President Donald Trump signed an executive order, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” in late January to remove diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in federal government operations and among federal contractors.
The order has received pushback, with the attorneys general of 16 states signing a document in February advising states to “continue to implement these policies and programs to advance their business objectives and help ensure they remain compliant with state and federal civil rights laws.”
The Feb. 13 document also criticized the executive order for conflating “unlawful preferences in hiring and promotion with sound and lawful best practices for promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the workforce,” arguing that the latter is protected under civil rights laws and is critical in reducing workplace harassment.
But a day later, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor from the Department of Education sent a Dear Colleague letter which justified Trump’s executive order as an extension of the June 2023 Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
Trainor’s letter specified that federal law “prohibits covered entities from using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”
The letter ended by giving educational institutions two weeks to comply with the order or risk losing federal funding.
Palo Alto Unified School District is among many districts that use DEI programs. According to Assistant Superintendent of Equity and Student Affairs Yolanda Conaway, PAUSD employs a district-wide integrated framework to identify certain groups that are struggling to meet metrics and expected outcomes.
“We disaggregate the data by group (and) identify the trends within those groups that have struggled,” Conaway said. ”Our data suggests that some needs are not being met. We can prioritize those groups by being very intentional about the steps we’re taking to support those particular groups.”
Regardless of how the district chooses to comply with Trump’s order, Principal Brent Kline said PAUSD likely won’t face a significant hit from the potential loss of federal funding.
“It’s not a huge amount, and it’s not huge because (federal funding) is designated for foster youth, English language learners (and) low income students, and we don’t have a lot of those students,” Kline said. “I worked at a school in Washington. It was close to 70% low income students, so that kind of program will get a significant hit.”
Conaway confirmed that PAUSD only receives 1-2% of its budget from federal agencies.
“We are mostly funded by property taxes, and as you can probably imagine, since it’s super expensive to live in this area, we receive quite a lot of money in property taxes,” Conaway said. “So we are fortunate because it gives us a nice pot of money to really do some amazing things, which is why we have such amazing programs. But it also protects us somewhat from the ups and downs of budget planning from the federal level and even at the state level.”
Conaway also said one way the district has decided to use its money to focus on marginalized groups is through plans like SWIFT, a district-wide equity program. SWIFT stands for Systemwide Integrated Framework for Transformation and is aimed at promoting educational equity by focusing on diversity, inclusion and justice across the educational system.
“If you look at the PAUSD promise in the SWIFT plan, all of those elements that are in there come with some level of expenditure,” Conaway said. “For example, we have to have funds to train staff right to be what I call equity literate, which means, do they have the skill to recognize even subtle biases and inequities? That requires training because it’s not natural, no matter what background you’re from.”
According to Conaway, students, particularly students of color, often talk about biases and microaggressions they experience at school, which highlights the need to focus on such issues.
“Training teachers how to recognize that and then how to respond to that is extremely important because those types of incidents actually affect the school climate significantly in order for us to create a positive and safe school climate,” Conaway said.
She said practices to increase equity also include engaging parents.
“We found that our families sometimes have struggles that may impact learning, so some of the work that we’re doing also is asking, ‘How do we engage families? How do we provide parent education? What type of parent education is necessary for students to thrive?’” Conaway said.
But Conaway said schools relying on a higher percentage of federal funding will have to make difficult decisions, putting them in a much tougher position.
“My advice to other organizations is that, sometimes, you can do some really good work to create diversity, equity and inclusion in a way that does not violate any policy,” Conaway said. “Also, sometimes you can do this work and not name it diversity, equity, inclusion. You just do the work. You do the right thing.”
