The Federal DOE gives schools 14 days to get rid of DEI programs in public schools
This is Representative John Eder of Waterboro with the Weekly Republican Address.
On February 14, the Department of Education sent a letter to all states giving them 14 days to get rid of DEI programs in public schools.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or DEI, is a form of discrimination against students on the basis of race.
It is a divisive cancer that has spread throughout our education system at the expense of our children’s well-being, learning, emotional development, and society at large.
It is also illegal.
DEI violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and many other relevant authorities.
This is the takeaway from the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA).
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has instructed the Maine Department of Education that it intends to take appropriate measures to assess compliance with the applicable statutes and regulations on outlined in their letter.
Antidiscrimination requirements will be a condition of receiving federal funding.
Maine educational institutions have been advised to:
(1) “Ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights law;
(2) Cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends;
and
(3) Cease all reliance on third-party contractors, clearinghouses, or aggregators that are being used by institutions in an effort to circumvent prohibited uses of race.
Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding.”
This is welcome news for student learning.
Legislative Republicans, concerned parents, and others responded sharply when
Maine’s Education Commissioner told the Education Committee “Academic
Learning is definitely going to take a backseat to all these other pieces” – social-emotional learning and programming on race and gender.
Schools should not be promoting DEI or gender confusion among young children whose brains are not fully formed and who are already confused.
Encouraging the removal of a boy or girl’s ability to reproduce as an adult is cruel and inhumane. It also prevents children from traditional learning that prepares them for life.
The Commissioner’s attitude, and the spread of DEI throughout our schools, is a
contributing factor to the steady decline of Maine’s education system and student
achievement.
Maine recently had the biggest drop in reading and math proficiency in the country, falling 10 percentage points since 2019.
It is unacceptable that only 26% of Maine fourth graders are proficient in readingand 33% in math.
Maine eighth graders also score poorly, only 25% are proficient in math and 26% are proficient in reading.
This is what happens when core curriculum takes a backseat to “other pieces” like
DEI.
House Republicans call upon the Maine Department of Education to stop
promoting racial discrimination through DEI, comply with the law, and help our
children better learn how to read, write and develop into productive adults.
This has been Representative John Eder with the Weekly Republican Radio Address.
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