The Department of Education sent a memo to every school district in the country on April 3, informing them that they had 10 days to certify that they had eliminated all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Several states, including Minnesota and New York, were refusing to comply with the directive. And now, California and Colorado have become the latest school systems in the country to defy the order.
Tens of billions of dollars in federal funding are at stake for those states. California alone receives $16.3 billion, with the Los Angeles Unified School District receiving $1.26 billion a year.
On Feb. 14, the Education Department sent a letter to all K-12 school districts and institutions of higher education, ordering them to end racial considerations in “admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.” The letter was based on Donald Trump’s Jan. 29 executive order ending DEI programs in schools.
The Education Department has given states until April 24 to collect certifications, affirming that all DEI programs in the state’s K-12 schools have been eliminated.
Obviously, the validity of the executive order is headed for consideration in the Supreme Court. In the meantime, the states will have to do without federal funds unless a federal judge restores funding while the case is wending its way through the courts.
Los Angeles Times:
In a letter to school district superintendents Friday, the California Department of Education, or CDE, defended the legality of DEI efforts.
“There is nothing in state or federal law … that outlaws the broad concepts of ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ or ‘inclusion,’” wrote Chief Deputy Supt. David Schapira in the letter to school districts, county education offices and charter schools.
CDE also sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education about the decision not to comply — and said the federal request was vague.
“It is also unclear which specific programs or activities [the federal agency] seeks to regulate by this certification, although the request for certification references ‘certain DEI practices’ or ‘illegal DEI.’ It does not define such…”
Colorado’s Education Commissioner Susana Córdova told a meeting of the state education board that she would not sign the certification letter and would not urge individual school districts to do so.
“Frankly, I would be uncomfortable signing a certification that binds us to federal guidance th,at doesn’t have the force of law,” Cordova said.
She tried to finesse the problem by claiming the Trump administration failed to follow guidelines laid out in the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), a 1980 law that establishes procedures for collecting information from the public.
“It would be unlawful to restrict federal funding because somebody declines to sign a document that we’re not legally obligated to sign,” she said.
It was a nice try, but the memo and letter sent by the Department of Education do not meet the PRA guidelines for administrative action.
Denver Post:
The State Board of Education met in an executive session, which was closed to the public, on Wednesday to discuss a legal memo related to how the Colorado Department of Education planned to respond to the April 3 letter.
But Republican members of the board, most notably Steve Durham, who represents the 5th Congressional District, pushed for the board to hold a public discussion about the agency’s response.
“The real reason, I think, behind not signing this is political rather than legal,” Durham said during Thursday’s public meeting. “There can be significant debate or disagreement, I guess about, what DEI actually is, but there is plenty of evidence of its misuse.”
Indeed, opposition to ending DEI is based on the political calculation that not defending it would lose Democrats votes.
Trump’s executive order faces an uncertain future in the courts, where several Supreme Court decisions have affirmed the legality of DEI programs.
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