Stacy Davis Gates, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, is being criticized for enrolling her son in a private school while opposing school choice programs. Gates has defended her hypocrisy by claiming that she and her husband were forced to enroll their son in a “private high school so he could live out his dream of being a soccer player while also having a curriculum that can meet his social and emotional needs….” Gates was not forced to send her son to a private school. When freedom of choice exists, force is not involved. Force is the negation of choice.
Indeed, the very purpose of force is to “persuade” individuals to act contrary to their own voluntary choice. This is true whether the wielder of force is an armed robber or a government official. And the government school is founded on force—taxpayers are forced to finance the system, regardless of their own desires, needs, or choices.
Gates had a choice. She may not have liked the alternatives available to her, but she had the freedom to choose. She could have left her son in a government school, but he would have had to abandon his dream of playing soccer. She chose to enable him to pursue his dream. There is nothing wrong with that.
For most parents, choosing to send their child to a private school is not a viable alternative. They simply cannot afford to pay taxes to support government schools and pay the tuition for a private school. They cannot choose a private school because they are forced to help finance government schools. Gates wants to compel parents to continue to pay for government schools, even if those schools are not meeting their child’s “social and emotional needs.”
Gates wants the freedom to send her child to a school that meets his particular needs and interests. At the same time, she wants to deny other parents that same freedom.
Interestingly, the letterhead for the Chicago Teachers Union proclaims: “for the schools Chicago’s Students Deserve.” Apparently, Gates and the union believe that parents don’t know what their children deserve. Gates and the union believe that they know what is best for children, and the parents of those children don‘t.
Gates chose the school that she believed best for her child. Intellectual honesty demands that she support the freedom of other parents to do the same.