California on Friday defied a Trump administration order to certify that the state’s 1,000 school districts have ended all diversity, equity and inclusion programs despite federal threats to cut billions of dollars in education funding if the state does not comply.
The U.S. Department of Education has given states until April 24 to collect certifications from every school district in the nation — confirming that all DEI efforts have been eliminated, as it contends such programs are a form of race-based discrimination and violate civil rights laws.
In a letter to school district superintendents Friday, the California Department of Education, or CDE, defended the legality of DEI efforts.
“There is nothing in state or federal law … that outlaws the broad concepts of ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ or ‘inclusion,’” wrote Chief Deputy Supt. David Schapira in the letter to school districts, county education offices and charter schools.
CDE also sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Education about the decision not to comply — and said the federal request was vague.
“It is also unclear which specific programs or activities [the federal agency] seeks to regulate by this certification, although the request for certification references ‘certain DEI practices’ or ‘illegal DEI.’ It does not define such…”
Although federal funding for education is challenging to calculate and arrives through multiple channels, some tallies put the figure at $16.3 billion per year in California — including money 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.
Sixteen states are attempting to comply with the order, including New Hampshire, North Carolina and Texas. Ten others have refused — including New York, Wisconsin and Oregon, according to a state-by-state tracker compiled by the news site Education Week.
California’s decision was foreshadowed by an April 4 letter to school leaders noting that school districts regularly and routinely affirm that they are complying with federal law and “have already submitted such assurances” and compliance is “monitored annually through … multiple accounting mechanisms.”
The U.S. Department of Education did not immediately respond Friday to the decision by California.
However, Education Secretary Linda McMahon on social media praised the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico for complying. She also praised New Hampshire for posting the certifications from individual school districts.
A small number of California school systems are controlled by pro-Trump leadership. These include Chino Valley Unified, which has bypassed state education officials and certified directly to federal officials.
“This was a no-brainer for us,” said school board President Sonja Shaw, who is a Republican candidate for state superintendent of public instruction. “I want to make it absolutely clear: Our focus remains where it belongs — on reading, writing, math and achieving the best outcomes for our students… not in the ideologies and divisiveness that the state of California, [Gov.] Gavin Newsom and his cronies continue to push.”
The federal demand follows a Feb. 14 letter in which the U.S. Department of Education told all K-12 school districts and higher education institutions to end the consideration of race in “admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”
Since then, many colleges and universities in California and throughout the country have eliminated diversity efforts, scrubbing references from their websites.
The certification demand is a next step in the enforcement process, federal officials said.
“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement. He said many schools have flouted their legal obligations, “including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”
The certification form includes several pages of legal analysis in support of the administration’s demands, which are based, in large part, on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to ban affirmative action in college admissions through a lawsuit brought against Harvard University.
Trainor quoted Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who said: “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”
But following the reasoning of other states that refuse to comply, California challenged Trainor’s conclusions in its April 11 letter to the U.S. Department of Education.
“We are concerned that [the Department of Education] seemingly seeks to change the terms and conditions of California’s award without formal administrative process,” the letter stated. The U.S. agency “cannot make changes to legal assurances and impose new requirements on recipients without adhering to rule-making procedures.”
The letter is signed by Len Garfinkel, general counsel for the California Department of Education, and by Kirin K. Gill, chief counsel for the State Board of Education.
In their refusal, New York officials directly challenged the linkage to the Supreme Court case cited by Trainor.
A recent statement from L.A. Unified approached the issue with caution, saying the school system would follow state guidance in complying with federal law.
The Trump administration already has issued similar threats over school funding to school districts and states over policies related to transgender students and sex education curriculum. On Friday, the department announced an enforcement action against the state of Maine that could lead to withdrawing federal education funding.
In a separate action, federal officials have launched an investigation of the California Department of Education for allegedly withholding from parents information about changes to their child’s gender identity, once again with billions of dollars potentially at stake.
Federal officials contend that the California law, called the SAFETY Act, violates a federal law that guarantees parents’ access to their child’s school records. They say the federal law, called the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act or FERPA, takes precedence.
On Friday, state education officials also responded to this investigation by defending the state law.
‘There is no conflict between California’s SAFETY Act and FERPA,” said state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond.
“Today, California affirmed existing and continued compliance with federal laws while we stay the course to move the needle for all students,” Thurmond said. “As our responses to the United States Department of Education state, and as the plain text of state and federal laws affirm, there is nothing unlawful about broad core values such as diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
He added: “I am proud of our students, educators, and school communities, who continue to focus on teaching and learning despite federal actions intended to distract and disrupt.”
Times staff writer Daniel Miller contributed to this report.
