Trump Demands K-12 Schools Remove Racism-Correcting Incentives and Programs

Mississippi Schools Set to Grapple with Potential Impacts of Anti-DEI Initiative 

It is unclear how a new Trump initiative aimed at halting "discrimination" against white people will impact schools like Greenwood High School (students pictured above), with mostly Black staff serving a majority Black student body. 

In addition to sending world markets into a tailspin recently, the Trump administration has threatened to yank federal funding from K-12 school districts and states that refuse to certify they have no “unlawful” diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices, in accord with anti-inclusive U.S. Supreme Court decision Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. 

States must sign and submit a certification form claiming their school districts give no advantages to people based on their race, per the demands of Trump’s U.S. Department of Education. Trump warns states or individual schools could be subject to litigation or be forced to pay back funds, if they’re found to violate the law. 

Framing white people as a repressed minority, the Trump administration argues “Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides that ‘[n]o person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.’”  As Trump sees it (and his Supreme Court opined in 2023), programs seeking to expand employment for historically underrepresented populations (e.g., Black women) or to aid students disadvantaged by the economics of racial hate, qualify as “excluding” white employees or students. Trump pushes this opinion despite wealth in places like Mississippi being inextricably tied to race, thanks to whole generations of race-based segregation, red-lining and repression. 

Wealth in places like Mississippi is meticulously connected to race because the state has spent centuries draining wealth from communities with high concentrations of African Americans. 

“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,” writes acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor, adding too many schools use “DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another based on identity characteristics,” which he claims violates anti-discrimination law. His opinion squares with a letter Trainor claiming diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, scholarships and policies aimed at addressing racial disparities in education are unlawful.  

Critics say Trainor’s February “Dear Colleague” letter “distorts civil rights law and threatens to strip federal funding from any institution that dares to remedy, or even acknowledge, racial inequities."  The Rev. Earle J. Fisher, senior pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church (Memphis) writes, “make no mistake. This is not about fairness; it’s about erasure,” The federal government is only responsible for about 10% of the money that goes to schools, but it remains a strong influence in low-income school districts because the brunt of school revenue comes from local sales and property taxes. And if students live in a low-income district with waning resources, few luxury purchases and low-priced homes, their chances of attending underfunded schools with fewer education programs and amenities rises significantly. The Education Department disbursed more than $18 billion to nearly 90% of U.S. school districts, particularly low-income schools.

However, because low-income schools are frequently racially minoritized ones, critics are unsure how the new pro-white federal directive serves a student body that is mostly Black or Latino. Mississippi Achievement School District Superintendent Dr. Earl Watkins expressed puzzlement at how the order aims to impact his district. 

“I’m thinking hard about this, but I really can’t say what DEI programs my district uses,” said Watkins, whose district serves a student population that is 98.2% Black.  

It stands to reason whatever programs Watkins’ district derives from federal government would inevitably serve minority students because white students in Watkins’ part of the state, as in many Mississippi districts, attend nearly all-white academy schools with expensive tuition and Confederate-sounding sports names like “the Rebels.” 

The directive is also not likely to impact race-based preferential treatment in low-income district’s hiring practices. Currently, Watkins’ region is eagerly accepting applications for 31 positions at the Humphreys County District and 56 positions at the Yazoo City Municipal District. More than 40 of the open positions at Yazoo are teaching jobs, and Watkins encourages all applicants to apply, regardless of race. 

Indeed, staff shortages at some impoverished schools are so high some are desperate enough to hire pro-Confederate history revisionists like Larry McClunney to teach history to classrooms filled with Black students. McClunney told reporters slavery was “not the cause” of the Civil War, and he was a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans at the time of his 2018 Guardian interview. McClunney is currently still a teacher at Greenwood High School, where minority student enrollment is 98% Black.  “This isn’t even the reality of what K-12 looks like in public schools. There’s a teacher shortage in the state of Mississippi. They don’t even have enough African (American) teachers,” said Milsaps sociology professor Louwanda Evans “As a parent of two public school students who are Black in a Black district, I’m incredibly troubled about what they’re trying to do with education.”