The Trump administration has frozen billions of dollars in federal funding for colleges and universities, and now it is setting its sights on the Chicago Public Schools system.

The White House is specifically threatening to withhold federal dollars over the CPS' Black Student Success plan, claiming it is discriminatory and violates the Civil Rights Act. A complaint earlier this year claimed CPS was using the program to discriminate on the basis of race.

"The investigation has not formally concluded yet, but the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to the school district last week, saying that they believe the plan is discriminatory against students of other races — invoking a key decision by the U.S. Supreme Court banning affirmative action in college admissions — and demanding that the district abolish the initiative completely," said Mila Koumpilova, a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, a nonprofit newsroom covering education.

Some goals of the plan are to double the number of Black male educators, reduce disciplinary actions against Black students, such as expulsions, and teach about Black history and culture.

The group Defending Education waged the most recent complaint against the program in the spring, claiming the program does not recognize that all races struggle academically.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as explained by the U.S. Department of Justice, "prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance."

CPS has countered that the U.S Department of Education investigation into the Black Student Success program has not been completed, and no findings have been reported that any students have actually been discriminated against or harmed, Koumpilova said.

"But the big point that CPS is making is that it is following state law and state guidance in its policies and practices. So last year, the state did pass a law that requires the district to launch a Black student achievement committee out of its school board, and have a plan for serving Black students," said Koumpilova. "So essentially, the district is saying, 'We are following state law here, and we can't just stop doing that based on this investigation.'"

The federal government is also threatening to withhold funding over CPS policies on transgender students. Koumpilova explained that these CPS policies were the focus of a separate investigation by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, which also included suburban Deerfield Public School District 109 and the Illinois State Board of Education.

"In the same letter from the Office for Civil Rights, it said that in its opinion, the district's guidelines — which allow transgender students to use bathrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities based on the gender with which they identify — are in violation of Title IX, the federal law that bans discrimination based on sex," said Koumpilova, "and so again, the federal government, the Trump administration, is insisting that the district scrap these guidelines."

CPS also said its policies with regard to transgender students are required under state law, Koumpilova said.