Critics say New York public school officials hold diversity, equity, and inclusion above all else, certainly above a proper academic education. By defying the Trump administration’s order to end DEI or lose $2 billion in federal funding, they seem to want to prove those critics right.
In a statement last week, New York public school officials refused to comply and certify that DEI was shut down. Daniel Morton-Bentley, counsel and deputy commissioner of the state’s Department of Education, argued that the Trump administration lacks legal grounds to end federal funding without an administrative process.
“We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity & inclusion,’” Morton-Bentley said in a letter to the Education Department. “But there are no federal or State laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.”
The statement was in response to a Feb. 14 directive from the Education Department ordering K-12 schools nationwide to confirm compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. New York’s defiance has put New York City’s school system at risk of losing federal dollars, which supply roughly 5% of its education budget.
The state’s claim that DEI principles are in line with the Civil Rights Act is dubious.
New York City‘s Diversity in Admissions pilot program is a textbook example of a Title VI violation because its focus on increasing black and Latino enrollment comes at the expense of other racial groups. The 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard held that Harvard’s use of race in admissions violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and, by extension, Title VI. This established the precedent that race-based admissions are discriminatory. The DIA pilot program and other similar efforts, which are common in DEI initiatives, must be ended for New York to comply with the law.
DEI programs, as most can attest, five years after the “racial reckoning” of 2020, violate Title VI’s nondiscrimination mandate in several other ways and actively undermine the Civil Rights Act’s core principles. The material promotes stereotyping, and research suggests it exacerbates racial hostility. People preconditioned with DEI narratives, particularly involving “systemic oppression,” are more likely to make unwarranted accusations of discrimination. Rather than promote racial healing and harmony, DEI initiatives generate and amplify disharmony, without which the DEI industry would cease to exist. DEI practitioners have become corrupt, holding vested interests that act against the nation and its children.
Teaching young minds to view every circumstance through a racial lens — and worse, to categorize all people as either “oppressors” or “oppressed” — breeds resentment and paranoia. This probably violates Title VI by fostering racially charged atmospheres that harm students. Five years was an ample opportunity to see if such programs could reimagine and improve social relations in the spirit of the Civil Rights Act. We can now say they accomplish just the opposite.
Should the New York school system continue to resist the Trump administration’s legally robust directive, it will punish the students it purports to care about most. The 5% of New York City’s education budget that it stands to lose supports the most vulnerable students, especially through Title I funds that aid schools with the highest percentage of low-income students. These funds pay for paraprofessionals, mental health services, technology upgrades, after-school programs, and enrichment activities such as dance, art, and music. All this stands to be sacrificed on the altar of ideological activism.
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The reduced funding would likely prompt more families to quit public schools, particularly in New York City, which has seen an 11% drop in enrollment from pre-COVID-19 levels. This is sad news for the students trapped in failing schools because school budgets rely on per-pupil funding. This means fewer new teachers can be hired and bigger class sizes, in addition to the reduced services normally funded by the federal government.
None of this matters to the radical activists in charge of New York schools. For them, ideology trumps education.
