Red states get in line with Trump’s DEI ban in schools as compliance deadline nears
President Donald Trump has extended the deadline to April 24 for states and school districts to certify compliance with his executive order banning DEI policies, a Department of Education spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital.
“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right. When state education commissioners accept federal funds, they agree to abide by federal anti-discrimination requirements,” acting Assistant Secretary Craig Trainor said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, we have seen too many schools flout or outright violate these obligations, including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another based on identity characteristics in clear violation of Title VI.”
So far, several states have either certified their compliance or signaled their intent to do so, while blue states like New York, Minnesota and Illinois signaled defiance this week in the face of the administration’s funding threat. Education Secretary Linda McMahon commended Puerto Rico in a post on X “for being the first to certify that discrimination or harmful race-preferencing is not allowed in your classrooms.”
“Every state that wants to continue receiving federal funds should follow suit,” McMahon said Tuesday.
On Monday, Willie Jett, Minnesota’s education commissioner, said DEI-related funding threats “without backing in law or established requirements put key programs at risk that students and schools depend on every day.”
Illinois’ education board also issued a scathing response to the threats, saying the administration “is once again threatening funding for Illinois’ children and attempting to exert power over every district in the country — even as it claims it’s returning education to the states.”
“Illinois will never waver in its commitment to helping every child from every community, background, socioeconomic status, gender, and race — which is consistent with federal and state laws and our values,” the board said in a statement.
Federal funding accounts for 16% of the Chicago Public Schools budget — over $1 billion — and $6.4 billion statewide, according to a report from Axios Thursday.
Wisconsin is also bucking Trump’s demands, and the state’s Department of Public Instruction published a letter raising “several concerns” with the president’s certification requirements Wednesday.
Benjamin Jones, an attorney representing Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction, wrote in a letter that Wisconsin had already “certified assurances of compliance with federal law,” including “federal statutes related to nondiscrimination.”
He called Trump’s order “unauthorized, unlawful and unconstitutionally vague.”
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“We are deeply concerned that the [certification requirement] allows the federal bureaucracy to threaten the loss of crucial education funding in order to dictate local education agency policies and decisions on what is best for kids,” the letter states.
But Trump is gaining support from other Republican-led states, and several are already pushing for stricter bans on DEI initiatives at public colleges. States like West Virginia, Iowa, Indiana, Texas and Ohio have considered or put forth measures to restrict DEI programs, training and scholarships. In Ohio, the state Senate passed a bill to eliminate DEI-related activities, while Indiana’s Senate proposed legislation that would prohibit faculty members from endorsing DEI with penalties for noncompliance.
New Hampshire’s Department of Education has advised school leaders to evaluate their DEI programs for compliance with the new federal directives, and the Indiana Department of Education also announced it will collect signatures from districts and schools verifying their compliance.
The certification document cites Title IX, stating no one “shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
The certification comes after a Dear Colleague letter from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights was sent in February telling K-12 school districts and universities to end all “admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life” on the basis of race.
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In January, Trump issued the “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” executive order, which prohibits K-12 schools from teaching materials considered anti-American or promoting “gender ideology” and critical race theory. The order mandates that law enforcement investigate educational institutions suspected of promoting such content and criminally prosecute educators who assist in the social transition of minors.