William Howard Taft Excessive College freshman Alexandria Sanchez mentioned she goes to high school frightened about whether or not or not President-elect Donald J. Trump will deport her father, who’s undocumented.
Sanchez, 14, remains to be formulating her political opinions, she mentioned. She and her household are scared, however she mentioned she believes in the best to debate, which she and her classmates have been doing of their AP Authorities class across the election.
Taft is within the forty first Ward — the one ward in Chicago that went for Trump within the 2024 election.
“You possibly can see different folks’s standpoint,” Sanchez mentioned. “They actually wish to get their level throughout, they usually actually need their level to be proper. You get to show them flawed, which is cool.”
Trump has repeatedly expressed scorn for the U.S. Division of Training, lately selecting Linda McMahon, a former wrestling government, to guide the federal company. McMahon has promised to overturn the very division she was employed to supervise — consistent with Trump’s repeated guarantees to return instructional decision-making to the states.
McMahon has expressed assist for college selection — specialty applications, constitution colleges in addition to magnet and selective-enrollment colleges — although comparatively little is thought in training circles in regards to the new high chief.
Trump has not supplied particular plans for a way he plans to dismantle the Division of Training, which might require an act of Congress.
Undertaking 2025, a blueprint proposal that provides a far-right imaginative and prescient for governance and overlaps with lots of his marketing campaign guarantees, suggests transferring applications for low-income college students or youngsters with disabilities to the Division of Well being and Human Companies, earlier than changing these income streams to unbiased grants to states.
“(McMahon is) not very totally different from Betsy DeVos, (Trump’s) final choose,” mentioned Isaura Pulido, instructional inquiry and curriculum research professor at Northeastern Illinois College. “Definitely they lack expertise in training. I’m not likely certain what they will supply to public colleges.”
On Wednesday, conservative teams celebrated Trump’s selection of McMahon for Training secretary.
“President Trump and Administrator McMahon will root out the indoctrination in our training system, and we’re thrilled to see how they’ll work collectively to place our kids earlier than bureaucrats,” Kathy Salvi, chair of the Illinois Republican Get together, mentioned in an announcement.
Deportation plans
Except for plans to dismantle the Board of Training, Trump has promised to stage the most important deportation operation in American historical past, which — if carried out — would have an effect on CPS’ scholar physique, which is roughly 47% Latino. The district doesn’t have the variety of undocumented college students as a result of it doesn’t observe immigration standing, in accordance with a spokesperson.
Whereas college students like Sanchez concern for his or her households, 17-year-old Taft Excessive scholar Joel Paniagua mentioned he’s hopeful about what a Trump presidency would possibly imply for immigrants within the U.S.
A couple of weeks in the past, Paniagua mentioned, he watched a video of Trump promising to offer inexperienced playing cards for male immigrants graduating from faculty. Paniagua’s father — who got here to the US from Mexico within the ’90s — lately acquired his citizenship standing.
“If I used to be in that scenario (as a non-citizen), and Trump provided citizenship to me … it’d be a pleasant alternative,” mentioned Paniagua, who would vote for Trump if he was of age.
Paniagua’s father works for the meat processing firm OSI Group. His mother runs the door at a nightclub in downtown Chicago. He mentioned his household was divided of their votes for Trump.
Paniagua’s soccer workforce has immigrant college students from Venezuela and Ukraine, however Paniagua mentioned he’s not frightened about them being deported or pressured to go away their workforce. He believes Trump will goal solely immigrants who’re “criminals.”
Contract negotiations
Trump’s plans current extra uncertainty and challenges for Chicago Academics Union leaders, amid ongoing contract negotiations with Chicago Public Faculties and a head-to-head management wrestle between the district and the union.
With a change in management on the federal degree, CTU is underneath stress to stabilize its membership, mentioned David Stovall, professor of Black research and criminology, legislation and justice on the College of Illinois Chicago. CTU’s contract expired on the finish of June.
“If the contract scenario remains to be in flux, it makes it harder to withstand the insurance policies that could be coming down from the feds,” Stovall mentioned.
Among the many points perpetuating the dispute are the closures of a number of colleges within the Acero constitution community and a latest push to oust CPS chief Pedro Martinez — who has refused a request by Mayor Brandon Johnson to take out a $300 million mortgage to fund a brand new academics contract and a pension fee to town.
As CTU negotiates its new contract, the union is hyper-aware that the imaginative and prescient of the brand new Training Division head instantly runs counter to its precedence to bolster neighborhood colleges.
“If this new secretary, as marketed, goes to push for vouchers and privatization, we’re in large hassle,” mentioned Jackson Potter, CTU vp.
That provides urgency to their negotiations.
CTU president Stacy Davis Gates despatched a letter to the mayor dated Monday asking for “intervention to make sure that the Board of Training enshrines the commitments to remodel public training.”
Potter mentioned CTU’s contract proposals for bilingual training, psychological well being assist for college students and workers, protections for immigrants and decrease class sizes, amongst different asks, would assist assist college students affected by the doable redistribution of funds away from federal applications: Title I for low-income colleges and the People with Disabilities Training Act.
The district mentioned in an announcement it “is restricted in its potential to boost income sustainably, so CPS management will proceed to work with companions on the metropolis, state, and federal degree who’ve the authorized authority to boost income for the college system.”
Exterior a highschool in the one Chicago ward that voted for Trump, college students — like politicians — remained divided.
Taft scholar Gabriel Jackson Schaefer, 17, who got here to Chicago from Eire when he was seven, mentioned it was disheartening to see friends who “didn’t perceive the gravity of the scenario” following the election, although he is aware of he gained’t be as affected as a number of the college students in his courses.
“I don’t suppose I’ve needed to fear as a lot,” Schaefer mentioned. “However I’ve tried to assist different folks really feel snug and secure.”
nsalzman@chicagotribune.com
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