Feds probe Chicago Public Schools over alleged racial discrimination in Black Student Success Plan
The federal government launched an investigation into Chicago Public Schools on Tuesday related to allegations of discrimination in the district's Black Student Success Plan.
The plan to uplift Black students was solidified in 2021 legislation creating an elected school board. Activists who championed it argued that Black students were uniquely positioned to fail due to long-standing racial inequalities in Chicago and the result of historic and ongoing discrimination in the United States.
But students of all races struggle academically in Chicago, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights on Tuesday.
The release acknowledged that the CPS had organized dozens of meetings with community members to implement the plan. It cited district data reporting low reading levels for Black students, but said that Latino students face even more difficulties.
'Rather than address its record honestly, CPS seeks to allocate additional resources to favored students on the basis of race,' Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, is quoted as saying in the release.
District officials said in a statement that CPS 'does not comment on ongoing investigations.' The Black Student Success Plan is codified in and mandated by state law, officials said.
Among other commitments, the plan aims to increase the number of Black educators, work to reduce disciplinary actions against Black students and increase efforts to teach Black history and culture in classrooms.
The district initially released its blueprint for improving educational outcomes for Black students in February. It was immediately challenged by a group with a history of scorning race-based policies, called Parents Defending Education.
The Department of Education's announcement of its investigation refers to that group's complaint, which alleged the district's Black Student Success Plan 'violates Title VI by focusing on remedial measures only for Black students.' Parents Defending Education also filed a complaint against a similar initiative in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Tuesday's investigation announcement is part of a series of government actions targeting the school district. In March, the federal government opened an investigation into CPS and the state for alleged violations of sex discrimination under Title IX. President Donald Trump's administration threatened to withhold funding from school districts earlier this month for failing to comply with civil rights law.
Trump has also requested state compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, referencing 'certain DEI practices' or 'illegal DEI.'
Tony Sanders, state superintendent of education, wrote a letter in response that the Illinois State Board of Education 'will comply with Title VI and its implementing regulation' and that 'there are no federal or State laws prohibiting diversity, equity, or inclusion.'
District leaders have thus far stood strong in the face of threats on their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. At a board meeting last week, school board members solidified their commitment to the plan by codifying the Black Student Success Committee, chaired by longtime education activist Jitu Brown, of District 5 on the West Side.
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Trump Is Using the National Guard as Bait
The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. President Donald Trump is about to launch yet another assault on democracy, the Constitution, and American traditions of civil-military relations, this time in Los Angeles. Under a dubious legal rationale, he is activating 2,000 members of the National Guard to confront protests against actions by ICE, the immigration police who have used thuggish tactics against citizens and foreigners alike in the United States. By militarizing the situation in L.A., Trump is goading Americans more generally to take him on in the streets of their own cities, thus enabling his attacks on their constitutional freedoms. As I've listened to him and his advisers over the past several days, they seem almost eager for public violence that would justify the use of armed force against Americans. The president and the men and women around him are acting with great ambition in this moment, and they are likely hoping to achieve three goals in one dramatic action. First, they will turn America's attention away from Trump's many failures and inane feuds, and reestablish his campaign persona as a strongman who will brush aside the law if that's what it takes to keep order in the streets. Perhaps nothing would please Trump more than to replace weird stories about Elon Musk with video of masked protesters burning cars as lines of helmeted police and soldiers march over them and impose draconian silence in one of the nation's largest and most diverse cities. Second, as my colleague David Frum warned this morning, Trump is establishing that he is willing to use the military any way he pleases, perhaps as a proof of concept for suppressing free elections in 2026 or 2028. Trump sees the U.S. military as his personal honor guard and his private muscle. Those are his toy soldiers, and he's going to get a show from his honor guard in a birthday parade next weekend. In the meantime, he's going to flex that muscle, and prove that the officers and service members who will do whatever he orders are the real military. The rest are suckers and losers. During the George Floyd protests in 2020, Trump was furious at what he saw as the fecklessness of military leaders determined to thwart his attempts to use deadly force against protesters. He's learned his lesson: This time, he has installed a hapless sycophant at the Pentagon who is itching to execute the boss's orders. Third, Trump may be hoping to radicalize the citizen-soldiers drawn from the community who serve in the National Guard. (Seizing the California Guard is also a convenient way to humiliate California Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, with the president's often-used narrative that liberals can't control their own cities.) Trump has the right to 'federalize' Guard forces, which is how they were deployed overseas in America's various conflicts. He has never respected the traditions of American civil-military relations, which regard the domestic deployment of the military as an extreme measure to be avoided whenever possible. Using the Guard could be a devious tactic: He may be hoping to set neighbor against neighbor, so that the people called to duty return to their home and workplace with stories of violence and injuries. In the longer run, Trump may be trying to create a national emergency that will enable him to exercise authoritarian control. (Such an emergency was a rationalization, for example, for the tariffs that he has mostly had to abandon.) He has for years been trying to desensitize the citizens of the United States to un-American ideas and unconstitutional actions. The American system of government was never meant to cope with a rogue president. Yet Trump is not unstoppable. Thwarting his authoritarianism will require restraint on the part of the public, some steely nerves on the part of state and local authorities, and vigilant action from national elected representatives, who should be stepping in to raise the alarm and to demand explanations about the president's misuse of the military. As unsatisfying as it may be for some citizens to hear, the last thing anyone should do is take to the streets of Los Angeles and try to confront the military or any of California's law-enforcement authorities. ICE is on a rampage, but physically assaulting or obstructing its agents—and thus causing a confrontation with the cops who have to protect them, whether those police officers like it or not—will provide precisely the pretext that some of the people in Trump's White House are trying to create. The president and his coterie want people walking around taking selfies in gas clouds, waving Mexican flags, holding up traffic, and burning cars. 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17 minutes ago
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After tear gas and street fires, an Los Angeles community cleans up as National Guard troops arrive
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