While such educational lions such as Columbia and Dartmouth as well as elite law firms have withered under the bullying of the Trump administration, it does my heart good to see an unsung institution like the New York State Education Department stand up for principle.
The New York Times published this rare bit of good news on Friday:
Daniel Morton-Bentley, the deputy commissioner for legal affairs at the state education agency in New York, wrote in a letter to federal education officials that “we understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity & inclusion.’”
“But there are no federal or state laws prohibiting the principles of D.E.I.,” Mr. Morton-Bentley wrote, adding that the federal government has not defined what practices it believes violate civil rights protections.
The stern letter was sent one day after the federal government issued a memo to education officials across the nation, asking them to confirm the elimination of all programs it argues unfairly promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Title I funding for schools with high percentages of low-income students was at risk pending compliance, federal officials said.
New York’s Education Department also told the Trump administration that it would not be signing a certification indicating compliance with its demands, according to The Times.
Courage is contagious, as they say. “The latest wave of pushback is spreading,” The Times said. It reported that Chicago’s Mayor, Brandon Johnson, told reporters on Friday that it would sue the Trump administration if it took away funding. “’We’re not going to be intimidated by these threats,’ Mr. Johnson said. ‘It’s just that simple. So whatever it is that this tyrant is trying to do to this city, we’re going to fight back.’”