WINDY CITY SCHOOL WOES Among other things, Gates is a world-class hypocrite for sending her own son to private school after calling them “segregation academies” and referring to school choice supporters as fascists. In 2024, she also incoherently told a Chicago radio station that academic testing “at best is junk science rooted in white supremacy” and “you can’t test black children with an instrument that was born to prove their inferiority.”
The Chicago Public School system is a mess. As the Illinois Policy Institute reports, enrollment has decreased substantially over the last 15 years, from nearly 403,000 students in 2010–11 to just over 316,000 in 2025–26. This decline has resulted in about 150 of the city’s schools being half-empty, with 47 operating at less than one-third capacity, which leads to higher costs and fewer course options.