Ivy League Colleges is not the only campus that has been ignited by the DEI initiative. Currently, Trump’s orders are targeting K-12 public schools.
Federal judge blocks Trump from cutting school funding for DEI
A federal judge in New Hampshire blocked the Trump administration from cutting federal funding from public schools that continue to run the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program.
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Chicago school officials felt the need to address the gap between the academic achievements of Black students and other children on campus.
So they created a plan of success for black students, a program that helps those children flourish.
What they didn’t know was that the program would become the centre of federal investigations and symbolize the rebellion against the Trump administration. They also didn’t know that their district could lose federal funds.
Thousands of campuses in at least 12 states have rejected President Donald Trump’s claim that diversity, equity and inclusion programming violated federal civil rights laws and violated his instructions to schools to eliminate them. They continue to hold academic programs that benefit certain underprivileged students groups and allow racial and social justice books and curricula to remain in the classroom.
U.S. Department of Education officials wrote a note to state officials on April 3, informing them that schools must close programs that will benefit students from a certain race or group. They first instructed the school to comply with the order within 10 days, And they gave them an extension to comply by April 24th. If they did not do so, they said they risk losing federal dollars for violating Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The 10-day mark and extension have passed for a long time.
The Education Bureau’s Civil Rights Office has launched investigations into several alleged civil rights violations at dozens of universities and universities, including Harvard and Yale University.
Currently, the agency’s focus has shifted to public schools serving young students in the country. Trump’s education department released a survey of DEI programs this month in Chicago Public Schools and another Illinois school district: Evanston Skoky School District 65.
Illinois officials are some of at least 19 state officials who opposed Trump’s instructions and refused to cut programming that encourages diversity, equity and inclusion.
Here’s what we know about the ongoing conflict over DEI between public schools and the Trump administration’s education sector:
What’s going on in Illinois?
A national grassroots organization defending school DEI programs called Defending Education complained on February 21 about the Chicago program for black students to the Civil Rights Office, the education sector.
Nicole Neely, president and founder of Education, complained about Chicago-area leaders “making a conscious decision to allocate finite resources to some students rather than others.”
“People should not be denied educational opportunities due to their skin color, but on the contrary, that’s exactly what Chicago public schools chose to do. Despite the district data clearly showing students of all races struggling academically.”
On April 29, the U.S. Department of Education announced it had begun an investigation into the district, expressing concern that school leaders are “providing additional resources to students who are endorsed on the basis of race.”
Craig Trainer, acting vice-secretary of the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office, said the agency “does not allow federal funds provided for the benefit of all students to be used in this harmful and illegal manner.”
Chicago Public Schools spokesman Benpagani declined to comment on the pending investigation. However, he said that the success plan for black students is codified and mandated by Illinois law and is incorporated into the district’s five-year strategic plan.
Another Illinois area is also facing scrutiny.
The Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative national nonprofit organization, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office on behalf of Stacey Deemer, a teacher at the Evanston Skoki School District 65, who alleged that the district’s policies and practices violated federal civil rights laws, according to a news release from the Department of Education.
The drama teacher complained about the training seminars held by the district, including “including those that employ racial stereotypes such as concepts such as “white talk” and “color comments” to explain how it communicates from different races.”
She also said the district sponsors “including being officially restricted on races that are officially restricted on races that are officially restricted on races that are officially restricted on races.”
Hannah Dillow, a spokesman for Evanston-Skokie School District 65, said in an email to USA Today that district officials were told the U.S. Department of Education was under investigation on May 1.
Dillow said the teacher’s complaints misrepresented the district’s “legal and important professional learning and student-focused initiative” designed to advance the work of ensuring that all students access and offer opportunities to robust, high-quality education.
The district hopes for a “fair and prompt resolution” with the Education Department’s OCR, Dirow said.
Why the state rejected the DEI directive
Some states and education groups have condemned anti-DEI in educational directives in court.
On April 25, the 19 state attorney general filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Education, the Secretary of Education and trainers, calling the directive issued in the April 3 memo “illegal and unconstitutional.”
They argued a threat from the Trump administration to withdraw their funds if it was “subjective and illegal punishment for not being assigned to the agenda to rule out diversity, equity, and inclusion of any kind in the school.”
The education department and its staff “we have acted to illegally put more than $13.8 billion spent on educating our youth,” their lawsuit alleges.
The loss of federal funds due to refusing to cut DEI programs could be “devastating” for students, the lawsuit adds, as the state relies on federal dollars to fund schools and if it is cut, it will have no substitute for money.
“Loss of special education funding, for example, would destroy the schools and districts’ ability to serve students with disabilities,” the lawsuit reads.
The education department did not respond to an investigation from USA Today regarding US litigation.
In the meantime, several states continue to program DEI.
Officials in New York state say they will not follow the directions of the Trump administration.
“We understand that the current administration is trying to censor what we consider to be ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’,” Daniel Morton Bentley, a counsel and deputy committee member for the state Department of Education, wrote in a letter to the Federal Education Office. “However, there is no federal or (New York) state law that prohibits the DEI principle.”
This means, for example, New York City public school mandatory Black Research Curriculum Programs for all students will continue, for example.
Many other states share a shaking commitment to continuing programs that embrace diversity, equity and inclusion.
States that refuse to comply may be protected from losing federal funds, at least for now.
On April 24, a New Hampshire judge and two other federal judges temporarily banned the Trump administration from withdrawing federal funds from schools that refused to cut diversity, equity and inclusion programming.
On February 14, the education department sent a note to school officials with an order to “ensure compliance with existing civil rights laws.”
The National Education Association, its New Hampshire Chapters and the American Civil Liberties Union and its New Hampshire and Massachusetts chapters responded to the Federal Bureau and its head staff in lawsuits.
The group argued that the directive was an overstep of the education sector, ambiguous and a violation of teacher rights.
U.S. District Judge Randya McCafferty said the Department of Education’s directive did not clearly define the type of program it considers a DEI program that violates Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Students bring arguments to court
Some schools in states that do not oppose the anti-DEI directive in the education sector have removed books containing information about racial and social justice, or cut programs that cut programs that support LGBTQ+ and other marginalized students, ensuring that one group of children and parents file lawsuits against schools.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Department of Defense Educational Activities on behalf of 12 children, active-working members. They said their schools “segregated library books and whitewashed curriculum at (their) private schools,” and that they have “systematically deleted books, curriculum changes, and cancelled events.”
The lawsuit includes preventing slavery, Native American history, academic materials on LGBTQ+ identity and history, LGBTQ+ identity and history, and part of the AP psychology curriculum.
Michael O’Day, a spokesman for the agency that runs schools for military children, said he had not commented on the pending lawsuit.
Natalie Torrey, a parent of three students at these schools, said her children and their peers “deserve access to books that reflect their own life experiences and serve as a window into greater diversity.”
“Learning is a sacred and fundamental right and is currently limited to students at Dodea’s schools,” she writes. “These EO implementations violate the child’s right to access information that prevents them from learning about their own history, body, and identity without legitimate processes or parent or professional input.
Please contact Kayla Jimenez (kjimenez@usatoday.com). Follow her on the X on @kaylajjimenez.
