Parents Defending Education (PDE) has called out yet another Democrat-run school district for displaying explicit racial bias in its programs to help struggling students.
Students across the board in Chicago are struggling academically, with some children of all ethnicities functionally illiterate. But the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), instead of trying to teach basic math and reading skills better, developed an elaborate initiative specifically aimed at black students only.
In the CPS slides that PDE identified in its OCR (civil rights) complaint filed with the Department of Education, Chicago school district employees asserted, “Chicago Public Schools has identified a critical priority to improve outcomes for Black students in the district. While there have been efforts to expand access, there remains persistent gaps in opportunities for Black students. This working group is charged with engaging in a deep equity-focused planning process that will result in a comprehensive set of targeted recommendations aimed at determining the appropriate inputs that support closing outcome gaps for Black students in the district.”
No doubt black students in Chicago, like many other students, absolutely need a better education. But fixating on their skin color is not the answer. It is also in violation of the Constitution and federal law, according to PDE, since the school district receives federal financial assistance.
Related: Trump Admin’s Crusade Against DEI Continues
From PDE:
Over the course of half a year, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) developed a “Black Student Success Plan,” convening working group meetings between December 13, 2023, and April 16, 2024,1releasing those results on February 20, 2025.2 Slides from the kickoff meeting indicate attendance by senior CPS leadership including Pedro Martinez, Chief Executive Officer; Bogdana Chkoumbova, Chief Education Officer; and Dr. Fatima Cooke, Chief Equity, Engagement, Strategy Officer…
Although the slideshow suggests improvements only for black students, it acknowledges that Chicago students of all races struggle academically. A graphic on page 42, for example, highlights black non-Hispanic students’ struggle with reading proficiency: only 6 percent are mid or above grade level, 10 percent are early on grade level, 62 percent are one grade level below, and 21 percent are two grade levels below. But the same graphic shows that Hispanic students face even greater difficulties: 5 percent are mid or above grade level, 9 percent are early on grade level, 62 percent are one grade level below, and 24 percent are two grade levels below.
Yet the “Black Student Success Plan” program has at least two specific staff members and has had at least eight community roundtables and eight working group meetings. CPS has a $9.9 billion deficit, PDE emphasized, yet is spending money on this racially biased program. The Los Angeles Unified School District had a similar program until PDE exposed it.
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bans racial discrimination, which means that school districts receiving federal assistance like CPS are violating federal law. The program is also anti-constitutional. PDE hopes to see the Trump Education Department halt CPS’s woke program as anti-DEI reforms move forward.
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