Chicago Teachers’ Union VP: Re-Opening Fight Wasn’t ‘About the Guidelines’ – It Was Distrust from ‘Generations of Neglect’

On Monday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Chicago Teachers’ Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates stated that the fight over re-opening schools in Chicago has “never been about the guidelines per se in Chicago. It has always been about the generations of neglect, under-resourcing, and under-funding, and the defunding, quite frankly, of public education” which has created distrust with the mayor’s office.

Davis Gates said, “Listen, it’s never been about the guidelines per se in Chicago. It has always been about the generations of neglect, under-resourcing, and under-funding, and the defunding, quite frankly, of public education here. To ask individuals who have had a very disparate experience with the Chicago public schools to all of a sudden trust their ability to resource them and keep themselves safe in the middle of a pandemic was a bar too high. We obviously needed something that was more enforcible to do so. Listen, on the west side of Chicago, that is home to a majority black population of people, there are only four schools, four schools, that have school libraries. And so, forgive us for not taking their word for it. There’s a mountain of evidence to say that guidelines are often bypassed by every mayor of the city under mayoral control, and we needed more than trust me.”

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