Earlier this week, we reported that Minnesota’s Department of Education officially rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to make U.S. education white nationalism-friendly again via an order by the U.S. Department of Education demanding that all K-12 school districts certify within 10 days that they are following Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by ending all DEI programs under threat of federal defunding. In other words, Minnesota officials are not about to join the MAGA world in pretending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are an affront to white men who are assumed to be qualified (largely by virtue of being white men) when, in reality, DEI is simply an effort to provide more opportunity for minority groups that have been excluded from full access to the “American dream” for the overwhelming majority of America’s existence.
Well, Minnesota isn’t the only state standing in defiance of Trump’s anti-DEI propaganda, which he is clearly aiming to enforce under penalty of law. There are states — not the red ones, of course — where officials seem to be aware of the game the Trump administration is playing, where they lie about what DEI is, repeat the lies as often as possible, and then take their oft-repeated lies and use them to justify official policy, much like Republicans have done with critical race theory, affirmative action, election security, and the ubiquitous thing they call “woke,” a word they appropriated from the pro-Black anti-racism movement only to show repeatedly that they can’t define the word for themselves.
Now, there are certain states one would expect to defy the ED’s 10-day anti-DEI certification mandate. Last week, New York unsurprisingly told Trump’s administration to shove their certification demand where the sun don’t shine. California has also at least signaled that it won’t comply with the directive. Fortunately, these states, which have always been the bane of Republicans’ existence, aren’t the only ones standing tall.
Pennsylvania’s deputy education chief signaled Wednesday that her state will not be ordering schools to eliminate DEI programs and it certainly won’t be certifying to the federal government (which, by the way, Trump keeps claiming will return education authority to the states, which is clearly a lie) that it has complied with its ridiculous mandate. The official also suggested that despite the existence of DEI programs in the state, Pennsylvania complies with civil rights laws.
From Chalkbeat Philadelphia:
Pennsylvania’s Executive Deputy Secretary of Education Angela Fitterer wrote in a letter Wednesday that the state Department of Education “certifies that it has and will continue to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” which bars discrimination based on race, national origin, or shared ancestry in programs that receive federal funding. Fitterer also wrote that the department has “confirmed that it adheres to all applicable laws providing for equal access and participation to all persons.”
The letter “affirms” that all of Pennsylvania’s school districts “have previously certified, on multiple occasions, that they comply and will continue to comply with Title VI.”
Fitterer’s letter is not as forceful a refusal to comply as neighboring New York issued last Friday, but it does signal that Pennsylvania will not be instructing schools and districts to end DEI programs as the Trump administration required.
In an accompanying letter to school districts on Wednesday, Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Education Carrie Rowe told district leaders “no further action is required” by them at this time because the Trump administration did not define what would be considered “illegal DEI.”
Rowe wrote, “there are no federal or state laws generally prohibiting efforts relating to diversity, equity, or inclusion” and the U.S. Department of Education lacks sufficient authority to change grant terms without a formal administrative process.
“As an agency with delegated authority,” Rowe said that the Education Department “cannot make improvisatory changes to legal assurances and impose new requirements on recipients without adhering to rulemaking procedures, nor can it alter substantive federal law by administrative fiat.”
Not only has the Trump administration been vague about what even constitutes DEI, but it has also been completely unwilling (unable, more likely) to provide any unambiguous evidence that DEI initiatives are discriminatory, presumably against the most overrepresented demographic (white men) in every leading industry in the nation.
Anyway, other states that have pushed back against Trump’s directive include Illinois, where State Superintendent Tony Sanders also issued a letter on Wednesday challenging the Department of Education to identify with proof which programs and activities violate federal civil rights law and to identify which “illegal DEI” activities schools have committed.
“We are concerned that USDOE seemingly seeks to change the terms and conditions of the Illinois State Board of Education’s award without formal administrative process,” Sanders wrote.
Like Pennsylvania, Sanders wrote that the Illinois State Board of Education already complies with Title VI and regularly submits “applications certifying compliance with all required assurances for federal programs, all of which have been approved by the U.S. Department of Education.”
Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s superintendent took things a step further in her declaration that the state will not comply with the directive, suggesting flat out that the Trump administration’s nonsensical and redundant mandate is motivated by a political agenda, not education.
“We cannot stand by while the current administration threatens our schools with unnecessary and potentially unlawful mandates based on political beliefs,” state Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement demanding that the ED provide clarification on both the intent and legality of the certification directive. “Our responsibility is to ensure Wisconsin students receive the best education possible, and that means allowing schools to make local decisions based on what is best for their kids and their communities.”
While it’s encouraging to see these state officials stand tall in the face of this racist and propaganda-prone administration’s legal (or possibly illegal) bully footing, the fact is, there are districts across the country that are chock-full of low-income schools that rely on Title I funding and are less likely to risk further defunding by refusing to comply with a federal directive even if officials know it is wrong. And that’s what this administration relies on. Again, Trump’s claim that authority over education will be returned to the states and local governments under his administration is a falsehood. It’s a falsehood in that states already control the academic side of the educational system — as local governments have always dictated curricula, teacher hiring, teacher licensing and testing — and it’s a falsehood in that the president is not “returning education to the states” when he’s forcing those states to bend to his ideological will under threat of defunding.
DEI isn’t discrimination; it corrects discrimination. That’s the truth, and if the MAGA world can’t disprove that truth, then its leaders will implement policy to forcibly bury it.
This is also exactly how fascism works.
SEE ALSO:
Minnesota Department Of Education Says No To Trump Administration’s Anti-DEI Mandate
MAGA Would Be Calling Black Democrats ‘DEI Hires’ If They Leaked White House War Plans
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois And Other States Refuse To Comply With The Trump Administration’s Anti-DEI Directives
was originally published on
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