Second teachers union sues US Education Department over letter barring DEI practices
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Education Department faces yet another lawsuit over its sweeping Dear Colleague letter threatening to rescind federal funds for schools that use race-conscious practices across aspects of student life.
The National Education Association — the country’s largest labor union — along with the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire. NEA’s New Hampshire affiliate, the ACLU of New Hampshire and the ACLU of Massachusetts are also part of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit follows shortly after the American Federation of Teachers — one of the largest teachers unions in the country — filed a complaint last week alongside its affiliate, AFT-Maryland, and the American Sociological Association over the letter.
Funding threat
The legal action surrounds the Feb. 14 letter that Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor sent to schools, which left institutions across the country scrambling to figure out what exactly fell within the requirements.
In the letter, Trainor wrote that schools could face the “potential loss of federal funding” if they failed to comply and the department would begin to “assess compliance” no later than Feb. 28.
Trainor offered a sweeping interpretation of a U.S. Supreme Court 2023 ruling, which struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions. He argued that “the Supreme Court’s holding applies more broadly,” despite the decision specifically applying to admissions.
He wrote, “Proponents of these discriminatory practices have attempted to further justify them — particularly during the last four years — under the banner of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (‘DEI’), smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline.”
The Wednesday complaint from the NEA and ACLU argued that the letter “radically resets” the Education Department’s “longstanding positions on civil rights laws that guarantee equality and inclusion and impermissibly infringes on the authority of states and school districts over public education as well as the First Amendment rights of educators and students.”
The letter also “drastically disrupts” the groups “in their ability to provide education to students in accordance with professional requirements and best practices,” according to the complaint.
FAQ on letter
The complaint follows the department’s release of a Frequently Asked Questions document last week on the letter, which sought to provide more guidance.
The department noted in the document that it’s prohibited from “exercising control over the content of school curricula” and “nothing in Title VI, its implementing regulations, or the Dear Colleague Letter requires or authorizes a school to restrict any rights otherwise protected by the First Amendment.”
The agency also clarified that “programs focused on interests in particular cultures, heritages, and areas of the world” are allowed as long as “they are open to all students regardless of race.”
But the complaint argues that “nothing in the FAQ changes the force and effect of the Letter” and “only adds to educators’ sense of uncertainty and chill.”
In a Wednesday statement, Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said “we’re urging the court to block the Department of Education from enforcing this harmful and vague directive and protect students from politically motivated attacks that stifle speech and erase critical lessons.”
“Teaching should be guided by what’s best for students, not by threat of illegal restrictions and punishment,” Pringle said.
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