, has her hand so far up BJ’s tush that you can see her impeccable manicure whenever he opens his mouth, which is often.
    So what?
    He’s the Mayor. What you going to do about it?
    Stacy Davis Gates can do a master class on hypocrisy.
    So what?
    She doesn’t care about you, me or the underserved black and brown kids literally dying for a chance to get into a better school.
    These “legends in their own minds” believe that what they say matters and what they do is just a pantomime.
    I worry that your incredible talent is wasted on the lizards and leeches that populate our politics. Though you are built for it and seem to revel in it; wouldn’t Life be simpler if you would write the sequel to “Cat On a Hot Tin Roof”?

  27. The only sport where it matters where you play in high school is football. Why aren’t Chicago Teacher’s Union members compelled by edict to send their children to Chicago Public Schools? Shouldn’t they eat their own cooking?

  29. John Kass and JK tech support.

    I would like a refund for my subscription to this year’s JohnKassNews blogs.

    My credit card was automatically renewed this 2nd year without my authorization – it’s similar to the “Nugenix” testosterone pills advertised by ex Chicago sports star Frank “the Big Hurt” Thomas. The adverts offer a supposedly free sample but ask for (my) people’s credit card and what happens is the consumer supposedly agrees to a lifetime supply of Nugenix every month for ~ $40 a month unless the consumer presents a cancellation notarized by the Arch Bishop of Canterbury, the prior Catholic Pope Benedict (the current Pope is a Liberation theology Communist).

    I didn’t sign up for another year of John Kass News and I’m disappointed in the content and the comments – many of my comments don’t get published, though I don’t say anything illegal, or vulgar just observations and practical suggestions to contest the takeover of our Chicago city by racist BLM, Antifa, anti Italian (tore down statues of Columbus) Obama Foundation (theft of my backyard Jackson Park – legalized shoplifting and looting ) etc.

    My take on John Kass News is that it’s standard Conservative inc, National Review false opposition – just restating the problems, bitc*ing and moaning about “those gosh darn liberal Democrats” , observing horrible Black racist block voting, Black crime, Black and Communist attacks on all American holidays, institutions but never offering any practical programs, leaders to stop this.

    And then we get lots and lots of Nostalgia longing for supposedly better, simpler, nicer, safer times.

    I wasn’t alive during the 1950s “Happy Days” of President Eisenhower. I was 7 years old during 1968 the year of Black MLK jr death riots, anti war ’68 Dem Convention riots, mayhem. My Chicago urban life has featured over 500 + murders every year since 1970.

    To be honest, I think the Lib Leftists that ran you John Kass out of the Chicago Tribune are kind of right – you’ve fled to Indiana and the Suburbs.

    Those of us left behind in the Chicago City want more – we want to name names of bad guys, want to promote strong, tough good guys and gals like NYC has had:

    Mayor Giuliani
    NYPD tough no nonsense chiefs Bratton and Kelly.

    So John Kass and JK tech support can I get my refund for year 2 of subscription to John Kass News? I didn’t authorize year #2

    Regards,

    John Ellis
    left behind in Hyde Park Chicago

  30. Can you give us cites to statements like “And again, most of the kids seeing (sp? I assume seeking?) Illinois Opportunity scholarships are poor and black and brown.” so I can read them and use them too. Thanks.

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