Nearly 31% of public school teachers in Chicago send at least one of their children to private school, according to federal data.
The leader of the Chicago Teachers Union sends her oldest child to a private school, too.
The fact that so many public schools teachers are choosing private schools for their children is according to an original analysis of data from the 2018-2022 American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample, compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.
What does it mean for a city if 3-in-10 of its public school teachers choose to pay for private school rather than send their child to a public school like where they teach? It could mean these children need something different from the public school model. It could also mean teachers in the system know firsthand the school system is failing its students, and they want better for their own children.
The stats show why so many of Chicago’s public school teachers have put their children in private schools: just 1-in-4 Chicago Public Schools students in third through eighth grade could read at grade level in 2023; by 11th grade even fewer students could meet grade-level reading standards.