Former President Barack Obama’s Department of Education compelled states to adopt Common Core in exchange for waivers from the failed No Child Left Behind Program. State education departments readily complied under pain of losing federal funding. Ever since, they have unquestioningly collected and shared students’ private personal information as a condition for keeping the federal dollars flowing, raising significant privacy concerns.
However, 16 states have resisted certifying the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, which the Trump administration has targeted as illegal racial discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Sixteen other states reportedly intend to certify. (The remaining 18 states are either still reviewing the issue or have responded only recently.)
The resistance here isn’t a Trump-versus-Obama phenomenon. For instance, state education departments embraced Republican George Bush’s No Child Left Behind despite its potential to undermine student outcomes. The premise of that law was to have every student be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Everyone knew that to be impossible, so states were allowed to set their own proficiency standards. Predictably, standards plummeted to give a false sense of higher achievement.
In Kansas, for example, 8th-grade reading proficiency rates artificially increased from 34 percent to 65 percent in one year due to lowered standards, creating a misleading sense of achievement and reducing the impetus for genuine improvement. However, going along with No Child Left Behind kept the federal money flowing, so states ignored its effect on student achievement and happily complied.
In contrast, today, many states seem willing to risk the loss of federal funding rather than stop DEI practices that potentially violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
No one opposes encouraging diversity, including people of all races and backgrounds or giving all students an equal opportunity to attain a good education. However, the DEI concepts that the Education Department will no longer support with taxpayer money are quite different. They often teach students to feel guilt about being white and that the U.S. is founded on racist principles. They exclude differing viewpoints on gender identity. “Equity” isn’t about equal opportunity; it reduces standards and robs students of the education they deserve.
DEI was partially sold to school board members as a way of improving student outcomes. The premise was that DEI training would help students feel better about themselves and do better in school. Unfortunately, student outcomes have only grown worse as DEI programs have proliferated, and they have grown particularly worse among non-white student populations.
The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals a troubling decline in proficiency among minority students. In eighth grade reading, proficiency for Black students declined from 18 percent in 2017 to 16 percent now, and for Hispanic students from 23 percent to 19 percent. Outcomes are even worse in eighth-grade math, where proficiency rates fell from 13 percent to 10 percent for Black students and from 20 percent to 15 percent for Hispanic students over the same period.
Regardless of their personal viewpoints on DEI, state and local school board members should be asking hey they can justify diverting time and resources to a program that isn’t improving student outcomes. Ideally, all of educators’ efforts should be urgently focused on improving student outcomes, especially for those students who are furthest behind.
Every school district and state education department should aim to improve outcomes and academically prepare students to succeed in life. Sadly, there is ample evidence that this is not being done. It seems that some education administrators want students to do better, but not if it means adults must change their behaviors and do better.
Declining or hesitating to certify compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, as requested by the Department of Education, is just the latest example of many adults in education putting politics ahead of students. That likely won’t change until more student-focused people run for state and local school boards.
Dave Trabert is CEO of Kansas Policy Institute and its subsidiary, the Kansas School Board Resource Center, and is author of the book “8 Things to Know about Running for School Board.” David Hoyt is Executive Director of School Boards for Academic Excellence and has written frequently on strategies for achieving academic excellence within the American education system.
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