Federal education authorities have threatened to withhold grant money from Chicago Public Schools unless the district agrees to do away with its Black Student Success Plan and revise policies regarding transgender students. Months after launching an investigation into that CPS plan, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights this week sent a letter to Chicago Board of Education President Sean Harden informing him they will not certify the district’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program grant or other federal funding unless those changes are made. “The Black Students Success Plan, however, is designed for and exclusive to black students and black educators,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for Civil Rights, wrote in the letter. “It is not, for instance, available to white or Asian American students and educators. This is textbook racial discrimination, and no justification proffered by CPS can overcome the patent illegality of its racially exclusionary plan.” The district’s Black Student Success Plan aims to bring in more Black teachers, reduce suspensions against Black students, promote teaching on Black culture, increase belonging and close opportunity gaps. It provides a five-year roadmap to improve the outcomes of Black students, who make up a third of the district’s population. Additionally, Trainor’s letter claims CPS guidelines regarding the “Support of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students,” are “facially discriminatory.” He demanded CPS reverse course and only allow students to participate in sports or access “intimate facilities” like locker rooms based on their biological sex at birth, rather than their gender identity. What’s happening in area colleges? The U.S. Department of Education is cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to universities serving predominantly students of color — known as minority-serving institutions, or MSIs. The move is part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on diversity initiatives. The funding cuts could impact local Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), such as the University of Illinois Chicago and North Park University. These schools have that federal designation from having at least 25% or more Hispanic full-time enrollment. Illinois has 39 HSIs, the second-highest number after California. Predominantly Black institutions (PBIs). Illinois has seven predominantly Black colleges (PBIs), like Chicago State University, the second-highest concentration after Georgia.
