Education Secretary visits Chicago private school as part of controversial history tour
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon visited a small Christian high school on Chicago’s West Side on Thursday as part of her national tour to promote civics education and encourage students to connect with America’s founding principles.
The event is part of the Trump administration’s larger efforts to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence happening this year, but it’s attracted controversy for partnering with conservative groups like Turning Point USA and the Heritage Foundation.
Ike Muzikowski, the principal of Chicago Hope Academy, says McMahon’s visit was preceded by a lot of angst. Students and parents questioned whether the school had allowed itself to be used to promote a political agenda.
McMahon’s Education Department has made many controversial moves, including stripping funding from programs that support Black, Latino, transgender and disabled students.
“Some disagree with these policies and approaches and feel like they are harmful to the community at large,” he said during a Thursday press conference at the school. “With that being said, do we cancel and hide the opportunity for her to come to our school? Or do we have an opportunity to show her who we are and welcome her into this space?”
About half the students at the school did not attend the assembly with McMahon, which Muzikowski said was “perfectly fine” with him. They were allowed to stay home or go to a room where they could eat snacks and study.
Chicago Hope is a private school that fundraises to heavily subsidize tuition and serves mostly Black and Latino students. "Unapologetically Christian,” Muzikowski says it promotes values like justice, equality, unity and free speech. The school’s walls feature posters of prominent Black figures like Booker T. Washington and Barack Obama, as well as a Black History Month bulletin board.
McMahon’s “History Rocks!” tour has been controversial as it’s made its way across the country. According to the Education Department, the tour is intended to “showcase examples of high-quality history and civics instruction that bring American principles to life.”
But it is being done in conjunction with 40 conservative organizations and many question whether the history and civic education being promoted is inclusive and accurate.
Just last week, an elementary school in Connecticut canceled a History Rocks! visit by McMahon after parents raised concerns about the politicalization of the school.
After visiting Chicago Hope Academy on Thursday, McMahon went to Genoa-Kingston High School in northern Illinois where she attended a History Rocks! event with Erika Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk, who cofounded the campus activism group Turning Point USA. Kirk was considered a leading voice for young conservatives before he was shot and killed last year. The Genoa-Kingston event drew about 50 protestors, according to reporting by Northern Public Radio.
In a short press conference after the Chicago Hope assembly, McMahon said she was happy to be invited to the Genoa-Kingston event by Kirk, saying that Turning Point USA was one of the first organizations to promote free speech and the idea that it's important to “present both sides.”
McMahon also said she thinks people in Connecticut “misunderstood” what the tour was about.
“It's totally non-partisan,” she said. “It is just absolutely about civics.”
The Chicago Hope assembly was not open to the media. But Muzikowski said that McMahon gave a short speech where she brought up some historical facts about the United States and Illinois. She didn’t mention any figures, but mentioned things like that Illinois was the 21st state to join the union.
He then led a trivia competition between students that McMahon described as “kind of life Family Feud.” Muzihowski said the Education Department staff gave him some questions to ask, but he added some of his own.
“I love the principal. I thought Ike was a lot of fun,” McMahon said. “The kids seemed to have a great rapport with him, with the teachers and with this family-based school.”
Muzikowski said that when he agreed to McMahon’s visit he did not realize it would be so controversial. What followed was days of intense conversation. He held town hall meetings with students and parents and said he was surprised at how opposed a lot of them were to the visit.
“What we learned is that it is very easy to point the finger and label and judge and be disappointed internally for our own community,” he said.
But he said in the end he thinks it was a good learning experience for students about rubbing shoulders and listening to people, even if they disagree.