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New Jersey’s schooling chief is standing agency towards the Trump administration’s stress to remove variety, fairness, and inclusion practices from Okay-12 faculties.
In a Thursday letter to the administration, Training Commissioner Kevin Dehmer mentioned the state wouldn’t certify to the U.S. Division of Training that it has ended DEI applications the federal authorities considers unlawful underneath civil rights legal guidelines. Dehmer mentioned that the state already complies with these legal guidelines.
Dehmer’s letter was a response to an April 3 request from the Trump administration for states to certify that they’ve eliminated such DEI applications. The federal Training Division mentioned that states that didn’t signal the certification would lose federal schooling funding.
Reducing off federal funding, particularly Title I funds, would disproportionately impression high-poverty districts — together with Newark — that rely closely on these funds to fill gaps of their budgets. Roughly $1.2 billion in federal funding is at stake for New Jersey faculties, together with $77 million that goes to Newark Public Colleges.
In his letter, Dehmer additionally aimed to solid doubt on the administration’s authority to withhold federal funds on the idea of refusing to submit the certification it requested.
Dehmer additionally wrote that whereas the administration’s request “references ‘sure DEI practices’ or ‘unlawful DEI,’ it doesn’t outline these phrases, and there aren’t any recognized federal or New Jersey state legal guidelines prohibiting variety, fairness, or inclusion.”
New Jersey and its college districts already “totally adjust to all state and federal legal guidelines and to supply protections that empower all college students to understand their full potential,” Dehmer mentioned in a assertion that adopted launch of the letter.
Dehmer’s letter echoed what many different Democratic-led states like Pennsylvania, Illinois, and New York have mentioned of their responses to the administration — that they’re already in compliance with civil rights legal guidelines with out bowing to the Trump administration’s push towards DEI. States have additionally questioned the authorized foundation for the certification request.
The administration initially gave a 10-day deadline for states to reply however then prolonged that deadline to April 24.
The state schooling division, Dehmer famous in his letter, already licensed that it’s in compliance with Title VI — the part of federal legislation that bans discrimination on the idea of race or shared ancestry — as a part of its Each Pupil Succeeds Act Consolidated State Plan, which outlines how a state implements federal schooling legal guidelines.
Moreover, Dehmer acknowledged, native college districts certify that they’re in compliance with Title VI on an annual foundation as a part of the state’s grant administration course of.
The state schooling division “is unaware of any modifications in federal legislation or rules that will necessitate the supply of extra certifications past those who it or New Jersey LEAs [local education agencies] have already supplied,” Dehmer wrote within the letter.
He added, “The NJDOE questions USDE’s authority to situation continued receipt of federal funds on the submission of extra certifications.”
As of Thursday, at the very least 15 different states have already declined to signal the certification, in response to Training Week.
Regionally, lecturers and college students have held protests towards the threats of federal cuts.
Catherine Carrera is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Newark. Contact Catherine at ccarrera@chalkbeat.org.