‘Cheap Carnival Tricks’: School District Hit With Complaint After DCNF Exposed Race-Based Hiring

Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) filed a federal complaint on Monday against Burlington School District (BSD) after the Daily Caller News Foundation exposed its race-based hiring practices. The Vermont district’s…

Jaryn CrousonDec 15, 20253 min read

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Protect the Public’s Trust (PPT) filed a federal complaint on Monday against Burlington School District (BSD) after the Daily Caller News Foundation exposed its race-based hiring practices.

The Vermont district’s strategic plan promises to increase the number of staff representing the “global majority,” a code word for nonwhite, the DCNF reported in November based on an exclusive report from Defending Education (DE). PPT is asking the Department of Education (ED), Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to investigate and “hold the Burlington School District accountable” for its blatant discrimination.

BSD mentions “global majority” 13 times in its 2022-2027 plan, making its priority to attract, recruit and retain nonwhite individuals known. Ironically, Vermont’s population is 90% white.

The complaint notes that the district’s strategic plan “does not mention merit or achievement.”

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Burlington School District strategic plan document outlining hiring priorities

Burlington School District strategic plan (via Defending Education)

Along with its new code word, which PPT described as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) “by a different name,” BSD also plans on hosting affinity groups for its newly diversified faculty, which it has rebranded as “groups of cultural relevance” to once again attempt to avoid scrutiny.

“DEI is not a brand, it’s a civil rights violation, and an inversion of the foundational principles of our nation,” Michael Chamberlain, director of PPT, told the DCNF. “Any formula that eschews merit and qualification and makes such immutable characteristics as skin color and sex the ultimate determiners of success is illegal and immoral. The American public is smart enough to see through the cheap carnival tricks schools and other institutions are pulling to try to hide these violations.”

Along with its explicitly race-based gerrymandering, the district hosts “unconscious bias training” for employees and retains an Office of Equity, which organizes a “Summer Racial Justice Academy” meant to “address systemic racism,” “dismantle all systems of oppression” and “provide a healing space for students of the global majority,” the DCNF previously exposed.

“DEI is inherently discriminatory and runs afoul of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act,” the complaint reads. “The BSD strategic plan is clearly framed in a way to attempt to mask its violations of civil rights law.”

Several schools have been undeterred by federal law banning the use of racial preferences in admissions and hiring decisions, coming up with new terms to skirt the law and achieve their desired racial makeup rather than complying with civil rights law. The Trump administration has wasted no time investigating and punishing these schools to the tune of billions of dollars.

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