The education world received an unprecedented and sweeping “Valentine” on February 14 from the Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights in the Department of Education Craig Trainor, in which the Department declared race-based scholarships, cultural centers and even graduation ceremonies are illegal.
Click to view the PDF.
The letter, with its overly broad interpretation of the Supreme Court’s holding in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, amounts to a cease-and-desist letter for K-12 schools and universities that provide financial aid, housing, culturally based graduation ceremonies, and other programs to support an inclusive learning environment for our nation’s students. However, the Supreme Court holding in Students for Fair Admissions was applied to admissions practices only.
The letter claims American education institutions have discriminated for years on the basis of “pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences.” In politically charged language it states “in a shameful echo of a darker period in this country’s history, many American schools and universities even encourage segregation by race at graduation ceremonies and in dormitories and other facilities,” while later contradicting this statement, declaring these same institutions have “toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon the systemic and structural racism’ and advanced discriminatory policies and practices.”
If rounding up Native children and sending them to boarding schools to assimilate them wasn’t a shameful, dark period of our nation’s history, what was?
Studying the facts of our nation’s history, including the darker periods, is not toxic indoctrination. It is scholarship. All students have the right to know and study all our nation’s history. And all students have the right to know and study their cultures, their languages, and traditions as parts of the whole that make up this great nation.
Under footnote six of the letter, the acting assistant secretary concedes the document does not have the force and effect of law and does not bind the public or create new legal standards. It states the letter is designed to provide clarity to the public regarding existing legal requirements under Title VI, the Equal Protection Clause, and other federal civil rights and constitutional law principles.
But it does none of those things and instead provides disingenuous logic designed to eliminate programs that help students of all backgrounds, including Native students, to access and succeed in a welcoming learning environment.
Although the American Indian College Fund primarily serves tribal college and university students, many of our scholars also attend public colleges and universities as transfer, graduate, doctoral, medical, and law students. Higher education institutions should welcome and serve all of our children.
Yes, all students are entitled to a school environment free of discrimination, as the assistant secretary asserts. Programs that include and welcome Native students while celebrating their histories and cultures discriminate against no one and are not illegal discrimination or radical indoctrination.
Being “free” of discrimination does not mean Native students need to kill who they are and assimilate to get an education. We Indians have heard that before.
The letter ends by stating institutions have 14 days to comply with the Office of Civil Rights’ interpretation of federal law or risk losing funding.
Legislative Update February 21, 2025: Federal Judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against executive orders targeting DEI programs, delivering a significant blow to the administration’s efforts to eliminate these initiatives in federal contracting and higher education.
Judge Abelson ruled that the orders likely violate constitutional rights, particularly free speech protections, and granted the injunction.
The decision prevents several key actions: pausing or terminating existing federal contracts and grants related to DEI initiatives, requiring contractors to certify their DEI practices, or pursuing enforcement actions under the executive orders. The ruling maintains the status quo for institutions and organizations engaged in diversity work while the legal challenge proceeds. Read more here.
What you can do: Email comments to OCR@ed.gov or write to Office for Civil Rights, U.S Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20202. Please include in your comments your thoughts about the need for programs for inclusive access to higher education for all students in all fields to ensure national competitiveness.
