Stacy Davis Gates has been elected to lead the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT).
A high school social studies teacher, Davis Gates (shown above) got involved in union activity in 2008 when Arne Duncan closed the school in which she was teaching.
"She is an internationally recognized leader in labor, racial justice movements, and progressive politics, most known for her role in leading common good unionism, spearheading the campaign to expand democracy and win an elected school board, and leading the successful strategy to elect former school teacher and CTU organizer Brandon Johnson as Mayor of the City of Chicago," said IFT in a press release about Davis Gates.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board is not fond of the hire. In a scathing Op-ed, WSJ's Editorial Board wrote that Davis Gates "presided over the educational failures of Chicago public schools," adding that "less than a third of Chicago eighth-grade students" are proficient in subject areas such as reading and math.
"For that, she gets a promotion," the board wrote.
The WSJ Editorial Board also pointed to 2004 comments from Davis Gates where she told a Chicago radio station that academic testing "at best is junk science rooted in white supremacy," and "you can't test black children with an instrument that was born to prove their inferiority."
The WSJ Editorial Board also noted that "Davis Gates sends her own son to a private school."
Corey DeAngelis, senior fellow at American Culture Project, made similar comments to AFN.
"The Chicago Public School System has been an absolute dumpster fire under Stacy Davis Gates' watch," DeAngelis told AFN. "There are 55 Chicago Public Schools with not a single child proficient in math."
It's not because of spending.
"They spend $30,000 per student per year and for what? The money goes towards enriching the dues paying members of the teachers union and it doesn't go into the classroom for the kids," said DeAngelis.
