William Howard Taft Excessive College freshman Alexandria Sanchez mentioned she goes to highschool scared about whether or not or not President-elect Donald J. Trump will deport her father, who’s undocumented.
Sanchez continues to be formulating her political views, 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 may see different individuals’s standpoint,” Sanchez mentioned. “They actually need to get their level throughout, and so they actually need their level to be proper. You get to show them fallacious, which is cool.”
Trump has repeatedly expressed scorn for the U.S. Division of Schooling, just lately selecting Linda McMahon, a former wrestling government, to steer the federal company. McMahon has promised to overturn the very division she was employed to supervise — according to Trump’s repeated guarantees to return educational decision-making to the states.
McMahon has expressed help for varsity selection — specialty packages, constitution faculties in addition to magnet and selective-enrollment faculties — although comparatively little is understood in schooling circles in regards to the new prime chief.
On Wednesday, conservative teams celebrated Trump’s selection of McMahonappointment”].
“President Trump and Administrator McMahon will root out the indoctrination in our schooling system, and we’re thrilled to see how they are going to work collectively to place our youngsters earlier than bureaucrats,” Kathy Salvi, chair of the Illinois Republican Celebration, mentioned in a press release.
Deportation plans
Except for plans to dismantle the Board of Schooling, Trump has promised to stage the biggest deportation operation in American historical past, which — if carried out — would have an effect on CPS’ pupil 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 line with a spokesperson.
Whereas college students like Sanchez concern for his or her households, 17-year-old Taft Excessive pupil Joel Paniagua mentioned he’s hopeful about what a Trump presidency may imply for immigrants within the U.S.
Just a few 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 USA from Mexico within the ’90s — just lately obtained 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 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 group has immigrant college students from Venezuela and Ukraine, however Paniagua mentioned he’s not apprehensive about them being deported or pressured to depart their group. 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 leadership struggle between the district and the union.
With a change in management on the federal stage, 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 continues to be in flux, it makes it harder to withstand the insurance policies that is perhaps coming down from the feds,” Stovall mentioned.
Among the many points perpetuating the dispute are the closures of several schools within the Acero constitution community and a current push to oust CPS chief Pedro Martinez — who has refused a request by Mayor Brandon Johnson to take out a $300 million loan to fund a brand new academics contract and a pension cost to the town.
As CTU negotiates its new contract, the union is hyper-aware that the imaginative and prescient of the brand new Schooling Division head immediately runs counter to its precedence to bolster neighborhood faculties.
“If this new secretary, as marketed, goes to push for vouchers and privatization, we’re in huge hassle,” mentioned Jackson Potter, CTU vice chairman.
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 Schooling enshrines the commitments to remodel public schooling.”
Potter mentioned CTU’s contract proposals for bilingual schooling, psychological well being help for college students and workers, protections for immigrants and decrease class sizes, amongst different asks, would assist help college students affected by the potential redistribution of funds away from federal packages: Title I for low-income faculties and the People with Disabilities Schooling Act.
The district mentioned in a press release it “is proscribed in its potential to lift income sustainably, so CPS management will proceed to work with companions on the metropolis, state, and federal stage who’ve the authorized authority to lift income for the college system.”
Exterior a highschool in the one Chicago ward that voted for Trump, college students — like politicians — remained divided.
Taft pupil 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 few of the college students in his lessons.
“I don’t assume I’ve needed to fear as a lot,” Schaefer mentioned. “However I’ve tried to assist different individuals really feel comfy and secure.”
Comments are closed.