The U.S. Department of Education has given schools and universities that receive federal funding an ultimatum: eliminate diversity initiatives or risk losing federal funding.
The Education Department has directed institutions, from preschools to colleges, to stop using "racial preferences" in admissions, financial aid, hiring and other areas in a letter sent last week. The directive extends President Trump's executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs as part of his fight against "wokeness."
Craig Trainor, the department's acting assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote in the letter to school and college administrators that treating students differently based on race violates the Supreme Court's 2023 ruling on affirmative action and "breaks the law."
The funding at risk includes Title IV, student loans, state funding for curriculum development, free or reduced lunch programs, and support for students with special needs, among others.
President Trump's executive actions aimed at eliminating DEI efforts across various institutions has drawn strong criticism and legal challenges. The American Association of University Professors, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, and other groups argue in a lawsuit filed this month that Trump's orders exceed executive authority, violate the First and Fifth Amendments, and threaten academic freedom and access to higher education.
Cynthia Jackson-Hammond, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, told Morning Edition's Leila Fadel that meeting the two-week deadline will be a challenge for school administrators because it requires them to change their core value systems.
"There's a fine line between removing programs that are considered to be discriminatory by race and removing programs that speak to a cultural or ethnicity support for students," Jackson-Hammond said. "So this is not going to be a quick and easy kind of examination."
She added that the education department's letter is vague and doesn't exactly lay out what is meant by DEI or what eliminating it entails.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Leila Fadel: When you read this letter from the Department of Education, what was your initial reaction?
Cynthia Jackson-Hammond: I thought the letter was very overreaching. I thought it was threatening. And it certainly does demean the principles of institutional autonomy in higher education. It is very vague, and we must remember that it is guidance and not the law.
Fadel: Well, what are you hearing from college administrations about what they're going to do?
Jackson-Hammond: Well, the first thing to set is a two-week span that they have to do a real assessment as to whether or not any of their programs fit the vagueness of this letter. I think that some will seek legal recourse, as some will begin to do a deep dive to examine if any of their programs are violating the law. And that is a process that would take more than two weeks. But I'm sure that they will do that level of investigation.
Fadel: But do they know how to comply? You mentioned the vagueness. Will this impact what school libraries can carry? Will it change what schools can teach? Do administrators have an understanding of how to comply?
Jackson-Hammond: I don't think that they have a full understanding. And that is the problem with this "dear colleague" letter, which is far from being collegial. They will have opportunities to look – first at their programs – and then do a deep dive with other, less obvious examples of programming that they may not have even thought about as being discriminatory to any group. Institutions are there to support their students regardless of their race, culture or ethnicity. There's a fine line between removing programs that are considered to be discriminatory by by race and removing programs that speak to a cultural or ethnicity support for students.
Fadel: The letter from the DOE says that right now schools and colleges are treating students differently on the basis of race. And it claims that race-based programs have hurt white and Asian students in particular. Is this an accurate description of what diversity, equity and inclusion programs do at schools and colleges?
Jackson-Hammond: No, it's not. These are subjective inaccuracies that's presented in this letter in an effort to be inclusive and to provide value to the educational process for all students. There's nothing in the guidelines of institutions that said that only these students or only one particular group of students would benefit from this form of program. So that kind of language is not there.
Fadel: Is structural and systemic racism that minority communities face in the United States, particularly Black Americans, a false premise as this letter states?
Jackson-Hammond: If the premises were false, then there would be no need to have these kinds of support systems for all students. We have to go back and look historically at what America has done to alienate or to keep students of certain race or certain culture from the educational experience. If it were never identified as such, then the need for diversity, equity and inclusion would not have been needed.
Fadel: Describe to me some of the diversity, equity and inclusion programs, what they do and what their goal is. If they're not around, what happens?
Jackson-Hammond: Too often we focus just on diversity. And the second part of diversity, equity and inclusion is equity, which means fairness. How do you present policies, practices and procedures that are fair to everyone, including faculty, staff and students? Being able to have programs that support women in leadership or women just in the work environment – that's fairness. Prior to the constructs of DEI, there was very little alternatives or options for women to have a fair and equal chance to succeed in the communities or in higher education in general.
Fadel: And if colleges and schools lose this funding, what happens?.
Jackson-Hammond: If they lose their funding, I hope that colleges and institutions do not lose their integrity, their principles and their values just to appease funding. I think that there would be community support to allow them to do the programs that represent the values of that institution.
Olivia Hampton edited the radio version of this story.
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