Department of Education eliminates DEI initiatives

CV NEWS FEED // The Department of Education eliminated Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives Thursday, dissolving controversial DEI training programs and putting DEI administrators on paid leave. 

The Department of Education wrote in a statement: “These actions are in line with President Trump’s ongoing commitment to end illegal discrimination and wasteful spending across the federal government. They are the first step in reorienting the agency toward prioritizing meaningful learning ahead of divisive ideology in our schools.” 

The news comes days after Trump issued an executive order asserting that DEI policies are “illegal” and “threaten the safety of American men, women, and children across the Nation by diminishing the importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selection people for jobs and services in key sectors of American society.” 

Trump’s order directs all federal agencies to “combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.” 

The Department of Education’s changes immediately disbanded the Diversity & Inclusion Council, established by President Barack Obama, and two other DEI-related agencies. The decision also terminated ongoing DEI training programs and service contracts valued at over $2.6 million, while rescinding the “Equity of Action Plan.” 

More than 200 web pages that “housed DEI resources and encouraged schools and institutions of higher education to promote or endorse harmful ideological programs” have been removed, the federal department’s press release stated.

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees National, commented on Trump’s executive order rescinding DEI programs in a statement earlier this week.

“Undoing these [DEI] programs is just another way for President Trump to undermine the merit-based civil service and turn federal hiring and firing decisions into loyalty tests,” Kelley wrote. “Our nation’s military leaders have said that eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion programs within the Defense Department risks undermining military readiness.” 

However, David Burton, a senior fellow in economic policy at the Thomas A. Roe Institute, commented on the immorality and divisiveness of DEI programs. 

“Morally, DEI represents a marked step backwards. It is rejection of the principle that people should be judged on the content of their character and their individual achievement rather than their sex, race, national origin, ethnicity, or sexual orientation,” Burton wrote in December.

Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, R-MI, expressed a similar sentiment in a statement last week. “Instead of merit, skills, and ability,” he wrote, “DEI devotees pushed policies that are antithetical to American exceptionalism.”

“From the classroom to the board room, Americans have felt the negative effects. DEI has bloated education budgets while telling students what to think instead of how to think,” Walberg added.