Judges block Trump threat to cut school funding over DEI, rulings extend to California
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- A federal judge has blocked a Trump administration directive forbidding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in K-12 public schools.
- The guidance had warned schools that continuing such practices could lead to a termination of federal grants and contracts.
- The National Education Assn. and the American Civil Liberties Union sued.
CONCORD, N.H. — A federal judge in New Hampshire on Thursday blocked Trump administration directives that threatened to cut federal funding for public schools with diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a ruling that extends to California.
The ruling came in a lawsuit by the National Education Assn. and the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused the Republican administration of violating teachers’ due process and 1st Amendment rights.
A second judge on Thursday postponed the effective date of some U.S. Education Department anti-DEI guidance, ruling in a separate case filed by the American Federation of Teachers in Maryland.
A spokesperson for the California Department of Education expressed satisfaction with the judges’ decisions.
“We are grateful for today’s ruling, which protects California students’ and educators’ continuous access to the educational resources that have been allocated to them by Congress,” department spokesperson Liz Sanders said in an email. “In California, we will continue to focus on providing opportunities for our students, not taking resources from them.”
In February, the U.S. Education Department told schools and colleges they needed to end any practice that differentiates people based on their race or they would risk losing their federal funding. This month, the department followed up, ordering states to gather signatures from local school systems certifying compliance with civil rights laws, including the rejection of what the federal government calls “illegal DEI practices.”
The directives do not carry the force of law but threaten to use civil rights enforcement to rid schools of DEI practices. Schools were warned that continuing such practices “in violation of federal law” could lead to U.S. Justice Department litigation and a termination of federal grants and contracts.
California receives about $16.3 billion per year, though the funding amount is difficult to calculate because it arrives through multiple channels, including funding for school meals, students with disabilities and early education Head Start programs. The Los Angeles Unified School District has estimated that it receives about $1.26 billion a year, somewhat less than 10% of its annual budget from federal funding.
L.A. Unified Board Member Tanya Ortiz Franklin called on community members, parents and educators to “remain vigilant” as Trump’s directives continue to impact public schools. She said the Trump administration holds an “outlandish misunderstanding of diversity, equity and inclusion, I am not convinced that this is the end of the President’s threats to our most vulnerable students.”
U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty in New Hampshire said the April letter does not make clear what the department believes a DEI program entails or when it believes such programs cross the line into violating civil rights law. “The Letter does not even define what a ‘DEI program’ is,” McCafferty wrote.
The judge also said there is reason to believe the department’s actions amount to a violation of teachers’ free speech rights.
“A professor runs afoul of the 2025 Letter if she expresses the view in her teaching that structural racism exists in America, but does not do so if she denies structural racism’s existence. That is textbook viewpoint discrimination,” McCafferty wrote.
California will not comply with Trump order to certify its 1,000 school districts have ended diversity, equity and inclusion programs -- risking federal dollars.
An Education Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Education Department had given states until the end of Thursday to submit certification of their schools’ compliance, but some — including California — indicated they would not comply with the order. Education officials in some Democratic-led states as well as education experts have said the administration is overstepping its authority and that there is nothing illegal about DEI.
“Discrimination, harassment, abuse, and violence are unlawful, but DEI policies and activities that aim to address those ills in schools and colleges are not,” said Shaun Harper, a USC professor of education, public policy, and business. “I hope more judges stop the Trump administration from illegally tearing down everything related to DEI, especially in the absence of evidence confirming wrongdoing, divisiveness, and destructive wokeness.”
The Feb. 14 memo from the department, formally known as a “Dear Colleague” letter, said schools have promoted DEI efforts at the expense of white and Asian American students. It dramatically expands the interpretation of a 2023 Supreme Court decision barring the use of race in college admissions to all aspects of education, including, hiring, promotion, scholarships, housing, graduation ceremonies and campus life.
In the ruling in Maryland, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher postponed that memo. She found it was improperly issued and forces teachers to choose between “being injured through suppressing their speech or through facing enforcement for exercising their constitutional rights.”
Schools are on alert after the Department of Education said it would cut federal funding unless they abolished diversity, equity and inclusion programs, potentially including culturally themed campus housing and graduation ceremonies.
“The court agreed that this vague and clearly unconstitutional requirement is a grave attack on students, our profession, honest history and knowledge itself,” Randi Weingarten, president of the teachers federation, said in a statement.
The lawsuits argue that the guidance limits academic freedom and is so vague it leaves schools and educators in limbo about what they may do, such as whether voluntary student groups for minority students are still allowed.
Ramer and Binkley write for the Associated Press, Sequeira for The Times.
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