As the nation’s first school district, the Eugene School District has joined a federal lawsuit contesting the Trump administration’s directive that educational institutions must end racial discrimination or face losing federal funds.
About 16,000 pupils are enrolled in the Willamette Valley district, which is located in a city that has long been recognized for its strong Democratic and progressive inclinations. The American Federation of Teachers spearheaded the lawsuit, which was submitted to the U.S. District Court in Maryland on Tuesday.
Jenny Jonak, the head of the Eugene school board, stated that her school district and all other districts in Oregon would be in an impossible situation if they complied with the administration’s Dear Colleaguememo.
School board members stated that if Eugene followed Trump’s directive, it would violate the state’s mandated academic content standards, which include teaching tribal history and ethnic studies. Additionally, it jeopardizes Eugene’s own objectives, which are comparable to those of the majority of Oregon districts, if not all of them, to support organizations that can lower dropout rates and provide students a sense of belonging at school.
However, breaking the order might put Eugene and other school districts at risk of losing vital federal funds for things like special education, students from low-income families, and school meal programs.
According to Jonak’s news release, the U.S. Department of Education’s directions are so unclear and imprecise that it is difficult to determine what could jeopardize federal funds from an operational perspective.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has not indicated that it would change its position, which it claims will put a stop to discrimination against Asian and white students.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, a new public site called EndDEI.ed.gov was launched on Thursday with the goal of enabling parents, students, teachers, and the general public to report instances of racial or sexual discrimination in publicly funded K–12 schools. According to the agency, the objective was to eradicate rogue sex education and divisive views from the country’s public schools.
According to the organization, submissions will be examined and utilized as a roadmap to determine possible research topics.
The Eugene school system has joined the complaint, which claims that the memo from the Education Department dated February 14 violates the First and Fifth Amendments.
The organizations claim that requiring schools to teach just the viewpoints that the federal government supports violates free expression and that the direction is so ambiguous that schools are unable to determine what behaviors are unacceptable.
According to the lawsuit, this letter drastically alters and rewrites previously well-established jurisprudence. The Supreme Court has not prohibited initiatives to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in education, and no federal law forbids teaching about race or issues linked to race.
The Trump administration has used a Supreme Court rule that prohibits the use of race in college admissions to support its directive, claiming that the finding is more generally applicable to all federally financed institutions.
Julia Silverman writes about Oregon’s K–12 education system. You can email her at [email protected].
