"Do Not Leave Our Schools Behind, JB”: Stacy Davis Gates Urges Pritzker to Reject Trump’s Voucher Scheme

New federal rules advance a program with segregationist roots while Illinois public schools remain $6.8 billion short of full funding

CHICAGO - Illinois Federation of Teachers and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates issued the following statement after the Trump administration released regulations for its national private school voucher program:

”The Governor and the Illinois General Assembly have shorted our school communities by $6.8 billion. The Evidence-Based Funding formula is not funded, and districts in Cook County are borrowing from banks just to keep the lights on while they wait on late property tax revenue. You don’t close that gap by spreading the pot even thinner. Trump’s voucher scheme would take resources that are already stretched and make them even more marginal. The students who feel it first are the ones who already have the least. 

“We know what vouchers are because we know where they came from. After Brown v. Board of Education, Southern states handed out tuition grants so white families could flee integrated schools for private segregation academics. In Prince Edward County, Virginia, officials shut down public schools for five years rather than integrate them. Jim Crow lives in this and vouchers fail to improve outcomes and hurt our most vulnerable students and the schools that serve them. 

“Saying yes to Trump’s voucher scheme is saying yes to Jim Crow. Project 2025 is a blueprint for rolling back the civil rights gains that opened public schools to every child, and this program is part of that blueprint. 

“Governor Pritzker cannot talk about being better than Trump without protecting public education from Trump. Yes, Illinois needs more money to back fill what this administration has taken from our state, and he has options. He says billionaires should pay their fair share. Then tax the rich. Build a fix that sunsets when Trump’s term does. But protect our schools, and don’t fall for the word salad. Do not leave our schools behind, JB.”