New York Says It Won’t Comply With Order to Dismantle DEI in Schools

State education officials in New York have rejected Trump administration’s demand to eliminate DEI practices from public schools.

U.S. Department of Education building in Washington on July 6, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

New York state officials have formally rejected the Trump administration’s order that public schools certify they have ended diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices, potentially putting federal education funding on the line.

In a letter dated April 4, Daniel Morton-Bentley, counsel and deputy commissioner for the New York State Education Department (NYSED), told the Department of Education that the state does not recognize the federal agency’s authority to impose such a requirement or to reinterpret civil rights law without proper administrative procedures.

“We understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity & inclusion,’” he wrote. “But there are no federal or State laws prohibiting the principles of DEI.”

The Education Department’s April 3 directive gave state and local education agencies 10 days to sign a legal certification affirming compliance with federal civil rights laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which bars schools from applying race-based criteria to admissions.

In the directive, the Department warned that school districts’ continued use of DEI practices seen as racially discriminatory could result in the loss of federal funding.

“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement. He said many schools have ignored their legal obligations, “including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”

The Department’s notice includes a multi-page legal analysis and requires state officials to report on compliance efforts at the local level, including signatures from individual school districts.

“The continued use of illegal DEI practices may subject the individual or entity using such practices to serious consequences,” the analysis states, noting that institutions that continue to use DEI practices in violation of federal law may incur “substantial liabilities” that include the prospect of litigation by the Department of Justice.

Morton-Bentley voiced opposition to the Education Department’s request, saying that NYSED had already certified its compliance with Title VI earlier this year as part of its approved federal education plan. He said that the new certification demand is based on a legally questionable interpretation of both Title VI and the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ruling.

“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,” he wrote.

He criticized what he described as a sudden policy reversal, pointing to remarks made in 2020 by then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who called diversity and inclusion “cornerstones of high organizational performance.” The current administration, Morton-Bentley wrote, has offered no explanation for the change in stance.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Education Department with a request for comment.

In a related development, the Department of Education and the Justice Department jointly announced the formation of a Title IX Special Investigations Team (SIT) aimed at fast-tracking civil rights enforcement in K–12 schools. The SIT will focus on schools that allow transgender-identifying males to participate in girls’ sports or access female-only spaces.

“To all the entities that continue to allow men to compete in women’s sports and use women’s intimate facilities: there’s a new sheriff in town,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “We will not allow you to get away with denying women’s civil rights any longer.”

Since returning to the White House for a second term, President Donald Trump has taken executive action to dismantle DEI initiatives in government and taxpayer-funded institutions, and to reaffirm the legal definition of sex based on biological characteristics rather than gender identities.

While critics view DEI initiatives as a form of identity-based discrimination that undermines meritocracy, supporters say such policies reduce discrimination and ensure greater representation for historically marginalized groups.

Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order—titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”—made it national policy to recognize male and female as the only two sexes, noting that these are “not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”