Transcript: 

VALERIE LEONARD: They would much rather spend quadruple the money to incarcerate our children than to educate our children and do it right the first time.

NARRATION: On Feb. 20, Chicago Public Schools announced the implementation of the Black Student Success Plan.

NATASHA ERSKINE: This plan did not come from Chicago Public Schools. This came from decades of organized parents and community members who said, “This is what we need.”

NARRATION: According to the document released on the CPS website, this is a five-year strategic plan that aims to double the number of Black male educators, close the opportunity gaps, reduce the disciplinary measures against Black students, emphasize African American history in classrooms and foster a greater sense of belonging for marginalized students at CPS.

LEONARD: And the Black Student Success Plan doesn’t focus just on academics. It looks at some of the social issues. It seeks to engage parents, engage the community to address issues of lack of opportunity.

LING YOUNG: Coming from CPS, coming from the background as a CPS student, understanding that the peers that we have up north, and our peers that are not like us, have also had avenues to succeed, that we should have the same avenues as well. I think it’s elevating and evening the playing field for Black students to be able to succeed.

NARRATION: On Feb. 21, a group called Parents Defending Education sent a complaint to the federal government, claiming the plan was discriminatory and calling for a CPS-wide audit of DEI practices.

ERSKINE: In that complaint, it cited that it’s unconstitutional. It’s been unconstitutional for Black children in Chicago to not receive the quality of equitable education that’s guaranteed to them.

CAROLE COLLINS AYANLAJA: Having a program that focuses on supporting the needs of Black students who we know have been economically, socially, racially and culturally marginalized does not take away from supporting the needs of any other group.

YOUNG: It’s also for all students, as well, to understand all students are not the same. Our sons don’t learn the same.

NARRATION: Parents Defending Education is a group working to reclaim our schools from activists promoting harmful agenda.

COLLINS AYANLAJA: For any group to even project that there’s not been an extremely evident social condition that has been placed on Blackness would not be in touch with reality.

NARRATION: According to 2024 CPS data, only 20% of Black students meet standard reading levels, while only 8% meet math requirements.

LEONARD: Chicago is a walking case of separate but equal.

COLLINS AYANLAJA: African American students, especially those who are descendants of the enslaved Africans, have experienced centuries of isolation and degradation.

KAM BUCKNER: I’ve lived it. My father, in the 1950s and ‘60s, was a young CPS student, and he was a user of what we now colloquially know as Willis Wagons, right? Wagons were outdoor classrooms in mobile units because CPS did not want to take the time or the resources to actually integrate their schools.

COLLINS AYANLAJA: Systemic racism has been insidious. It continues to be insidious, and it’s created major divides.

ERSKINE: I remember what it was like to share books in a classroom. You know, also where there was need, oftentime it was met with a lack of resources. So that ultimately led to the criminalization of myself and my peers.

BUCKNER: As a CPS student in the late 1990s — but I went to a school where the principal was reprimanded because he separated the eighth grade classes by race, which is often called what, segregation, right?

NARRATION: This plan aims to correct the chronic disinvestment of CPS in South and West side schools.

BUCKNER: CPS has bled Black teachers for a long time.

LEONARD: Between (Richard) Daley, (Paul) Vallas, (Ron) Huberman, Arne Duncan, Rahm Emanuel, they created a very hostile environment for Black teachers.

YOUNG: They closed 50 schools in our neighborhoods and had people like myself going through gang lines to be able to go to school.

COLLINS AYANLAJA: Then we must understand why it is powerful for people to see what looks like them in a very positive light.

BUCKNER: And listen, I think representation matters. Having folks who look like you, who understand your experience, who can talk to you in a way that is very familiar, I think is also very important.

YOUNG: Most importantly is to teach people the way that we want to be taught. We understand that: teach people the way we want to be taught. That’s the motto.

NARRATION: Given the current political climate, we will have to wait and see whether this plan survives the new Trump administration.

NARRATION: This is Amalia Huot-Marchand reporting in Chicago, with Medill Reports.

Amalia Huot-Marchand is a graduate multimedia journalism student at Medill, specializing in politics, policy, and foreign affairs. You can find her on LinkedIn and contact her through email at amaliahuot-marchand2025@u.northwestern.edu