Sangamon Sun

School choice advocate Corey DeAngelis is calling out the hypocrisy of those in the ranks of teacher’s union who oppose school choice for public school students but choose to send their own kids to private schools.

“The government relations director for the Illinois Education Association, the state’s largest union, sends his kids to a private school,” DeAngelis said on X.

DeAngelis linked to a screenshot of a profile of Sean Denney, the Director of Government Relations for the Illinois Education Association.

As a lobbyist for the IEA Denney has opposed the Invest In Kids Tax Scholarship Program which provides tax credit scholarships to around 9,000 needy Illinois children who are given a chance to attend the same schools as he sends his own children.

Illinois Policy noted Denney, earns $188,000 per year while opposing the Invest in Kids tax credit scholarship program and sending his children to a private Catholic school, highlighting the disparity between his income and the average family receiving a scholarship under the program.

Denney’s actions have been described as hypocritical and insensitive elitism, as he tries to eliminate school choice for low-income families while enjoying the option himself.

The president of the Chicago Teachers Union, Stacey Davis Gates has also been highly critical of funding school choice despite sending her own son to one of Chicago’s elite private schools.

Davis Gates has increasingly used racial language in describing private schools like that her family benefits from.

Wirepoints reported Davis Gates called school choice programs “racist.”

“On Twitter, she has said things like ‘School choice was actually the choice of racists. It was created to avoid integrating schools with Black children.’ Private schools are ‘Segregation Academies,’ she wrote on Twitter. ‘Call them private schools supported by taxpayer funds – vouchers – so your northern cousins understand better,’ she said. And she linked to an article titled ‘The Racist Origins of Private School Vouchers,’” Mark Glennon wrote for Wirepoints, Prairie State Wire reported.

Notably, Hispanics are found be over-represented and white under-represented among the number of Invest In Kids scholarship holders while black student participation is in line with state demographics.

Of those currently awarded – 9,348 scholarships in total – 1,365 / 14% went to black students, 2,280 / 24% to Hispanic students and 4,392 / 46% went to white students.

Those facts about the racial makeup of the state and the scholarship holders did not faze one of Invest in Kids main opponents is the Illinois Education Association which has placed ads on Facebook seeking to have funding removed from the school choice program.

In literature used to support its position against Invest In Kids the Illinois Education Association has argued “more white students are helped” by the scholarships.