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USA Today
23-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Public schools that refuse to follow Trump's DEI directive are now in the crosshairs
Public schools that refuse to follow Trump's DEI directive are now in the crosshairs Ivy League colleges aren't the only campuses under fire over DEI initiatives. Now, Trump's orders are taking aim at K-12 public schools. Show Caption Hide Caption Federal judge blocks Trump from cutting school funding over DEI A federal judge in New Hampshire has blocked the Trump administration from cutting federal funding from public schools that continue to run diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. unbranded - Newsworthy Chicago school officials felt they needed to address the academic achievement gap between Black students and other kids on their campuses. So they created the Black Student Success Plan, a program to help those kids thrive. What they didn't know was that the program would become the center of a federal investigation and a symbol of rebellion against the Trump administration. Nor did they know that their district could lose federal funding. Thousands of campuses from at least a dozen states have rejected President Donald Trump's claim that diversity, equity and inclusion programming violated federal civil rights law, and his directive to schools to eliminate them. They've continued to host academic programs that benefit certain disadvantaged groups of students and allow books and curricula about racial and social justice to remain in their classrooms. U.S Department of Education officials wrote a memo to state officials on April 3 telling them schools must end programs that give advantages to students from one race or group over another. They first directed schools to comply with their order within 10 days, and then gave them an extension to comply by April 24. If they didn't, they said they risked losing federal dollars for violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans discrimination based on race, color and national origin in federally-funded agencies and programs. The 10-day mark and the extension has long passed. The Education Department's Office of Civil Rights has since launched investigations into several alleged civil rights violations at dozens of universities and colleges, including Harvard University and Yale University. Now the agency's focus has shifted to public schools that serve the nation's younger students. Trump's Education Department this month announced investigations into DEI programs at Chicago Public Schools and another Illinois school district: Evanston-Skokie School District 65. Officials in Illinois are part of those from at least 19 states that have pushed back against Trump's directive 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 Department. 'Root out DEI': Why red states are enlisting in Trump's war on 'woke' What's happening in Illinois? A national grassroots organization that advocates against DEI programs in schools, called Defending Education, complained on Feb. 21 about the Chicago program for Black students to the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights. Nicole Neily, president and founder of Defending Education, grumbled about how Chicago district leaders "made a conscious decision to allocate finite resources to some students and not others." 'No student should be denied an educational opportunity because of the color of their skin, yet perversely, that's exactly what Chicago Public Schools has chosen to do – despite the fact that the district's own data clearly demonstrates that students of all races are struggling academically,' Neily wrote in a news release about the case. On April 29, the U.S. Department of Education announced it had launched an investigation into the district and expressed concern that school leaders were giving "additional resources to favored students on the basis of race." Craig Trainor, an acting assistant secretary for the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, said the agency "will not allow federal funds, provided for the benefit of all students, to be used in this pernicious and unlawful manner," in a news release. Ben Pagani, a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools, declined to comment on the pending investigation. But he said the Black Student Success Plan is codified in and mandated by Illinois state law and incorporated in the district's five-year strategic plan. Another Illinois district is also facing scrutiny. The conservative national nonprofit organization Southeastern Legal Foundation filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights on behalf of Stacy Deemar, a teacher at Evanston-Skokie School District 65, who alleged the district's policies and practices violate a federal civil rights law, according to a news release from the Education Department. The drama teacher complained about training seminars the district held "including one that employed racial stereotypes including concepts such as 'white talk' and 'color commentary' to describe how those of different races communicate." She also said the district was sponsoring affinity groups for "both students and staff that are formally restricted on the basis of race, including one for staff divided between 'individuals of color' and those who identify as 'White," according to a summary of the complaint. Hannah Dillow, a spokesperson for Evanston-Skokie School District 65, said in an email to USA TODAY that district officials were told that they were under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education on May 1. Dillow said that the teacher's complaint misrepresented the district's "lawful and important professional learning and student-focused initiatives that are designed to advance the work of ensuring that ALL students have access and opportunity to a robust, high-quality education." The district hopes for a "just and expeditious resolution" with the Education Department's OCR, Dillow said. Trump gave schools 2 weeks to ban DEI. Lawyers say it's not that simple. Why states rejected Trumps DEI directive Some states and education groups have decried the anti-DEI in education directive in court. On April 25, 19 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Education Department, as well as Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Trainor, calling the directive issued in the April 3 memo "unlawful and unconstitutional." They argued the threat from the Trump administration to pull their funding if they didn't oblige was "subjective and illegal punishment for not acceding to an agenda to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion of any kind in schools." The Education Department and its staff "have acted to unlawfully imperil more than $13.8 billion that are spent to educate our youth," their suit claims. Any loss of federal funding for refusing to cut DEI programs could be "catastrophic" for students, the suit adds, because the states rely on federal dollars to fund schools and won't have a replacement for the money if that's cut. "For instance, loss of special education funding would devastate schools and districts' abilities to serve students with disabilities," the lawsuit reads. The Education Department did not respond to an inquiry from USA TODAY about the states' lawsuit. Special education experts Worry about students with disabilities post-Education Department In the meantime, several states have continued with DEI programming. New York state officials have said they will not comply with the Trump administration's directives. 'We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems 'diversity, equity & inclusion,'' wrote Daniel Morton-Bentley, counsel and deputy commissioner of the state Department of Education, in a letter to the federal Education Department. 'But there are no federal or [New York] State laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.' That means New York City Public Schools' mandated Black Studies curriculum program for all students will continue, for example. Many other states have shared wavering commitment to continuing programs that incorporate diversity, equity and inclusion. The states that refused to comply could be protected from losing their federal funding – at least for now. On April 24, a New Hampshire judge and two other federal judges temporarily banned the Trump administration from pulling federal funding from schools that refused to cut diversity, equity and inclusion programming. On Feb. 14, the Education Department sent a memo to school officials with a directive to "ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights law." The National Education Association and its New Hampshire chapter and the American Civil Liberties Union and its New Hampshire and Massachusetts chapters responded with a lawsuit against the federal department and its head staffers. The groups argued that the directive was on overstep for the Education Department, vague and a violation of teachers' rights. U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty said the Education Department's directive did not specifically define what kind of program the administration considers to be a DEI program that is in violation of the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Trump administration Gives states 10 days to certify they've ended DEI in schools Students bring the debate to court Some schools in states that have not objected to the Education Department's anti-DEI directive have removed books that contain information about racial and social justice or cut programs that help LGBTQ+ and other marginalized students, leading one group of kids and parents to file a lawsuit against their schools. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense Education Activity on behalf of 12 children of active duty service members. They said their schools are "quarantining library books and whitewashing curricula in (their) civilian schools" and have "systemically removed books, altered curricula, and canceled events." Those include academic materials about slavery, Native American history, LGBTQ+ identities and history, preventing sexual harassment and abuse and portions of AP Psychology curriculum, according to the lawsuit. Michael O'Day, a spokesperson for the agency that runs schools for children of military personnel, said it does not comment on pending litigation. Natalie Tolley, a parent of three students in these schools, said her children and their peers "deserve access to books that both mirror their own life experiences and that act as windows that expose them to greater diversity." 'Learning is a sacred and foundational right that is now being limited for students in DoDEA schools,' she wrote. 'The implementation of these EOs, without any due process or parental or professional input, is a violation of our children's right to access information that prevents them from learning about their own histories, bodies, and identities. Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@ Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.
Yahoo
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Chicago's mayor says he won't be intimidated by DOJ investigation
The city of Chicago, a long-standing target for dog-whistling conservatives, is facing a federal investigation related to the city's hiring of Black employees. On Tuesday, Mayor Brandon Johnson vowed not to be intimidated by the Trump administration after it announced a civil rights probe into his recent comments at a Black church, where he touted his record of diverse hiring — including his hiring of Black employees in comparison with the largely white administrations that preceded him — and praised these workers' ability to look out for people of all races despite Black people historically facing systemic roadblocks to their success. Having listened to Johnson's comments in full, I found it absurd that conservatives have sought to portray the remarks as though they were about giving Black people preferential treatment. The Justice Department's investigation, which Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon is calling a look into whether Chicago is 'engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination based on race,' is just the latest sign that Dhillon — a pro-MAGA lawyer — has perverted the DOJ's Civil Rights Division and transformed it into a weapon that the Trump administration can use for its bigoted culture wars. The administration has sought to outlaw diversity efforts by public and private entities, an apparent extension of Trump's open vow to address what he called 'a definite anti-white feeling' in the United States. On Tuesday, Johnson forcefully rebuked the administration, saying of Trump: 'You would be hard-pressed to find qualified individuals who are in his administration. You know, as my administration reflects the country, it reflects the city, his administration reflects the country club.' According to data Johnson's office provided to CBS News, 34% of his 105 employees are Black, 30% are white, 23% are Hispanic, 7% are Asian and 5% are two or more ethnicities. 'I'm giving people some confidence that I'm not going to ignore any particular group, especially groups that have been marginalized,' Johnson said, adding: 'I'm not going to be intimidated or allow the failures of the past to dictate how we move forward.' This isn't the first instance of the Trump administration targeting Chicago: In April, the administration threatened to withhold educational funding from the Chicago school system over its Black Student Success Plan, which was designed to improve opportunity gaps that discriminatory practices have created for Black students. This article was originally published on
Chicago Tribune
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Paul Vallas: Department of Education should stop CPS probe and reform education in ways that matter
President Donald Trump has tasked his secretary of education, Linda McMahon, with dismantling the U.S. Department of Education. She should start by ending the Department of Education investigation into Chicago Public Schools' Black Student Success Plan, focus on long-needed changes and remove the obstacles that will improve quality choices. CPS' plan, at this stage, is merely an outline of an effort to develop a state-mandated strategy for improving Black student outcomes. A plan to make a plan, in other words. A Virginia-based conservative group, Defending Education, prompted the Education Department's investigation into the plan, alleging that it violates Title VI, a provision of federal civil rights law that bars discrimination on the basis of race or national origin. This is an overreach. Public education is awash in scores, statistics and trend lines. Student subgroups — separated by gender, race, socioeconomic status, special education needs and so on — have been identified in that data for a long time. This is not some recent 'woke' phenomenon. Any school superintendent would say it is entirely appropriate for school systems to use multiple factors, including race, to identify challenged student populations and inform strategies for improvement. The administration's rationale for eliminating the Education Department is returning decision-making authority to states and local school districts, while giving parents more control over their children's education. In that context, the federal government's heavy-handed investigation is not only hypocritical; it also undermines Trump's stated goals. Parents who keep their children in district schools instead of using vouchers, for instance, to place their children in better schools deserve state leaders and school district administrators with the courage to craft strategies that will meet the often-unique needs of students. Effective education demands flexibility and attention to local conditions. It doesn't need buttinskis from 900 miles away siccing federal investigators on a school system trying to improve academic outcomes for marginalized students. While increased school autonomy and local control are sound education policies that the Department of Education embraces and is now betraying with its investigation into CPS, the district's plan itself provides little evidence that it will successfully reform or remove the systemic obstacles that have denied Black Chicago students a quality education — and that have also degraded education outcomes for all students in the system. By almost every metric, CPS is failing students of all races and ethnicities. Rather than picking on a fledgling program that is likely doomed by local politics anyway, the Trump administration should keep its eye on the prize: implementing policies that serve all students by greatly expanding school choice. Why doomed? Let's face it. Neither the Chicago Teachers Union nor CPS leadership will wholeheartedly adopt a plan or any reform that improves Black student outcomes if it threatens their control over programs, staffing or funding — or disrupts their grip on the system. That includes structural changes such as decentralizing the district so that more than 56% of funds reach the schools; empowering elected Local School Councils and principals to adopt more effective school models and make staffing decisions; and adding more instructional time. It's ironic that our legislature and governor who mandated local school districts develop a black students' success plan are the same group that ended the state-funded Invest in Kids tax credit scholarship program for private schools. Invest in Kids ensured thousands of low-income families had a shot at a quality education outside of CPS. Our union-beholden lawmakers also capped the number of public charter schools and gave the CTU the tools to weaken and shut them down. This, despite charters serving 54,000 students in Chicago — 98% of whom are Black and Latino. Charter schools, of course, have also shown significant academic gains for Black and Latino students. A 2023 Stanford University study found that Black and Latino students in charter schools made far more progress in math and reading than their peers in traditional public schools. Economist Thomas Sowell reached the same conclusion in his 2020 book 'Charter Schools and Their Enemies,' which studies charter and traditional schools in New York City. The Trump administration should focus on the problem-makers: education bureaucracies and teachers unions that have long colluded to deny Black and Latino families access to quality schools. Chicago, like many cities, has unequal education opportunities — wealthier families choose private schools or move to the suburbs, while low-income Black and Latino children are trapped in failing, underenrolled public schools with weak academics, poor oversight and little accountability. Chicago may very well require federal intervention, but the Department of Education should tread carefully in local school district decisions to use multiple factors, including race, in designing academic improvement strategies. It's a fact that public education has failed to improve the outcomes of Black students or show progress at closing the achievement gap since the department was created. But we must keep trying. Otherwise, we accept institutional racism — if not in intent, then certainly in outcome. It festers when low-income families are denied access to high-quality educational choices and cannot force meaningful change in their failing schools. It flourishes because teachers unions spend heavily to preserve their monopoly on public education. Federal efforts would be better spent intervening, even by use of a consent decree, to dismantle an education system that locks poor, overwhelmingly minority students in archaic education bureaucracies based on their income and ZIP code. The goal should be simple: Let funding follow the student, empower parents to choose the best school for their child and give local school leaders the authority to select the right model for their neighborhoods. Forget the small-time investigations. It's time to seize the moment and make the big changes that will matter. Paul Vallas is an adviser for the Illinois Policy Institute. He ran for Chicago mayor in 2023 and 2019 and was previously budget director for the city and CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Chicago Public Schools' Black Student Success Plan Under Investigation Over DEI
A program created to improve Black student achievement, discipline and sense of belonging in Chicago Public Schools is under investigation by the Trump administration. The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights announced on April 29 that the district's Black Student Success Plan violates federal law because it discriminates against students on the basis of race. The plan, released in February, outlines strategies over the next five years to improve Black student's daily learning experiences and life outcomes. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Stacy Davis Gates, Chicago Teachers Union president, said in a statement Tuesday that the plan was developed to address the 'man-made educational achievement gap' for Black students caused by inequitable policies such as redlining. 'We expect CPS to stand up against this baseless investigation — and we call on our city and state leaders to take real action to protect our students and schools,' Davis Gates said. An Illinois law signed in 2023 required the Chicago Board of Education to create a Black Student Achievement Committee and develop a plan to 'bring about academic parity between Black children and their peers.' The plan was based on the group's recommendations, which include providing comprehensive resources for Black students' academic and social-emotional needs and partnering with historically Black colleges and universities to create a teacher pipeline. The plan's main goals include doubling the number of Black male educators, reducing out-of-school suspensions and expulsions for Black students by 40% and increasing Black history and culture in classrooms. Related LAUSD Overhauls $120 Million Black Students Program After Activists File Complaint The investigation into the plan is based on a complaint by conservative Virginia-based advocate Defending Education, which targeted a similar program last year in the Los Angeles Unified School District called the Black Student Achievement Plan. A district spokesperson said Thursday that Los Angeles Unified resolved the complaint by opening the plan's services to all students. The Education Department said in a press release Tuesday that the Chicago plan violates federal law by focusing 'on remedial measures only for Black students, despite acknowledging that Chicago students of all races struggle academically.' It's the latest move by the Trump administration to eliminate school diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Craig Trainor, the department's acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement that the administration won't allow federal funds to be used 'in this pernicious and unlawful manner.' The department previously said government funds were at risk for states and school districts that didn't agree to end DEI programs. Last month, federal judges blocked the department from withholding federal funds because of DEI. A Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said Thursday that the district will not comment on pending or ongoing investigations.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Department of Education investigating Evanston-Skokie District 65 over ‘privilege walks'
EVANSTON, Ill. — The US Department of Education announced they are investigating Evanston-Skokie District 65 over alleged racial discrimination and 'privilege walks.' The department alleges District 65 violated the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The investigation stems from drama teacher Dr. Stacy Deemar's two complaints. The complaints allege that District 65 engages in racial segregation and stereotyping through 'privilege walks' and district-sponsored segregated affinity groups. Privilege walks is a practice where students step forward when answering 'yes' to certain questions and step back when answering 'no.' It looks at social privileges that benefit some people over others, according to Kiwanis. 'The policies and practices to which the District allegedly subjects students and teachers shocks the conscience. Amid a dismal academic achievement record, the District appears to focus on unlawfully segregating students by race, instructing students to step forward and others to step back on the basis of race, and associating 'whiteness' with the devil. If true, how is this conceivable in America today?' said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. Investigation launched into Chicago Public Schools' Black Student Success Plan Trump's Department of Education is also investigating Chicago Public Schools' over their Black Student Success Plan. CTU President Stacy Davis Gates called the investigation 'baseless.' WGN News reached out to District 65 for a statement and have not heard back at this time. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
