Following President Trump’s directive to scrub divisive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, practices, and language from public institutions, the U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to the Arizona Department of Education to ensure that schools are complying with these requirements.
The Arizona DOE notified every school district and charter public school that they must submit a completed certification confirming compliance with the federal civil rights law. A public website was developed to track which districts and schools completed the certification, and which have not. Though the majority of schools are listed as “in compliance” the question remains: have they all truly purged their websites and learning environments of DEI practices?
A quick review and some basic research suggest that not all of these schools are fully committed to the removal of this woke material.
Alhambra Elementary School District in Phoenix has a sub-committee titled “Culture, Conditions, & Climate” with a stated need to “increase its Diversity, Equity, Inclusion capacity to ensure it is an inclusive environment.” The district plans to achieve this by subjecting staff to DEI trainings designed to establish that these adults teaching your children become anti-racist activists.
Recently, Scottsdale Unified School District has been the center of controversy surrounding their adoption of new textbooks that teach about George Floyd, Black Lives Matter, and anti-law enforcement rhetoric.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne, has spoken out against this anti-American, DEI infested curriculum emphasizing that schools must steer clear of promoting an “unbalanced political agenda.”
In Glendale, the Washington Elementary School District has published a “Statement of Commitment to Educational Equity,” in which it outlines how DEI principles are integrated into its educational framework.
In an application for federal charter school start-up grants for 2024-2028, Desert Sage High School in Tucson declares their commitment to “diversity, equity, inclusion, anti-bias education, and social justice.” Among its goals is increasing the percentage of Hispanic and Native American students- an effort aimed more at virtue signaling just to demonstrate how unbiased they really are.
Several other schools maintain overreaching non-discrimination statements that include “gender identity” and “sexual orientation,” and some keep DEI in their mission statements.
And these are just the districts and schools that claim to comply with the federal civil rights law.
On the “Out of Compliance” list, the Flagstaff Unified School District website promotes an “Anti-Racism and Anti-Bias Advisory Committee” and Task Force. This Task Force’s job is to identify bias, racism, and inequity within the school district and recommend “solutions.”
After they determined that the district’s staff was not diverse enough, they established a 10 percent diversity quota. Although the Task Force was originally created in 2020 as a six-month initiative, the hope was that the policies they put in place would have lasting effect, meaning they eliminate racism- or the biggest problem “whiteness.”
In their 2020 report, a list of definitions includes the statement, “Whiteness gets in the way of our goals for educational equity and bias-free, anti-racist schools.” In other words, if you’re white, you are a problem. And the district plans to mandate other “anti-racism curriculum at all grade levels.” So apparently, even your six-year-old needs to understand how their “whiteness” is a barrier.
Kyrene School District in Tempe shares concerns similar to Flagstaff’s namely, the idea that even young kids are inherently racist, so they are kind enough to provide some helpful links on how to talk to kids about racism. The district hosts a whole page dedicated to “Equity in Education” and outlines its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The stated goal is to develop trainings for the purpose of “leveraging diversity” and promoting “cultural competency.” According to this page, inequity leads to opportunity and achievement gaps. Kyrene School District which only consists of elementary and middle schools is a textbook example of the toxic racist ideology Trump’s Executive Order is looking to quash.
The Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) remains out of compliance with current federal law by maintaining an “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusiveness (EDI)” page on their website. This shouldn’t surprise anyone given their longstanding history with thwarting anti-discrimination laws.
Along with a DEI “Preamble,” their EDI page outlines a mission to pursue “desegregation” by eradicating the “manifestations of racism, discrimination, and prejudice.” This statement relates to TUSD’s mandated desegregation efforts from the 1970’s which were only just deemed fulfilled in January of this year by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, releasing them from federal oversight. It would seem the district has exchanged one form of illegal discrimination for another.
At least these school districts were truthful in their refusal to certify compliance. Many that claim to be compliant are just lying. And this is only what can be found on their websites. If these districts are comfortable publicly advertising their illegal DEI pledges and racial quota programs, what more are they doing behind the scenes? These districts and schools need to be investigated and held to account.
Parents have been fighting these battles on their own for a long time, like the parents in Scottsdale and Deer Valley . The American people voted to stop progressive indoctrination in our public schools. That resistance will continue to happen until schools return to the pro-American, pro-Constitution institutions of edification they are designed to be.
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club will continue to actively monitor and report schools and districts to the Department of Justice for noncompliance with federal civil rights laws until all DEI programs are eliminated.
Mylie Biggs graduated from the University of Arizona in 2024 with a degree in Political Science. She currently serves as the Associate of Government Affairs at the Arizona Free Enterprise Club.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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