Department of Education warns that public schools must remove DEI policies or lose federal funding

A letter from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights was sent to the departments of education in all 50 states, notifying them that they have no more than 14 days to comply. The letter was shared on social media by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.

"Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding," Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education, said in the letter.

The letter said the "overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this Nation's educational institutions" will no longer be tolerated.

It argues that a Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which found that affirmative action in Harvard University's admission process violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, should apply more broadly.

"The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent," the letter reads.

The Department of Education previously announced the removal of mention of DEI from documents and websites. The department also placed employees that led DEI initiatives on leave and dissolved its Diversity & Inclusion Council.