{"id":39047,"date":"2025-02-27T01:39:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T07:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39047"},"modified":"2025-02-27T05:11:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T11:11:41","slug":"as-trumps-deadline-to-eliminate-dei-nears-few-schools-openly-rush-to-make-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=39047","title":{"rendered":"As Trump’s deadline to eliminate DEI nears, few schools openly rush to make changes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON — Schools and colleges across the U.S. face a Friday deadline to end diversity programs<\/a> or risk having their federal money pulled by the Trump administration, yet few are openly rushing to make changes. Many believe they\u2019re on solid legal ground, and they know it would be all but unprecedented \u2014 and extremely time-consuming \u2014 for the government to cut off funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

State officials in Washington and California urged schools not to make changes, saying it doesn\u2019t change federal law and doesn\u2019t require any action. New York City schools have taken the same approach and said district policies and curriculum have not changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaders of some colleges shrugged the memo off entirely. Antioch University<\/a> \u2019s chief said \u201cmost of higher education\u201d won\u2019t comply with the memo unless federal law is changed. Western Michigan University\u2019s president told his campus to \u201cplease proceed as usual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A memo issued Feb. 14 by President Donald Trump’s administration<\/a>, formally known as a Dear Colleague Letter, gave schools two weeks to halt any practice that treats people differently because of their race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opponents say it\u2019s an overreach meant to have a chilling effect. The guidance appears to forbid everything from classroom lessons on racism to colleges’ efforts to recruit in diverse areas<\/a>, and even voluntary student groups like Black student unions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education organizations have been urging a measured approach, warning institutions not to make any hasty cuts that would be difficult to undo. Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, is telling colleges that if they were in compliance with federal law before the memo, they still are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to act on until we see the administration or its agencies try to stop something,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cAnd then we\u2019ll have the argument.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A loss of federal money would be devastating for schools and colleges, but imposing that penalty would not be quick or simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Education Department office that conducts civil rights investigations<\/a> had fewer than 600 employees last year \u2014 before the Trump administration began cutting staff \u2014 while the U.S. has more than 18,000 school districts and 6,000 colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when a school or state faces an investigation, it can take years to terminate funding. Under former President Joe Biden, the Education Department tried to pull federal money from Michigan\u2019s education agency after finding it violated the rights of students with disabilities. The investigation began in 2022 and is still tied up in federal court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope very much that schools charged with providing inclusive, equal education to every student in their school community will stand for that principle,\u201d said Catherine Lhamon, who led the department\u2019s Office for Civil Rights<\/a> under Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, some education leaders say resistance is too risky. At the University of Cincinnati, President Neville G. Pinto said officials are evaluating jobs related to diversity, equity and inclusion, and removing DEI references from school websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven this new landscape, Ohio public and federally supported institutions like ours have little choice but to follow the laws that govern us,\u201d Pinto wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tony Frank, chancellor of the Colorado State University system, wrote in a campus letter that he weighed taking a stand against the department. But he advised the system’s campuses to comply, saying there\u2019s too much at stake for students and staff. \u201cIf we gamble here and are wrong, someone else will pay the price,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many Republican-led states<\/a>, education chiefs applauded the memo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe never felt it was appropriate to use race in making these types of decisions in the first case, so I do not foresee any interruptions in our day-to-day business,\u201d Alabama\u2019s state superintendent, Eric G. Mackey, said in a statement released by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The memo said schools have promoted DEI efforts often at the expense of white and Asian American students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t carry the weight of law but explains how the new administration will interpret nondiscrimination laws. It dramatically expands a 2023 Supreme Court decision barring the use of race in college admissions to all aspects of education \u2014 including, hiring, promotion, scholarships, housing, graduation ceremonies and campus life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guidance is being challenged in court<\/a> by the American Federation of Teachers, which said the memo violates free speech laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While some schools are keeping quiet out of fear of being targeted, many leaders also are still struggling to grasp the implications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are looking to our attorney general for guidance because it\u2019s very confusing,\u201d said Christine Tucci Osorio, superintendent of the North St. Paul School District in Minnesota. When a teacher asked if their school could still mark African American History Month, she assured them they could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite concerns that schools would rush to comply, it appears \u201ccooler heads are largely prevailing,\u201d said Liz King, senior director for the education equity program at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce a school sends the message that they are not going to stand up for a member, a community within their school, that is broken trust, that is a lost relationship,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump has vowed to use education funding as political leverage<\/a> on several fronts, threatening cuts for schools that do not get in line with his agenda on topics including transgender girls’ participation<\/a> in girls’ sports and instruction related to race<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually, civil rights investigations by the Education Department take at least six months and often much longer. If a school is found in violation of federal law, department policy offers a chance to come into compliance and sign a resolution \u2014 typically a 90-day process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only if a school refuses to comply can the department move to revoke federal money. That can be done in the Education Department through a court-like process decided by an administrative law judge. If the judge decides the penalty is justified, the school can appeal it to the education secretary and, after that, challenge it in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of handling it internally, the department can also refer cases to the Justice Department for prosecution. That route is no faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time the Education Department was granted approval to cut federal funding was in 1992, against the Capistrano Unified School District in California, which was found to have retaliated against a teacher for filing sex discrimination complaints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the penalty was carried out, the district reinstated the teacher and effectively ended the case. It never lost any money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

abcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON — Schools and colleges across the U.S. face a Friday deadline to end diversity programs or risk having their federal money pulled by the Trump administration, yet few are openly rushing to make changes. Many believe they\u2019re on solid legal ground, and they know it would be all but unprecedented \u2014 and extremely time-consuming \u2014 for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":39048,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5597,27075,1230],"class_list":["post-39047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-deadline","tag-few","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39047"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39049,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39047\/revisions\/39049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}