A school district that disproportionately disciplines students of color will face less federal scrutiny.
This week, the Department of Education scrapped decades-old disparate impact provisions, a legal standard that determined discrimination based on statistics, regardless of intent.
These provisions allow “demographic data alone” to establish whether a school violated civil rights law, the Department argued in a press release.
“A child is so much more than a number in a data set,” Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey said in a statement. “The left’s notion of ‘equity’ should never prevent teachers from keeping their classrooms and students safe.”
Without the provisions, educators can make disciplinary decisions without fear that the government will “weaponize” civil rights law, Richey added.
The Department also accused the Obama administration and other Democrat-led administrations of using disparate impact as a “tool for the radical left” that forced schools to balance discipline among racial and ethnic groups.
Civil rights groups criticized the decision. A letter signed by 60 civil rights groups and advocacy organizations argued that “discrimination is not always explicit or overt.”
They cited school closures and disciplinary policies that appear neutral but unfairly harm minority students.
“While undermining civil rights protections is never justified, the Department’s move to overhaul these anti-discrimination regulations without even providing the public with an opportunity to comment is indefensible,” the letter reads.
Restoring meritocracy
The move is part of what the Trump administration describes as restoring meritocracy in education, which has so far targeted higher education.
The administration has focused heavily on banning race-based preferences in admissions while requiring greater admissions transparency from colleges and universities.
For instance, the administration’s long-standing feud with Harvard University has now led to an investigation into whether the university’s China-based financial aid programs discriminate against American students.
The investigation, launched on Monday, follows concerns raised during a review of Harvard’s foreign funding disclosures that China-based donors may have placed conditions on gifts limiting financial aid to students of specific nationalities.
Harvard has disclosed receiving nearly $4.5 billion in foreign funding, including more than $630 million from China-based sources, making China its largest source of foreign funding.
“Schools cannot take federal dollars and then turn around and accept money from foreign sources to give financial aid that deliberately excludes American citizens—doing so is illegal, and we will stop it wherever we find it,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
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