Hypocrisy is the homage....

....that vice pays to virtue.  Today's example of LaRochefoucauld's dictim is Chicago area teachers' union president Stacy Davis Gates, who, while calling advocates for private schools and vouchers "racist", has apparently enrolled her own child in a local Catholic school.  

Now there is a degree where I agree with Ms. Gates, which is that since "he who pays the piper calls the tune", I think that any plan to have school vouchers paid for with tax dollars is dangerous because it opens the door to increased state control of private schools--though I'm sure that a great part of Ms. Gates' reasoning is that it takes funding away from public schools and the teachers' union.  I also agree that some--though certainly not all--people who have sent their children to private schools in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education did so for (at least in part) racist reasons, and finally, I agree with Ms. Gates that if you're subjected to Chicago Public Schools, it makes a lot of sense to send your child to private school.  

One funny part of the matter is that the reason Ms. Gates gave for sending her son to Catholic school is to play soccer because there aren't enough resources at the public schools.  So out of curiosity, I looked up some Chicago area high schools, and every one I saw either had its own athletic fields (often with artificial turf, which ain't cheap), or was close to a park that did.  Combine that with the fact that, apart from cross country, soccer is about the cheapest sport out there, and I conclude that....Ms. Gates' problem is that she and her fellow teachers are not very creative or money savvy.