The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has threatened to terminate Chicago Public Schools’ Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) grant and others over its Black Student Success Plan and treatment of transgender students in accordance with state law.
The cuts, detailed in a letter from Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor, would total $5.8 million — about half a percent of the district’s nearly $10 billion budget. It would total around $17.5 million for the total duration of the grants.
“To comply with the law, OCR requires that the Board and CPS take the following steps,” the letter states before laying out a list of nine demands, including publicly walking back all of the targeted policies.
CPS didn’t immediately have a comment on the letter.
Trainor writes that the federal government takes issue with the district’s Black Student Success Plan, which launched in February and continued despite different federal threats in the spring. The program aims to reduce suspensions of Black students while increasing the number of Black male teachers and expanding the teaching of Black history, among other goals.
In the letter, Trainor said the policy was discriminatory against white students and staff.
“This is textbook racial discrimination, and no justification proffered by CPS can overcome the patent illegality of its racially exclusionary plan,” he wrote.
Trainor then turns toward the district’s policies around allowing students to use facilities that align with their gender identity, saying they create a “hostile educational environment” and violate Title IX.
Illinois law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, requiring schools to protect transgender students’ right to use facilities and participate in events and programs that match their gender identity.
In April, the Illinois High School Association announced trans athletes could continue to participate in high school sports competitions, affirming its standing policy in the face of demands to exclude trans athletes by the Trump administration and Illinois Republican lawmakers. It said compliance with the executive order would pit it against state law.
The state sports organization estimates there are about 25 trans athletes out of 133,000 statewide.
According to a release from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, CPS isn’t alone in facing the funding threats. In Virginia, Fairfax County Public Schools stands to lose $3.4 million, and New York City Public Schools could lose $15 million in the next year for similar reasons, the office said.
The federal government has threatened other funds in the past, and losing more money could add up.
While the majority of school funding comes from local and state tax revenue, federal funds tend to be earmarked to assist students from low-income families or students with disabilities. Federal funding made up about 16%, or roughly $1.3 billion, of the $8.4 billion Chicago Public Schools 2024 operating budget. However the cuts threatened by Trainor in the letter would be less than 1% of the $9.9 billion 2025 budget.