(WASHINGTON) — In a significant escalation of the attacks on free expression and inclusivity in schools, the Department of Education has issued a new directive that threatens federal funding to K-12 schools by conditioning funds on compliance with the Trump administration’s viewpoint on diversity, equity and inclusion, PEN America said today. The free expression group called it an “authoritarian tactic” to coerce schools to fall in line with its ideology.
A memo sent Thursday from the Department of Education informed state education officials that they must effectively eliminate school programs and instruction related to race, ethnicity, and national origin perceived as promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) under the administration’s skewed interpretation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. State and district education officials were given 10 days to certify compliance with this order, or federal funding could be withheld.
“This is an authoritarian tactic to coerce schools to fall in line with the Trump administration’s ideology,” said McKenna Samson, manager of Education Policy at PEN America. “It is a cruel irony that the federal government is weaponizing civil rights law to further a discriminatory agenda. The erasure of inclusive content in schools will have devastating consequences on young people, in particular students of color, disabled students, and LGBTQ+ students.”
While the Trump administration has claimed it is dedicated to “returning education back to the states”, the administration has repeatedly made efforts to enact federally mandated censorship of schools across the country. Over the last two and a half months, the Trump administration has sought to remove elements of school programming that allegedly “discourages members of all races from attending, either by excluding or discouraging students of a particular race or races, or by creating hostile environments based on race for students who do participate.”
The ongoing federal-level assault on K-12 schools under the guise of eradicating DEI has included everything from cutting teacher training funding and removing books from Department of Defense schools, to halting civil rights investigations in schools and excluding trans girls from sports. Similar policies in some states have had a disastrous impact at the state level in recent years. The Department of Education has failed to define which programs violate its interpretation of civil rights laws.
Samson said: “This directive, with its wildly unreasonable 10-day window for compliance, is a recipe for censorship. It will no doubt have a chilling effect on school districts nationwide as officials scramble to identify which programs might violate this order. We call on the Department of Education to halt this thinly-veiled campaign of intimidation and ideological censorship, and to support our public schools rather than working to undermine them.”
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org.
Contact: Suzanne Trimel, STrimel@PEN.org, (201) 247-5057