Gabriel Rodriguez
@gabrielruns.bsky.social
Assistant Professor, Department of Education Policy, Education and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Opinions are mine alone.
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
New op-ed in the LA Times by myself & Dave Stovall. We wrote this because are watching in horror the ways this administration is terrorizing Children of Color. Black & Brown children deserve better than this. We all deserve better than this. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Contributor: The Trump administration is targeting children of color
Instead of policies that reduce crime, we get rhetoric of locking up 'bad children.' It's counterproductive and expensive, and it distracts from real solutions that were working before Trump cut their...
www.latimes.com
October 22, 2025 at 1:25 PM
New op-ed in the LA Times by myself & Dave Stovall. We wrote this because are watching in horror the ways this administration is terrorizing Children of Color. Black & Brown children deserve better than this. We all deserve better than this. www.latimes.com/opinion/stor...
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
Thank you to @blockclubchi.bsky.social for republishing @almacampos.bsky.social's moving reporting on the final journey of Silverio Villegas González, who was killed by federal agents last month in Franklin Park.
blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/20/a...
blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/20/a...
A Tragic Homecoming
After nearly two decades in Chicago, Silverio Villegas González returned to Michoacán in a coffin. His death at the hands of federal agents left two families divided by borders, shattered with grief, ...
blockclubchicago.org
October 20, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Thank you to @blockclubchi.bsky.social for republishing @almacampos.bsky.social's moving reporting on the final journey of Silverio Villegas González, who was killed by federal agents last month in Franklin Park.
blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/20/a...
blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/20/a...
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
The 13th largest military in the world is occupying and waging war on the people of Chicago.
“I think talking about this as an occupation is useful because it is so outrageous and abnormal,” says Jackson Potter, vice president of @ctulocal1.bsky.social.
“I think talking about this as an occupation is useful because it is so outrageous and abnormal,” says Jackson Potter, vice president of @ctulocal1.bsky.social.
The 13th Largest Army in World Is Unleashing Violence in Chicago
As federal agents kill and use extreme force in Chicago, their budget surges.
inthesetimes.com
October 10, 2025 at 2:12 PM
The 13th largest military in the world is occupying and waging war on the people of Chicago.
“I think talking about this as an occupation is useful because it is so outrageous and abnormal,” says Jackson Potter, vice president of @ctulocal1.bsky.social.
“I think talking about this as an occupation is useful because it is so outrageous and abnormal,” says Jackson Potter, vice president of @ctulocal1.bsky.social.
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
Across Chicago and the suburbs, relatives, friends and even strangers are shopping and caring for isolated immigrants as reports of immigration arrests intensify. Story w/ @medicenambi.bsky.social and @araceligomezaldana.bsky.social
www.wbez.org/immigration/... @wbez.org @chicago.suntimes.com
www.wbez.org/immigration/... @wbez.org @chicago.suntimes.com
A daughter becomes a lifeline for her parents as immigration enforcement intensifies in Chicago
President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign is forcing some immigrants to isolate at home. But relatives, friends and strangers are stepping up to try to keep them connected.
www.wbez.org
September 29, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Across Chicago and the suburbs, relatives, friends and even strangers are shopping and caring for isolated immigrants as reports of immigration arrests intensify. Story w/ @medicenambi.bsky.social and @araceligomezaldana.bsky.social
www.wbez.org/immigration/... @wbez.org @chicago.suntimes.com
www.wbez.org/immigration/... @wbez.org @chicago.suntimes.com
New pub alert! During my time in Iowa, it was a pleasure to learn from youth who battled and wrestled with how to bring a more equitable and just school. Check out the article via the link below:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
September 16, 2025 at 2:22 PM
New pub alert! During my time in Iowa, it was a pleasure to learn from youth who battled and wrestled with how to bring a more equitable and just school. Check out the article via the link below:
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
In today's @chicago.suntimes.com we tell the story of a 16-year-old Palestinian teen who has spent his summer in the Chicago area learning how to walk again. But he's likely one of the last children from Gaza to be allowed into the U.S. for medical treatment: chicago.suntimes.com/health/2025/...
Palestinian teen injured in Gaza tries to walk again in Chicago suburbs
But the 16-year-old could be one of the last children from Gaza allowed in for treatment after the United States paused visas for Palestinians.
chicago.suntimes.com
September 2, 2025 at 12:02 PM
In today's @chicago.suntimes.com we tell the story of a 16-year-old Palestinian teen who has spent his summer in the Chicago area learning how to walk again. But he's likely one of the last children from Gaza to be allowed into the U.S. for medical treatment: chicago.suntimes.com/health/2025/...
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
Last night, about 60 Chicago activists and organizers gathered to discuss Trump's threatened military occupation of our city. Our convo centered around a worksheet that some friends and I put together this week—a tool that can help us build and strengthen local networks of support and protection.
Mapping Community Defense and Care in Our Neighborhoods
This worksheet can help us prepare for Trump's military interventions at the neighborhood level.
organizingmythoughts.org
August 29, 2025 at 2:42 PM
Last night, about 60 Chicago activists and organizers gathered to discuss Trump's threatened military occupation of our city. Our convo centered around a worksheet that some friends and I put together this week—a tool that can help us build and strengthen local networks of support and protection.
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
Indiana officials confirmed 1,200 empty beds at a rural prison are now available for the federal government to house detained immigrants.
trib.al/CwzBdm0
trib.al/CwzBdm0
New Indiana immigrant detention center could triple ICE beds in Chicago region
Indiana officials confirmed 1,200 empty beds at a rural prison are now available for the federal government to house detained immigrants.
trib.al
August 7, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Indiana officials confirmed 1,200 empty beds at a rural prison are now available for the federal government to house detained immigrants.
trib.al/CwzBdm0
trib.al/CwzBdm0
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
This is a really interesting look at how a PAC is targeting residents (many who are probably Latino) in wards led by progressive Latino alders. I've been getting texts in Spanish from this PAC in recent days about the grocery tax. thetriibe.com/2025/06/whos...
Who’s behind those texts slamming Mayor Johnson and some progressive alders for their ‘snap curfew’ vote? • The TRiiBE
A round of political text messages are circulating in Chicago after the mayor’s veto on a youth curfew ordinance. Experts say these campaigns are only going to increase from here.
thetriibe.com
July 15, 2025 at 3:08 PM
This is a really interesting look at how a PAC is targeting residents (many who are probably Latino) in wards led by progressive Latino alders. I've been getting texts in Spanish from this PAC in recent days about the grocery tax. thetriibe.com/2025/06/whos...
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
“In the last school year, schools opened with an estimated 55,000 teaching vacancies … States like Utah, Nevada, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida were the hardest hit, with Arizona leading at less than 44 teachers per 1,000 students.”
https://trib.al/yB1Ajuc
https://trib.al/yB1Ajuc
American Teachers in Red States Are Walking Away for Good
The predictable consequences of the right wing’s war on public schools are being felt as educators leave their communities—and their profession.
trib.al
July 12, 2025 at 4:18 PM
“In the last school year, schools opened with an estimated 55,000 teaching vacancies … States like Utah, Nevada, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida were the hardest hit, with Arizona leading at less than 44 teachers per 1,000 students.”
https://trib.al/yB1Ajuc
https://trib.al/yB1Ajuc
Grad students or recent grads doing ed policy work should consider applying for this great opportunity!
🎉 Applications for the 2025 Just Education Policy Institute are now open! 🎉
Applications are due Jun 30. JEP 2025 will be held Oct 15-18, 2025 in Washington, DC. JEP helps developing scholars learn how, as a community, to conduct research that advances racial justice in education policy.
Applications are due Jun 30. JEP 2025 will be held Oct 15-18, 2025 in Washington, DC. JEP helps developing scholars learn how, as a community, to conduct research that advances racial justice in education policy.
June 16, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Grad students or recent grads doing ed policy work should consider applying for this great opportunity!
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
Senator Padilla’s office sends me this video of his take-down and detention at Sec. Noem’s press conference in L.A.
June 12, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Senator Padilla’s office sends me this video of his take-down and detention at Sec. Noem’s press conference in L.A.
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
Two Saturdays ago, a high school teacher and I got 11 high school students together with 9 preservice teachers and had a big conversation about school and teaching and learning. Then, we drafted a collective op-ed. It was published this morning!
www.news-gazette.com/opinion/gues...
www.news-gazette.com/opinion/gues...
Our Turn | A call to 'strengthen the human connections at the heart of education'
An open letter, from an inter-generational mix of 23 Urbana High School students, preservice teachers and supportive faculty.
www.news-gazette.com
May 13, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Two Saturdays ago, a high school teacher and I got 11 high school students together with 9 preservice teachers and had a big conversation about school and teaching and learning. Then, we drafted a collective op-ed. It was published this morning!
www.news-gazette.com/opinion/gues...
www.news-gazette.com/opinion/gues...
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
I’m excited to share a new publication that was released online today and will be part of the History of Education Quarterly’s forthcoming print issue! #HistEd #EduSky
Resisting Termination: Native American College Student Activism and the National Indian Youth Council, 1953-1970 | History of Education Quarterly | Cambridge Core
Resisting Termination: Native American College Student Activism and the National Indian Youth Council, 1953-1970
www.cambridge.org
May 7, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
New op-ed in the Chicago Sun Times
“When someone accepts bureaucratic terms for human displacement, they become desensitized, seeing figures instead of faces, cases instead of lives being upended.”
chicago.suntimes.com/other-views/...
“When someone accepts bureaucratic terms for human displacement, they become desensitized, seeing figures instead of faces, cases instead of lives being upended.”
chicago.suntimes.com/other-views/...
Dehumanizing language used on America's enslaved is still spoken today
The words Donald Trump and his underlings use for immigrants strip away their humanity and reduce them to dangerous caricatures worthy of fear rather than constitutional protection.
chicago.suntimes.com
April 28, 2025 at 5:12 PM
New op-ed in the Chicago Sun Times
“When someone accepts bureaucratic terms for human displacement, they become desensitized, seeing figures instead of faces, cases instead of lives being upended.”
chicago.suntimes.com/other-views/...
“When someone accepts bureaucratic terms for human displacement, they become desensitized, seeing figures instead of faces, cases instead of lives being upended.”
chicago.suntimes.com/other-views/...
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
They are arresting people on the streets, terminating their visas, and disappearing them for writing things they disagree with. This is where we are. Two months in. Right now. If you think they won’t begin coming after citizens soon, you are mistaken.
March 27, 2025 at 12:03 PM
They are arresting people on the streets, terminating their visas, and disappearing them for writing things they disagree with. This is where we are. Two months in. Right now. If you think they won’t begin coming after citizens soon, you are mistaken.
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
A mob of Israeli settlers has attacked Palestinian filmmaker and activist Hamdan Ballal just three weeks after he won an Oscar. Israeli soldiers then blocked the ambulance transporting Ballal after the attack and detained him. His current condition and location is unknown.
Israeli Settler Mob Attacks “No Other Land” Co-Director Hamdan Ballal
Israeli soldiers blocked the ambulance transporting Ballal after the attack and detained him.
buff.ly
March 24, 2025 at 9:48 PM
A mob of Israeli settlers has attacked Palestinian filmmaker and activist Hamdan Ballal just three weeks after he won an Oscar. Israeli soldiers then blocked the ambulance transporting Ballal after the attack and detained him. His current condition and location is unknown.
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
Once held up by Dems as a beacon of progressive governance, the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program has been put on the chopping block. And many who have come to depend on the healthcare coverage aren't sure what they'll do: chicago.suntimes.com/politics/202... w/ @mitchtrout.bsky.social
Health coverage for Chicago area immigrants jeopardized in Gov. Pritzker’s budget proposal
Nearly 33,000 Illinoisans without legal status — including 22,000 in Cook County — could be left without health care if lawmakers approve Gov. JB Pritzker's budget proposal to eliminate a costly progr...
chicago.suntimes.com
March 24, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Once held up by Dems as a beacon of progressive governance, the Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults program has been put on the chopping block. And many who have come to depend on the healthcare coverage aren't sure what they'll do: chicago.suntimes.com/politics/202... w/ @mitchtrout.bsky.social
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
It seems like when you write a decision giving the President king-like powers, you shouldn't be indignant when he acts like a king.
March 18, 2025 at 5:17 PM
It seems like when you write a decision giving the President king-like powers, you shouldn't be indignant when he acts like a king.
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
“Is that what it means to be a criminal — to wake up early and go to work and look after your family?”
Suburban Chicago family pleads for ICE to release father, local business owner
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Suburban Chicago family pleads for ICE to release father, local business owner
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Suburban Chicago family pleads for ICE to release father, local business owner
Abel Orozco Ortega was among 22 people from the Chicago area whose arrests by federal immigration agents violate a federal settlement, according to attorneys with the National Immigrant Justice Center...
chicago.suntimes.com
March 18, 2025 at 12:26 PM
“Is that what it means to be a criminal — to wake up early and go to work and look after your family?”
Suburban Chicago family pleads for ICE to release father, local business owner
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Suburban Chicago family pleads for ICE to release father, local business owner
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
hey teachers working for social justice, check out this rad writing fellowship supported by $5K/year! www.edsurge.com/research/gui...
EdSurge Voices of Change Writing Fellowship - EdSurge Collections
Over the years, EdSurge has explored how school models, instructional practices and the experiences of students and educators are changing. We examine ...
www.edsurge.com
February 26, 2025 at 6:38 PM
hey teachers working for social justice, check out this rad writing fellowship supported by $5K/year! www.edsurge.com/research/gui...
Not good at all
Peggy Carr, a federal official who leads one of the country's most extensive student testing programs, known as The Nation's Report Card, was placed on administrative leave.
Trump suspends the head of 'The Nation's Report Card'
Peggy Carr, a federal official who leads one of the country's most extensive student testing programs, known as The Nation's Report Card, was placed on administrative leave.
www.npr.org
February 26, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Not good at all
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
Illinois schools chief tells districts to follow state law, not Trump threats
https://www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2025/02/21/illinois-schools-chief-says-keep-teaching-black-history-after-trump-letter/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2025/02/21/illinois-schools-chief-says-keep-teaching-black-history-after-trump-letter/
State schools chief tells schools: Don’t stop teaching certain subjects because of Trump
Illinois State Superintendent Tony Sanders tells schools to continue teaching subjects like Black History and to keep educating students regardless of their immigration status, despite a recent letter from the U.S. Department of Education threatening federal school funding.
www.chalkbeat.org
February 21, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Illinois schools chief tells districts to follow state law, not Trump threats
https://www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2025/02/21/illinois-schools-chief-says-keep-teaching-black-history-after-trump-letter/
https://www.chalkbeat.org/chicago/2025/02/21/illinois-schools-chief-says-keep-teaching-black-history-after-trump-letter/
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
Here’s the second op-ed!. www.newsweek.com/its-2025say-...
“…today's rhetoric proposes that a substandard education is a small cost for maintaining racism, homophobia, trans violence, and antiblackness.”
“…today's rhetoric proposes that a substandard education is a small cost for maintaining racism, homophobia, trans violence, and antiblackness.”
It's 2025—Say No To Historic Racist Goals in U.S. Education | Opinion
Schools must be a place where students can question, debate, and think critically about the world around them. But the White House's K-12 executive order pushes the education system in the opposite di...
www.newsweek.com
February 20, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Here’s the second op-ed!. www.newsweek.com/its-2025say-...
“…today's rhetoric proposes that a substandard education is a small cost for maintaining racism, homophobia, trans violence, and antiblackness.”
“…today's rhetoric proposes that a substandard education is a small cost for maintaining racism, homophobia, trans violence, and antiblackness.”
Reposted by Gabriel Rodriguez
Here, I explain how the February 14 "Dear Colleague" letter is a widely expansive distortion of the court’s ruling in SFFA. Institutional responses should remain focused on areas that the Supreme Court addressed and not expand to those clearly outside its purview.
www.chronicle.com/article/hitt...
www.chronicle.com/article/hitt...
Hitting Pause on the ‘Dear Colleague’ Letter
The Department of Education is overstepping its bounds and infringing on constitutional rights.
www.chronicle.com
February 18, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Here, I explain how the February 14 "Dear Colleague" letter is a widely expansive distortion of the court’s ruling in SFFA. Institutional responses should remain focused on areas that the Supreme Court addressed and not expand to those clearly outside its purview.
www.chronicle.com/article/hitt...
www.chronicle.com/article/hitt...