New York public schools reject Trump DEI orders

New York state education officials rejected the Trump administration’s demand to do away with certain diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, rebuking the Department of Education amid threats of pulling funding over those efforts. 

The New York State Education Department (NYSED) officials said Friday, “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 D.E.I.,” Daniel Morton-Bentley, counsel and deputy commissioner of New York’s Department of Education, said in a Friday letter, obtained by The Hill, to the federal department. 

Morton-Bentley wrote in the letter that state education officials are “unaware” of any jurisdiction the Department of Education has to ax funding with an administrative process taking place.

“No student should be denied opportunity or treated differently because of their race. When state education commissioners accept federal funding, they undertake the obligation to abide by federal antidiscrimination law,” a Department of Education spokesperson said in an emailed statement to The Hill. “The Department is simply asking school districts to certify they are following the law and not using race preferences or pernicious race stereotypes in schools.” 

The department said it extended the deadline to April 25 to give “school districts ample time to review and certify their compliance.” 

The three-page letter came just a day after the administration told education officials around the country to affirm that all DEI programs, which it views as discriminatory, be eliminated and that they are complying with federal civil rights laws. If not, the federal government threatened to pull funding. 

Federal funds comprise about 6 percent of New York’s K-12 school funding. Federal funding made up about $2.2 billion of the New York City Public Schools’ budget for fiscal 2025. 

In the demand, Education Department acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said, “federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right.” 

He said many schools have flouted their legal obligations, “including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another,” according to The Associated Press. Federal officials threatened to halt Title I funding. 

In the department’s memo from Thursday, federal officials also referenced the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision that race-conscious admissions are unlawful in higher education. 

Morton-Bentley said the federal Department of Education is “entitled to make whatever policy pronouncement it wants – but cannot conflate policy with law.” 

“Given the fact that you are already in possession of guarantees by NYSED that it has and will comply with Title VI, no further certification will be forthcoming,” Morton-Bentley wrote in the letter.

Democrats on Capitol Hill told the Department of Education in late February to back off its threats of pulling funds from schools with DEI programs, The Hill reported. 

“Schools’ diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives simply aim to level the playing field and redress the ongoing harms of segregation and centuries of legal inequity, exclusion, and discrimination,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. 

Updated April 7 at 2:18 p.m. EDT