by Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen May 2, 2025,
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Vartika Sharma for ProPublica
Reporting Highlights Hollowed Out: The administration has closed Education Department civil rights offices and fired workers. Now, investigating discrimination in schools is practically “impossible.”
New Priorities: The civil rights office has abandoned its traditional priorities. Instead, it is trying to limit the rights of transgender students and rid schools of diversity efforts.
Pushing Back: Advocates, school districts and others are filing lawsuits and trying other methods to halt the administration’s efforts…
DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It’s a framework that promotes fair treatment and full participation for all people, particularly those who have been historically underrepresented or discriminated against.
DEI initiatives aim to create workplaces and communities that are more inclusive, equitable, and representative of the diverse world around us. They often involve policies, training, and programs designed to address biases, promote understanding, and ensure that everyone has a voice and a chance to succeed…
President Donald Trump’s efforts to crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs suffered a major legal blow Thursday as three separate judges – two of them appointed by the president – ruled against a Department of Education policy that threatened to withhold federal funding for schools engaging in DEI or incorporating race in certain ways in many other aspects of student life.
The policy was first laid out in a so-called Dear Colleague letter sent to schools in February. Starting this month, schools receiving federal funding would be subject to certain certification mandates requiring that they turn over information regarding their compliance with the Trump administration’s prohibitions.
US District Judge Landya McCafferty said in a scathing opinion that the administration’s policy, was “textbook viewpoint discrimination,” likely violating the First Amendment’s free speech protections. She and another judge, US District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, also concluded that the policy was likely unconstitutionally vague.
She also concluded that the National Education Association, the administration’s opponent in the case, was likely to succeed in its arguments that the policy was unconstitutionally vague and that the agency ran afoul of procedural steps required by law in how it implemented the policy.
“The ban on DEI embodied in the 2025 Letter leaves teachers with a Hobson’s Choice,” McCafferty, a Barack Obama appointee who sits in New Hampshire, wrote, noting that the educators must choose between teaching curricula that invites penalty from the federal government or risking their professional credentials by aiding the Trump policy.
“The Constitution requires more,” she wrote.
Friedrich, a Trump appointee who announced her ruling after a hearing Thursday in Washington DC, said that the letter failed to “delineate between a lawful DEI practice and an unlawful one,” making the task of reviewing compliance too difficult.
The third ruling against the policy came from Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee who sits in Baltimore. She found that the Dear Colleague letter ran afoul of procedural requirements required by law for implementing new agency policy.
“This Court takes no view as to whether the policies at issue here are good or bad, prudent or foolish, fair or unfair,” Gallagher said in her ruling. “But this Court is constitutionally required to closely scrutinize whether the government went about creating and implementing them in the manner the law requires. The government did not.”
The rulings come after the Trump administration reached a short-term agreement with the challengers in the New Hampshire case to pause enforcement of the policy while the judge considered whether to issue a preliminary injunction. That agreement was set to expire on Thursday.
Trump has waged war on DEI efforts since the start of his second term and has taken action against several elite universities, demanding changes to their DEI programs. The administration has already rolled back DEI programs, arrested international students and revoked their visas, and frozen federal funding for schools that have refused to submit to its demands.
The administration froze over $2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts at Harvard University after its leaders refused to make key policy changes, including eliminating DEI programs, resulting in a clash over academic freedom, federal funding and campus oversight as Harvard sued the federal government.
Policy changes were also demanded of Columbia University, though the school later announced several changes to address the Trump administration’s demands, an apparent concession to the federal government.
The NAACP, which filed the case in DC’s federal court, said Friedrich’s ruling “is a victory for Black and Brown students across the country, whose right to an equal education has been directly threatened by this Administration’s corrosive actions and misinterpretations of civil rights law.”
The group representing the teachers’ associations and public school district that sued over the policy in Baltimore also celebrated the ruling there.
“This ruling is a win for educators, students and communities across the nation,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said. “The nationwide injunction will pause at least part of the chaos the Trump administration is unleashing in classrooms and learning communities throughout the country.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Sunlen Serfaty and Emily R. Condon contributed to this report.
Trump’s pick for our precious Children’s Secretary of Education is an absolute disgrace… He is making a mockery of quality of their future’s success …
Linda McMahon as the Secretary of Education makes Betsy DeVos almost capable…
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon may have had a juicy steak in mind while speaking at a panel earlier this week because she confused artificial intelligence, also known as AI, with A1, the same name as the popular sauce brand.
McMahon, 76, made the mix-up on April 8 while speaking at the ASU+GSV Summit, an event focusing on educational innovation. The former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) initially referred to the acronym for artificial intelligence correctly, saying, “You know, AI development – I mean, how can we educate at the speed of light if we don’t have the best technology around to do that?”
Things got sticky as McMahon’s speech continued: “A school system that’s going to start making sure that first graders, or even pre-Ks, have A1 teaching in every year. That’s a wonderful thing!”
“Kids are sponges. They just absorb everything,” she added. “It wasn’t all that long ago that it was, ‘We’re going to have internet in our schools!’ Now let’s see A1 and how can that be helpful.”
‘Every school should have access to A.1.’ A.1. Sauce capitalized on McMahon’s blunder by posting an Instagram post on their verified account saying, “You heard her. Every school should have access to A.1.”
Agree, best to start them early,” the picture attached to the post reads.
Other Instagram users loved the response from the Kraft Heinz-owned brand. One user even commented, “I will be buying a bottle or two because of this post.”
People online have even joined in on poking fun at McMahon, with one X user saying, “Education Secretary Linda McMahon keeps referring to AI as A1 and talking about how it will help ‘students at all levels.’ But how can we get those kids to drink it? Linda added, ‘The smarter kids can move up to Thousand Island Dressing'”
USA TODAY contacted Kraft Heinz and the U.S. Department of Education on Saturday but has not received a response…
NikkiFried @FlaDems #FloridaTeacher ♥️🍎 #ProtectOurKids 🙏🏼♥️🍎📚 Maga World… Nearly “2,000 “residents of the retirement community known as The Villages, 20 miles south of Ocala, Florida, joined thousands across the United States in a “Hands Off!” protest against President Donald Trump and one of his top advisers,billionaire Elon Musk, a spokesperson for the mobilizing coalition told Newsweek on Saturday…
Donald Trump just issued an executive order calling for the U.S. Department of Education to be dismantled and ceasing many of its activities.
Please email your elected officials in Congress right now and urge them to stop the destruction of the Education Department.
The consequences are real, and it’s students who will be harmed most.
Students in every community of our country—in rural, suburban, and urban areas—benefit from programs run by the Department of Education.
Dismantling the department will:
increase class sizes, steal resources from our most vulnerable students, take away services for students with ADHD, dyslexia, and other disabilities, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach, and gut student civil rights protections. We need your help to stop this power sieze so we can protect the incredible programs run by the Department of Education.
We can’t let billionaires take a wrecking ball to public education. Please write your lawmakers right now.
It is very clear these measures do nothing to support our students or equip them for their futures. This is an orchestrated plan to strip vital resources and federal funding from public schools and give them to private schools.
We won’t be silent as anti-public education politicians hurt our students, our families, and our communities across America.
Together, we will continue to organize, advocate, and mobilize so that all students have well-resourced schools that provide an honest, accurate, and inclusive curriculum that prepares them for the future.
In solidarity,
Becky Pringle President National Education Association
Take Action ➤
“Stop the Destruction of the Department of Education…
Coming out of a Pandemic…Children are still being singled out… banning of books, inclusivity and the need for gun reform…
Our children must be a priority…They may be relying on social media too much… rather than healthy social interaction…
Parents, teachers, schools must be united and involved… working together…It takes a village…
And here we are today… Trump being reelected… All of us, together…United, We must move forward for our precious children’s future…
Children are careful watchers, observers of what is happening all around… They see the Truth immediately… (◍•ᴗ•◍)❤-Osho- Our precious children are watching and dealing with all the political divisiveness that is contributing to their physical and emotional well-being… Coming out of a Pandemic…Children are still being singled out… banning of books, inclusivity and the need […]
When will our precious children be a priority??!! Dept of Education is so needed…as a monitoring agency… It is now on the chopping block…!!!???
PUBLIC SCHOOL IS THE BEST DEFENSE OF A DEMOCRATIC NATION …
Not sure where this “parents-should- control-what-is-taught-in-schools- because-they-are-our-kids” is originating, but parents do have the option to choose to send their kids to a hand-selected private school at their own expense if this is what they desire. The purpose of a public education in a public school is not to teach kids only what parents want them to be taught. It is to teach them what society needs them to know. The client of the public school is not the parent, but the entire community, the public …
Senate confirms McMahon to lead Education Department as Trump pushes to shut it down
Since the day she was nominated, we have exposed Linda McMahon for who she is and what she will do.
We will unite—educators, parents, and anyone else who cares about public schools.
We will not be silent as billionaires gut the Department of Education—which will lead to larger class sizes and the loss of programs that help students with ADHD, autism, and other disabilities—all to pay for tax cuts that benefit them.
We will lift our voices. We will remind our elected officials that they work for us. We will fight to protect our students and our public schools.
In solidarity,
Becky Pringle President National Education Association
FloridaTeacher♥️🍎 Linda McMahon’s background in education is limited… Her vision will be to unwind the Department of Education…
Maga Republicans fail to advocate for every one of our precious children. All our Precious Children must receive a strong public education that empowers and uplifts them.
And then we wonder why our precious children have issues…
Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Education, testifies during her confirmation hearing on Thursday in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Linda McMahon
Nominated for: secretary of education
You might know her from: Linda McMahon is most well-known for leading World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and helping to build it into a multibillion-dollar business. She also led the U.S. Small Business Administration for about two years under President Trump’s first term.
More about McMahon:
McMahon's background in education is limited...
She served for about one year on Connecticut’s State Board of Education. Up until recently, not much was known about McMahon’s policy positions on education. In January, she shared more about where she stands, including that she supports expanding school choice and career and technical education opportunities for students. She held leadership positions at WWE for nearly three decades, including CEO. If confirmed, McMahon would oversee an agency the president has already moved to diminish.
Executive actions
Nearly two weeks before McMahon appeared to lay out her vision for the Education Department, the White House made clear:
Her vision will be to unwind the department…
The White House confirmed that it is preparing to take executive action to shutter department programs that are not protected by law, and will call on McMahon, once confirmed, to draw up a blueprint for Congress to close the department entirely.
During Thursday’s hearing, the committee’s Republican chairman, Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, asked McMahon to elaborate on these plans.
“We’d like to do this right,” McMahon said, saying she would present Congress with a plan to dismantle the department “that I think our senators could get on board with.”
The department cannot be officially closed through executive action alone. It was created by an act of Congress in 1979 and can only be closed by an act of Congress.
Multiple senators asked whether the department’s dismantling would include cuts not just to the department but to the federal funding for K-12 schools it administers, including Title I (for students in lower-income communities) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, for students with disabilities).
McMahon said repeatedly that she considers the department separate from the funding. The former, she said, can be dismantled without affecting the latter. “It is not the president’s goal to defund the programs. It was only to have it operate more efficiently.”
Later, McMahon elaborated that IDEA funding, for example, is protected by statute and would not be targeted for cuts. But, she offered, it might be more effectively administered by a different agency, perhaps the Department of Health and Human Services.
To that, New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Hassan scoffed: “I just want to be clear, you’re going to put special education into the hands of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”
Maga Republicans fail to advocate for every one of our precious children. All our Precious Children must receive a strong public education that empowers and uplifts them.
Janis Sexton...Teacher...Advocate 