Chicago Public Schools students react to Trump education nominee
William Howard Taft High School freshman Alexandria Sanchez said she goes to school scared about whether or not President-elect Donald J. Trump will deport her father, who is undocumented.
Sanchez is still formulating her political beliefs, she said. She and her family are scared, but she said she believes in the right to debate, which she and her classmates have been doing in their AP Government class around the election.
Taft is in the 41st Ward — the only ward in Chicago that went for Trump in the 2024 election.
“You can see other people’s point of view,” Sanchez said. “They really want to get their point across, and they really want their point to be right. You get to prove them wrong, which is cool.”
Trump has repeatedly expressed scorn for the U.S. Department of Education, recently choosing Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive, to lead the federal agency. McMahon has promised to overturn the very department she was hired to oversee — in line with Trump’s repeated promises to return educational decision-making to the states.
McMahon has expressed support for school choice — specialty programs, charter schools as well as magnet and selective-enrollment schools — though relatively little is known in education circles about the new top leader.
On Wednesday, conservative groups celebrated Trump’s choice of McMahon for Education secretary.
“President Trump and Administrator McMahon will root out the indoctrination in our education system, and we are thrilled to see how they will work together to put our children before bureaucrats,” Kathy Salvi, chair of the Illinois Republican Party, said in a statement.
Deportation plans
Aside from plans to dismantle the Board of Education, Trump has promised to stage the largest deportation operation in American history, which — if carried out — would affect CPS’ student body, which is approximately 47% Latino. The district does not have the number of undocumented students because it doesn’t track immigration status, according to a spokesperson.
While students like Sanchez fear for their families, 17-year-old Taft High student Joel Paniagua said he’s hopeful about what a Trump presidency might mean for immigrants in the U.S.
A few weeks ago, Paniagua said, he watched a video of Trump promising to provide green cards for male immigrants graduating from college. Paniagua’s father — who came to the United States from Mexico in the ’90s — recently received his citizenship status.
“If I was in that situation (as a non-citizen), and Trump offered citizenship to me … it’d be a nice opportunity,” said Paniagua, who would vote for Trump if he was of age.
Paniagua’s father works for meat processing company OSI Group. His mom runs the door at a nightclub in downtown Chicago. He said his family was divided in their votes for Trump.
Paniagua’s soccer team has immigrant students from Venezuela and Ukraine, but Paniagua said he’s not worried about them being deported or forced to leave their team. He believes Trump will target only immigrants who are “criminals.”
Contract negotiations
Trump’s plans present more uncertainty and challenges for Chicago Teachers Union leaders, amid ongoing contract negotiations with Chicago Public Schools and a head-to-head leadership struggle between the district and the union.
With a change in leadership at the federal level, CTU is under pressure to stabilize its membership, said David Stovall, professor of Black studies and criminology, law and justice at the University of Illinois Chicago. CTU’s contract expired at the end of June.
“If the contract situation is still in flux, it makes it more difficult to resist the policies that might be coming down from the feds,” Stovall said.
Among the issues perpetuating the dispute are the closures of several schools in the Acero charter network and a recent 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 new teachers contract and a pension payment to the city.
As CTU negotiates its new contract, the union is hyper-aware that the vision of the new Education Department head directly runs counter to its priority to bolster community schools.
“If this new secretary, as advertised, is going to push for vouchers and privatization, we’re in big trouble,” said Jackson Potter, CTU vice president.
That adds urgency to their negotiations.
CTU president Stacy Davis Gates sent a letter to the mayor dated Monday asking for “intervention to ensure that the Board of Education enshrines the commitments to transform public education.”
Potter said CTU’s contract proposals for bilingual education, mental health support for students and staff, protections for immigrants and lower class sizes, among other asks, would help support students affected by the possible redistribution of funds away from federal programs: Title I for low-income schools and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The district said in a statement it “is limited in its ability to raise revenue sustainably, so CPS leadership will continue to work with partners at the city, state, and federal level who have the legal authority to raise revenue for the school system.”
Outside a high school in the only Chicago ward that voted for Trump, students — like politicians — remained divided.
Taft student Gabriel Jackson Schaefer, 17, who came to Chicago from Ireland when he was seven, said it was disheartening to see peers who “didn’t understand the gravity of the situation” following the election, though he knows he won’t be as affected as some of the students in his classes.
“I don’t think I’ve had to worry as much,” Schaefer said. “But I’ve tried to help other people feel comfortable and safe.”
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