{"id":269928,"date":"2025-10-01T19:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T19:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/269928\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T19:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T19:20:09","slug":"chicago-public-schools-should-sue-feds-over-magnet-school-money-ctu-president-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/269928\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Public Schools Should Sue Feds Over Magnet School Money, CTU President Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for\u00a0Chalkbeat Chicago\u2019s free daily newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to keep up with the latest news on Chicago Public Schools.<\/p>\n

CHICAGO \u2014 Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates said Tuesday Chicago Public Schools should \u201cabsolutely\u201d sue the U.S. Department of Education over its\u00a0decision last week to cut millions in federal magnet school funding<\/a>\u00a0from the district.<\/p>\n

Trump administration officials said $5.8 million will not be awarded to Chicago in the coming year under the Magnet Schools Assistance Program and $17.5 million would not be awarded for the remaining years of the district\u2019s grants. The move created an $8 million hole in the current school year\u2019s CPS budget, district officials said.<\/p>\n

The federal government\u2019s decision stems from a dispute over whether Chicago\u2019s school district is violating federal civil rights laws with its efforts to help improve Black student achievement and protect transgender students\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time period is going to require an entire encyclopedia of strategies employed at every turn, because that\u2019s what it\u2019s going to take to both resist, challenge, and win in this moment,\u201d Davis Gates said. \u201cSo yes, they have to sue. That is their duty to sue.\u201d<\/p>\n

A CPS spokesperson said the district is \u201cconsidering all legal options\u201d regarding the magnet school money.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson echoed the district, noting that with CPS\u2019 current budgetary constraints, \u201cevery single dollar counts.\u201d Johnson said earlier this year that\u00a0he would take the Trump administration to court<\/a>\u00a0if it took federal funding away from CPS because of the district\u2019s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.<\/p>\n

About two weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Education\u2019s acting assistant secretary of civil rights Craig Trainor\u00a0told CPS he would not certify the district\u2019s eligibility<\/a>\u00a0for the magnet school money unless the district\u00a0abolished its Black Student Success Plan and changed its policies on transgender students<\/a>\u00a0by Sept. 23.<\/p>\n

Chicago called the demand \u201cunreasonable and untenable\u201d and requested an additional 30 days to respond. The district\u2019s interim general counsel Elizabeth K. Barton\u00a0also argued<\/a>\u00a0that the federal department was violating its own procedures and \u201cinvestigatory process\u201d given that there are still two open investigations into both\u00a0the Black Student Success Plan<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Chicago\u2019s compliance with Title IX as it relates to transgender students<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both of the matters under investigation are requirements of Illinois law, putting Chicago\u2019s school system between a \u201crock and a hard place,\u201d Davis Gates noted. A 2024 state law requires Chicago\u2019s school board to create a Black Student Achievement Committee and make a plan for serving Black students. Illinois Human Rights Law also requires schools to allow transgender students access to facilities that correspond to their gender identity.<\/p>\n

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at\u00a0bvevea@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for\u00a0Chalkbeat Chicago\u2019s free daily newsletter\u00a0to keep up with the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":269929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,75268,407,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-269928","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-collaborations","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115300534184554777","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}