On Thursday, the federal Department of Education sent a letter to local school systems nationwide telling them that they must certify their compliance with Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights statute, which bars discrimination based on race, sex, and gender.
“The use of certain DEI practices can violate federal law … The continued use of illegal DEI practices may subject the individual or entity using such practices to serious consequences,” including the loss of federal funds and litigation, the notice to schools said.
The state of New York, for one, plans to defy the certification order.
New York State Education Department spokesperson J.P. O’Hare said New York had already informed the Education Department that it was in compliance.
“Given that the [U.S. Department of Education] is already in possession of the guarantees by [New York schools], no further certification will be forthcoming,” he said in a statement.
Daniel Morton-Bentley, the deputy commissioner for legal affairs at the state education agency, wrote in a letter to federal education department officials, “we understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity & inclusion.’”
“But there are no federal or state laws prohibiting the principles of DEI,” Morton-Bentley wrote. That’s absolutely true to a point. The problem isn’t the principles of DEI. The problem is in how those principles are put into practice and the discriminatory way DEI rules are enforced.
There’s more pushback from Mayor Brandon Johnson in Chicago, who said the city would go to court to prevent the federal government from taking money away from Chicago schools for not complying with the DEI executive order.
“We’re not going to be intimidated by these threats,” Johnson said. “It’s just that simple. So whatever it is that this tyrant is trying to do to this city, we’re going to fight back.”
The Education Department wasn’t threatening anyone. It was putting schools on notice that it would enforce the law.
The Trump administration’s memo used a broad interpretation of a Supreme Court decision in 2023 that declared race-based affirmative action programs were unlawful at colleges and universities. That ruling did not address issues involving K-12 schools.
The expansive reasoning did not sit well with New York. The state’s letter argued that the case did “not have the totemic significance that you have assigned it” — and that federal officials were free to make policy pronouncements, but “cannot conflate policy with law.”
Mr. Morton-Bentley also called out what he described as an about-face within the top ranks of the administration.
Indeed, Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education in the first Trump administration, once told staff that “diversity and inclusion are the cornerstones of high organizational performance.” She also said that “diversity and inclusion are key elements for success” for “building strong teams.”
Diversity, equity, and inclusion policies today are several orders of magnitude different from those of just seven or eight years ago. The Biden administration’s fanaticism on DEI led to a skewing of school academic standards that cheapened the whole purpose of Title VI and made a mockery of the idea of equal rights.
New York and Chicago’s challenge to the DEI executive order is spitting in the wind.
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