How Trump’s Department of Education is Letting Down Black Students — Out Loud

Students of color are disproportionately bullied at school. That’s why the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights was tasked with investigating and bringing justice and peace to Black students across the country. But while the office has investigated nearly dozens of civil rights cases over the last three years– according to ProPublica— under President Donald Trump, this number looks a lot different.

In the eleven months since Trump has taken office, he’s made it his mission to completely destroy the Department of Education (DOE), we previously told you. Under Department Secretary and former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, the DOE’s Office for Civil Rights hasn’t opened any new resolutions involving racial harassment in schools, and experts say this sends a clear and devastating message for minority students.

“The message that it sends is that the people impacted by racial discrimination and harassment don’t matter,” a Texas attorney, Paige Duggins-Clay, told ProPublica. Even investigations started under the Biden administration were reportedly halted by the time Trump came to office in January. The office has instead shifted their focus from discrimination cases involving students of color to alleged discrimination cases concerning white students.

The DOE was created in major part to provide equal access to education to all American students regardless of race, gender or socio-economic status. With no federal body to protect these identities, students of diverse backgrounds have been left to face discrimination based on their identities alone. In fact, the DOE has closed seven of its 12 regional Civil Rights offices, according to the Washington Post.

Since Trump’s second inauguration, the office has only opened 14 investigations into alleged racial harassment against Black students, according to data from ProPublica. Shockingly, over 500 racial harassment complaints have been received since then.

Of course the agency has its flaws, but it is this department that holds schools accountable for enforcing non-discrimination laws like Title IX based on gender, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Americans with Disabilities Act based on disability and Title VI based on race. But under Trump, the Civil Rights Office is just another name for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

We also told you about the president’s ongoing effort to rid the country of DEI. In reality, Trump’s anti-DEI push has resulted in all areas of diversity in the department being gutted– even if the agency existed before DEI’s popularity in 2021.

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has also being impacted by the president’s policies. Within the last 11 months, the office has opened investigations into antisemitism concerns, transgender rights policies and bias against white students, according to The Hechinger Report.

Six states have come under fire for allegedly offering discounted tuition to undocumented immigrants. The department also pressured the president of the University of Virginia to resign in light of an investigation into the school’s DEI policies, AP News reported.

Several DOE employees told ProPublica in February they were told not to communicate with the families and schools involved any civil rights cases launched before Trump. They were also instructed to cancel all meetings and mediations. “We’ve been essentially muzzled,” one attorney said.

While the Trump administration doesn’t view the concerns of targeted American students as urgent, another employee said the DOE’s work is more vital than ever. “Many of these students are in crisis,” the employee told ProPublica. “They are counting on some kind of intervention to get that student back in school and graduate or get accommodations.”