Paul Vallas:

In either intent or outcome, racism is the defining feature of Stacy Davis Gates and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s education policies and minorities are hurt most

Let’s be clear, the Chicago Teacher Union (CTU) blocks any changes to improve schools that impact its members, their numbers, work load or job security. So CTU President Stacy Davis Gates blames the system’s disastrous test scores on white supremacists who she claims deliberately design tests to fail black children. Meanwhile, former-lobbyist-turned-mayor, Brandon Johnson, rejects high expectations and standards in the classroom and dismisses the significance of a grading system, asserts that school success is measured not in student performance but in massive funding increases to a failing school system.

This blame shifting from the CTU failing to prepare students to a system fueled by white supremacy is hardly surprising from the race-baiting Davis Gates. A former CPS teacher who survived a mere six years as a classroom educator before turning to union organizing, Davis Gates often resorts to personal attacks against critics or declaring systemic racism a characteristic of the schooling system to deflect from the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators’ (CORE) role in Chicago’s hopelessly failing schools.

Like Davis Gate’s ally at City Hall, Mayor Brandon Johnson to frequently wields racial antagonism. A former elementary school teacher of five years who spent an additional year teaching high school social studies, Johnson followed Davis Gates career path and eventually turned to union organizing before becoming a CTU lobbyist.

With both Davis Gates and Johnson are blind to CTU’s myriad faults, it is predictable they would use racism and the excuse of underfunded schools to explain a failing system that has seen a massive exodus of students since the CORE faction took over CTU leadership in 2010. Since CORE took power, it has distinguished itself for its radicalism and frequent strikes or work stoppages.

If funding were the true measure of success, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) would be the most successful large school system in the country. Today, CPS spends $30,000 per student, budgeting one school employee for every 7.3 students and one teacher for every 15 students. Since 2019, the district has increased spending by a startling 40 percent per student and added 14.5 percent staff, despite an eight percent drop in enrollment. CPS now spends over $2,000 more per student than the Illinois average in a state that spends between 19-64 percent more per pupil than neighboring and other Midwestern states.

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Notes & links on Paul Vallas. He spoke at Madison’s LaFollette high school in 2012.