The U.S. Department of Education has threatened to withhold education funds from states and school districts that continue their diversity, equality, and inclusion initiatives, but Democratic attorneys general from 19 states are retaliating.
The attorneys general argue in a lawsuit filed Friday in the U.S. District Court of the District of Massachusetts that the Education Department is imposing “onerous” and “excruciatingly difficult” requirements on states with an April directive that requires school districts and states to attest to their knowledge that it is a violation of Title VI to use DEI programs to favor one person’s race over another.
Through a “vague, confusing, and incorrect interpretation” of the Act that fails to identify the DEI categories it seeks to abolish and alleges are illegally discriminatory, the attorneys general contend in the lawsuit that the Education Department is endangering over $14 billion in funding.
This lawsuit is the most recent attack on the Education Department’s anti-DEI policies, which were criticized by federal judges last week in three different cases brought by the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and the NAACP.
Both the certification requirement and a previous February 14 Dear Colleague letter—which one court deemed to be “unconstitutionally vague”—are affected by the injunctions granted in both cases.
The Trump administration’s interpretation of Title VI, which forbids discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs receiving federal funding, served as the foundation for both directives.
Judge Landya McCafferty of the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire, who rendered a decision in the National Education Association’s lawsuit, stated that the administration’s threats to cut off funding to school systems with DEI programs “raise the specter of a public ‘witch hunt’ that will sow fear and doubt among teachers.”
According to a statement from the California Office of Attorney General, the coalition of attorneys general filed a 55-page lawsuit on Friday, claiming that the Education Department’s attempts to stop federal education funding are based on a “misinterpretation” of Title VI and violate the Spending Clause, the Appropriations Clause, the separation of powers, and the Administrative Procedures Act.
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California, Colorado, Delaware, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin are among the 19 states that filed the lawsuit.
