Facing backlash for enrolling the eldest of her three children in a private high school, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates emailed members Thursday evening to address the scrutiny over her opposition to school choice or voucher programs.

Davis Gates came under fire after SubX.News, a site critical of the union and one Davis Gates said is operated by a “disgruntled former CTU employee,” on Saturday published her son’s name, photo and the name of the private high school he attends.

The controversy comes just weeks before the fate of Illinois’ Invest in Kids voucher program, which provides moderate- to low-income families with tax credits to attend private schools, will be decided in the state legislature’s fall veto session.

“Our critics want you to believe that ‘school choice’ is a black-and-white issue that lacks nuance and hard choices for people like us, Black families — especially when you are parenting a Black boy in America,” Davis Gates wrote.

“Regrettably, whether you are an ardent supporter of building and investing in more high-quality neighborhood public schools or believe in ‘school choice,’ we can all agree that options for Black students, their families and entire Black communities on this city’s South and West Sides are limited,” she wrote. “Public and charter high schools in our Black and brown neighborhoods are living and breathing examples of inequality. Nearly all lack the thriving extracurricular activities, sports programs, wraparound services or other ingredients that make for a high-quality neighborhood public school.”

Davis Gates wrote that her son enrolled in private school to live his dream of being a soccer player, and that doxing him crossed a line. “We have a deep culture of debate and democracy within our union, but targeting children, exposing them to harm, or collaborating with extremist, racist, or anti-worker forces is not ‘debate’ and cannot be excused,” she said in reference to reposting by right-wing sites.

Davis Gates’ younger two children attend a Chicago public elementary school.

The Illinois Invest in Kids voucher program was created through legislation in 2017, when Davis Gates was the CTU’s political and legislative director. Unless lawmakers pass an extension, the program is due to sunset at the end of the year.

Of the private schools that state records show have received Invest in Kids funds, some have policies that potentially deny entry to students who are LGBTQ, who are pregnant or have fathered a child, who are not U.S. citizens or who have certain disabilities, according to school websites or publicly available handbooks.

Recently, Davis Gates told South Side Weekly that she is worried about proponents of school choice and privatization winning seats to Chicago’s first elected school board. “Yes, we are concerned about the encroachment of fascists in Chicago,” she said. “We are concerned about the marginalization of public education through the eyes of those who’ve never intended for Black people to be educated.”

Supporters of voucher programs, however, pitch the tax credits as a benefit to students who otherwise couldn’t access a private education. In a commentary in the Chicago Tribune, former Chicago Public Schools CEO and former mayoral candidate Paul Vallas, likened Davis Gates’ comments to, “equating parents seeking an education for their kids outside of traditional district schools with dictators seeking autocratic control … dismiss(ing) the idea that these efforts aim to offer better educational opportunities to children.”

Cassie Creswell, president of Illinois Families for Public Schools, which has advocated against the extension of the Invest in Kids program, said focusing on Davis Gates misses the point. “The policy issue is: Do you support using public dollars for private education? Just sending a kid to private school with private dollars does not mean you endorse the former,” Creswell said. “It’s problematic if you have a kid in a well-resourced school and then you try to prevent that for other people. That’s not what the teachers union policies that they’ve been fighting for, for a long time, have been.”

In her Thursday email, Davis Gates vowed the union “will continue to oppose siphoning public school resources off to private institutions through voucher programs.”

smacaraeg@chicagotribune.com