Tennessee challenged the Department of Education on Wednesday over a program that offers specific funding only to schools composed of at least 25% Hispanic students, arguing that the initiative is unconstitutional.
Joined by the organization Students for Fair Admissions, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti <a href="https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/attorneygeneral/documents/pr/2025/2025-6-hsi.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> the Education Department over its Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) program, which gives financial aid to institutions that have at least 25% Hispanic enrollment. In the suit, Skrmetti argues that the racial requirements of the program are arbitrary and violate federal law.
“The Department of Education cannot discriminate based on race or ethnicity — even when Congress orders it to. Yet under the Higher Education Act, the Department awards grants to colleges and universities only if they enroll a certain number of Hispanic students,” the suit says.
The lawsuit took aim at several aspects of the program, including the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions grant <a href="https://www.ed.gov/grants-and-programs/grants-special-populations/grants-hispanic-students/developing-hispanic-serving-institutions-program--title-v#:~:text=The%20Developing%20Hispanic%2DServing%20Institutions,program%20quality%2C%20and%20institutional%20stability." target="_blank" rel="noopener">opportunity</a> and the Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans <a href="https://www.ed.gov/grants-and-programs/grants-special-populations/grants-hispanic-students/promoting-postbaccalaureate-opportunities-for-hispanic-americans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">initiative</a>. Both of these programs, Skrmetti argues, violate federal law because of their racial component.
The suit notes that no college in Tennessee qualifies as “Hispanic-Serving” because none have at least 25% Hispanic enrollment, even though some institutions, like the University of Memphis, have a high percentage of minority enrollment.
“The State of Tennessee operates many colleges and universities. Every one of them serves Hispanic students. Every one of them serves low-income students. But not one of them qualifies to receive grants under the HSI program. Why? Because they don’t have the right mix of ethnicities on campus,” the lawsuit says, noting that the 25% number was an &#8220;arbitrary ethnic threshold.&#8221;
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Skrmetti said that the grant program was un-American and unconstitutional, and violated the recent Supreme Court <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-issues-landmark-ruling-on-affirmative-action-at-universities">decision</a> to overturn affirmative action in admissions in Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
“Treating people differently because of their skin color and ancestry drags our country backwards. The HSI program perversely deprives even needy Hispanic students of the benefits of this funding if they attend institutions that don’t meet the government’s arbitrary quota,” he said.
The Trump administration has pushed to remove diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates from the federal government and cut grants for organizations that promote racial ideologies. In January, President Donald Trump issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/">executive order</a> directing his administration to ensure that any educational facility receiving federal dollars complied with the Students for Fair Admissions decision.

US-POLITICS-CONGRESS-EDUCATION-MCMAHON

Red State Sues Education Department Over ‘Arbitrary’ Racial Grant Program

Affirmative Action

Department of Education

Education

Tennessee

Trump Administration

U.S.

WASHINGTON—The Education Department has launched two investigations into high-profile, Title IX-related cases that occurred during President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration, The Daily Wire can first report.
As part of its observance of the first &#8220;Title IX Month&#8221; — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-education-department-celebrates-title-ix-month-ditches-pride-month">celebrated in place of Pride Month</a> — the Education Department will launch probes into the University of Wyoming and Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado. These investigations will be conducted by the Education Department&#8217;s Office for Civil Rights.
Each of these probes will deal with a case that garnered national outrage and attention for allowing males in intimate female spaces.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: The Education Department has declared June “Title IX Month” rather than Pride Month. It&#8217;s also launching probes into two high-profile cases that developed under President Biden&#8217;s watch: one in Colorado and the other in Wyoming.
Details first in <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@realDailyWire</a>: <a href="https://t.co/SZDmjvWMoT">pic.twitter.com/SZDmjvWMoT</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1929630381952897482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 2, 2025</a></blockquote>
<h3>University of Wyoming</h3>
Members of the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at the University of Wyoming sued the university and Artemis Langford, a male who identifies as a woman, after Langford joined their sorority and lived in their sorority house. The girls accused Langford of watching them shower and change and making inappropriate comments — and having visible erections as he watched them.
“Langford states that he is transgender and that he self-identifies as a woman. His behavior, however, does not reflect a man living as a woman let alone a man attempting to ‘consistently live’ as a woman,” the girls said in their lawsuit, as The Daily Wire&#8217;s Leif Le Mahieu <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lawsuit-against-man-who-joined-wyoming-sorority-dismissed-by-federal-judge">previously reported</a>. “Other than occasionally wearing women’s clothing, Langford makes little effort to resemble a woman. He has not undergone treatments to create a more feminine appearance, such as female hormones, feminization surgery, or laser hair removal.”
In August 2023, the lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge who declined to define what a woman was.
“The University of Wyoming chapter voted to admit — and, more broadly, a sorority of hundreds of thousands approved — Langford. With its inquiry beginning and ending there, the Court will not define ‘woman’ today,&#8221; wrote U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson, a Reagan appointee, in his decision. &#8220;The delegate of a private, voluntary organization interpreted ‘woman,’ otherwise undefined in the nonprofit’s bylaws, expansively; this Judge may not invade Kappa Kappa Gamma’s freedom of expressive association and inject the circumscribed definition Plaintiffs urge.&#8221;
The University of Wyoming did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
<h3>Jefferson County Public Schools</h3>
The second investigation deals with Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado, where an 11-year-old girl was assigned to share a bed with a male student who identifies as a transgender girl while on a cross-country school trip, as The Daily Signal first reported. This was not the only incident of its kind within the district, as <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-school-district-allowed-trans-identifying-female-to-supervise-little-boys-showering-lawsuit-alleges">The Daily Wire reported</a>.
Jefferson County School District’s “Transgender Students” policy requires that all students on overnight visits are to be roomed by their gender identity, rather than their actual sex, according to a September 2024 lawsuit first reported by The Daily Wire.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
NEW: This week we sat down with Joe + Serena Wailes, the parents of an 11-year-old girl shocked to discover on her school trip that she had been assigned to share a bed with a boy who identified as a trans girl.
Joe and Serena share their nightmare story with <a href="https://twitter.com/DailySignal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DailySignal</a>: <a href="https://t.co/w847Oi7nnO">pic.twitter.com/w847Oi7nnO</a>
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) <a href="https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/1737930649887990158?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 21, 2023</a></blockquote>
Though the district shared this policy with trans-identifying students and chaperones, it did not share the policy with students or their parents, who were unaware of the policy until their children found themselves rooming with students and chaperones of the opposite gender on trips.
“I was really upset,” the child&#8217;s mother, Serena Wailes, <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/12/04/exclusive-school-assigned-girl-sleep-boy-who-identifies-trans-parental-notification/">told The Daily Signal in December 2023</a>. “One, I was really upset that she was put in that situation at 11 years old—I don’t feel that is fair to put kids in that kind of situation—and two, that we were not even given the information that this was a possibility before the trip. The whole time they’re saying, ‘Girls on one floor, boys on another, they’re not going to be in each other’s rooms unless it is pre-approved.’ So we’re going through this whole process, not even recognizing that this is a possibility.”
The girl&#8217;s father, Joe Wailes, told The Daily Signal that his wife called him from the hotel and filled him in on what had occurred.
“I felt a bit helpless,” he said at the time. “I was 2,000 miles away. My daughter is scared in a bathroom trying to get herself out of a situation. It was a frustrating experience, and I just really felt like it was not a situation my daughter should be put in.”
In another instance, according to the 2024 lawsuit, the school district placed an 18-year-old female student— who identified as a man but only a week earlier had identified as female — in a cabin with 11 and 12-year-old boys, where she allegedly supervised their changing and showering.
Jefferson County Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

EXCLUSIVE: Education Department Probes Two Schools That Let Men In Women’s Spaces

Colorado

Transgender

Wyoming

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump&#8217;s Education Department has declared June &#8220;Title IX Month&#8221; in recognition of the 53rd anniversary of the historic legislation&#8217;s passage, The Daily Wire has learned.
The department will spend June highlighting the Trump administration&#8217;s actions taken to protect female sports and spaces, as well as reversing the weaponization of Title IX that took place during the previous administration. The festivities offer a stark contrast to the Biden Education Department&#8217;s &#8220;Pride Month&#8221; celebrations, which focused on gender ideology, critical race theory, and DEI.
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The Daily Wire can also first report that the Education Department&#8217;s Office for Civil Rights is launching probes into two high-profile cases that developed under the previous administration, one in Colorado and the other in Wyoming.
<div id="attachment_927993" style="width: 397px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-education-department-celebrates-title-ix-month-ditches-pride-month/screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11-59-34-am" rel="attachment wp-att-927993"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-927993" class="wp-image-927993 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11.59.34%E2%80%AFAM-387x576.png" alt="Screenshot, X. " width="387" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11.59.34%E2%80%AFAM-387x576.png 387w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11.59.34%E2%80%AFAM-201x300.png 201w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11.59.34%E2%80%AFAM-768x1144.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/06/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-11.59.34%E2%80%AFAM.png 796w" sizes="(max-width: 387px) 100vw, 387px" /></a>The Biden Education Department celebrates Pride Month. Screenshot, X.</div>
In the first case, the Education Department will investigate the University of Wyoming for allowing a male into the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority chapter and letting him live in female-only campus housing, prompting members of the sorority to sue the school. The lawsuit <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/women-file-lawsuit-against-sorority-after-it-accepts-man-who-allegedly-watches-them-while-visibly-aroused">describes</a> how the male student would allegedly watch, with a visible erection, as female students changed or walked through the sorority house in their towels.
In the second case, Colorado&#8217;s Jefferson County Public Schools is under investigation for assigning students to share overnight accommodations “with other students that share a student’s ‘gender identity.’”
The <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/12/04/exclusive-school-assigned-girl-sleep-boy-who-identifies-trans-parental-notification/">Daily Signal previously reported</a> that the school system assigned a young girl to share a bed with a trans-identifying boy on an overnight school trip — and she <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/12/21/parents-address-nightmare-school-trip-daughter-11-discovered-her-bedmate-was-trans/">likely would have been pressured into sharing his bed</a> had her mother not been present on that trip.
In a press release, the Education Department notes that Jefferson County Public Schools &#8220;allegedly misleads parents by informing them that girls and boys will be separated for overnight accommodations without divulging that its definition of &#8216;girl&#8217; includes boys who claim a female identity.&#8221;
Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Trump have been very open about their plan to hand over control of children&#8217;s education to both states and parents and ultimately eliminate the Department of Education. Since Trump returned to office, the Education Department has <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/initiatives/president-trumps-first-100-days-education-america">opened investigations</a> into California and Maine for alleged violations of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which orders states to comply with parental rights laws, boosts school choice programs, and more.

President Trump Holds National Council for the American Worker Meeting

EXCLUSIVE: Education Department Celebrates ‘Title IX Month,’ Ditches Pride Month

LGBTQ

Linda McMahon

Title IX

School districts across the country have spent millions of federal dollars meant for low-income students pushing leftist concepts in the classroom, an education watchdog found.
Defending Education released a <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/hijacked/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> on Wednesday detailing how 55 school districts have used federal funding to push DEI, restorative justice, and Social Emotional Learning. The funds, many of which have been allocated through Title I and Title II of the Every Student Succeeds Act, are meant to help schools with high percentages of students from low-income families.
Despite the intention of the funds, they often have gone toward things like racially-focused programs, training teachers to grade with equity, racial equity consulting, and other DEI initiatives. The report, which was first shared with The Daily Wire, found that $19,022,259 in federal funding, primarily through Title I, II, and IV, was spent by districts on DEI, restorative justice, and Social Emotional Learning.
&#8220;Instead of prioritizing reading, writing and arithmetic, school districts across the country have spent nearly $20 million in federal funds on organizations and consultants promoting progressive ideology in K-12 education,&#8221; Defending Education Investigative Reporter Kendall Tietz told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;Programs centered on social emotional learning, as well as race- and sex-based content, often seek to influence students’ thoughts and beliefs by framing their understanding of the world through the lens of identity politics. Time and again, district spending illustrates how lucrative far-Left programming is for education activists,&#8221; she added.
The Hayward Unified School District in California in 2022 <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030212&amp;MID=12241&amp;enIID=QwwltgiXsyTABQiud78D9A%3D%3D&amp;srch=Crescendo+Education+Group&amp;ktype=Exact&amp;Tab=Agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">allocated</a> $110,000 in Title funds for the Crescendo Education Group to train teachers in &#8220;equitable grading.&#8221; This means that teachers were <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/meetings/TempFolder/Meetings/Crescendo%20Contract_263810gssymh5t4goa0bbsvvyshlxo.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taught</a> &#8220;grading and assessment practices that are more accurate,&#8221; &#8220;bias-resistant,&#8221; and &#8220;motivational.&#8221;
Similarly, Jefferson Union High School District in California <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030270&amp;MID=30931&amp;enIID=XF0tHbtuREKlVhP4rewS5w%3D%3D&amp;srch=Crescendo+Education+Group&amp;ktype=Exact&amp;Tab=Agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spent</a> nearly $300,000 in Title 1 funding for Crescendo Education to provide training on equitable grading from 2022 to 2024.
Hayward also <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030212&amp;MID=14139&amp;enIID=oZpdaoyzbSn2syrxwUSYsw%3D%3D&amp;srch=woke+kindergarten&amp;ktype=Exact&amp;Tab=Agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">used</a> $200,000 in Comprehensive Support and Improvement funds for a contract with the organization &#8220;Woke Kindergarten&#8221; to push teachers to <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/meetings/TempFolder/Meetings/Woke%20Kindergarten_Contract%20Amendment_315462gssymh5t4goa0bbsvvyshlxo.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adop</a>t a &#8220;healing-centered &amp; liberatory learning practices made possible by developing their understanding of teaching through an abolitionist lens.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_926399" style="width: 1560px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-926399" class="size-full wp-image-926399" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM.png" alt="" width="1550" height="1038" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM.png 1550w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM-300x201.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM-860x576.png 860w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM-768x514.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-28-at-1.44.26%E2%80%AFPM-1536x1029.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1550px) 100vw, 1550px" />Woke Kindergarten contracts with Hayward Unified School District.</div>
In nearby San Rafael City Schools, the school board used Title IV dollars in both 2023 and 2024 to <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030430&amp;MID=24502&amp;enIID=qCU3Hpr7yvVXtplus6VZUZBNQ%3D%3D&amp;srch=black+girls&amp;ktype=Exact&amp;Tab=Agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">create</a> a &#8220;Black Girls Group,&#8221; described as a place for &#8220;young Black girls to discuss, understand, and combat racism while fostering a sense of belonging.&#8221;
Another California school that has used federal funds to push racialized programs is West Contra Costa Unified School District, which <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030499&amp;MID=15557&amp;enIID=2pn8i9ccAkk8QnQESUCYeg%3D%3D&amp;srch=Wayfinder&amp;ktype=Exact&amp;Tab=Agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> over $330,000 in Title I funds in 2022 and 2024 for Improve Your Tomorrow&#8217;s College Academy program, whose <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/meetings/TempFolder/Meetings/Contract%20Summary.092122_344094gssymh5t4goa0bbsvvyshlxo.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mission</a> is to &#8220;increase the number of young men of color&#8221; going to college.
In Illinois, the Township High School District 211 <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/il/thsd211/Board.nsf/files/D3CHEU48303C/$file/Approval%20of%20Minutes%20--%20February%2022%2C%202024%20(03-21-24).pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">approved</a> $55,000 in Title II grants for professional development trainings with Courageous Conversations, an organization that <a href="https://courageousconversation.com/about/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> it wants to pursue &#8220;racial equity&#8221; by uncovering &#8220;personal and institutional biases.&#8221;
Indianapolis Public Schools has <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/indianapolis-public-schools-paid-racial-equity-consultant-1-3-million-over-10-years-including-over-680000-in-title-i-funds-adopts-equity-policy-that-calls-color-blindness-a-present-day-r/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spent</a> hundreds of thousands of Title I funding on contracts with the Racial Equity Institute, another group of consultants steeped in racial ideology. Other districts, like Lorain City Schools in Ohio, have <a href="https://filecabinet10.eschoolview.com/A37642F5-4C14-4F55-8D03-5BCCF1F87568/d37bd1be-ad61-4303-83f5-2893f8ff1a43.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spent</a> over $13,000 in Title IV on services from the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland for &#8220;services.&#8221; It is unclear what those services were.
Defending Education&#8217;s report also highlights how school districts have used federal funds to implement Social Emotional Learning concepts, pointing to contracts with organizations like Panorama Education, the Committee for Children, and Project Wayfinder.
Advocates of social emotional learning <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/why-social-emotional-learning-is-nothing-more-than-unlicensed-therapy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">say</a> that the thinking behind it is that schools teach students how to regulate their emotions, develop healthy identities, build positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
According to Defending Education, 17 school districts have used federal funding to pay Panorama Education $2,427,721 using federal grants for their survey platform or related services. Panorama Education, which has <a href="https://www.panoramaed.com/blog/introducing-panorama-for-social-emotional-learning" target="_blank" rel="noopener">backed</a> Social Emotional Learning techniques, says that it allows local districts to tailor use of its platforms to their own needs and that it only provides the technology and doesn&#8217;t push any ideology.
The Committee for Children told The Daily Wire that its SEL programs &#8220;are evidence-based and focused on helping young people develop skills to support safety, well-being, and academic success. They are not political or ideological in nature. They are welcomed and actively used across thousands of communities in all 50 states, just as they have been for more than 40 years.&#8221;
The Education Department has indicated that it may be scrutinizing schools&#8217; implementation of Social Emotional Learning concepts to ensure that it is not being used as a workaround for restrictions on DEI. In an <a href="https://www.ed.gov/media/document/frequently-asked-questions-about-racial-preferences-and-stereotypes-under-title-vi-of-civil-rights-act-109530.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FAQ sheet</a>, the Education Department said that some schools have looked to use SEL to push DEI through other means.
&#8220;Other schools have sought to veil racially discriminatory policies with terms like &#8216;social-emotional learning&#8217; or &#8216;culturally responsive&#8217; teaching. But whether an initiative constitutes unlawful discrimination does not turn solely on whether it is labeled &#8216;DEI&#8217; or uses terminology such as &#8216;diversity,&#8217; &#8216;equity,&#8217; or &#8216;inclusion,'&#8221; the departments wrote in February.
The Trump administration has directed all federal funding to be cut from schools receiving federal money if they push racial and gender ideologies on students. Already, the Education Department has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-deals-blow-to-taxpayer-funded-leftist-activist-training-program?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Admin+Deals+Blow+To+Taxpayer-Funded+Leftist+Activist+Training+Program" target="_blank" rel="noopener">taken action</a> to cut off funding for entities pushing radical ideology, including $1 billion in &#8220;mental-health grants,&#8221; many of which were going toward training leftist activists.

Transgender Symbol and Pencils With The Color of Lgbt Flag

How Schools Use Taxpayer Money For Poor Students To Push Leftist Ideology

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

A federal judge issued an injunction Thursday blocking the Trump administration from dismantling the Education Department and ordered that fired employees be allowed to come back to work.
U.S. District Judge Myong Joun in Massachusetts ruled that the administration was trying to illegally shut down the department without Congress&#8217;s approval.
“The record abundantly reveals that Defendants’ true intention is to effectively dismantle the Department without an authorizing statute,” Joun wrote.
“The supporting declarations of former Department employees, educational institutions, unions, and educators paint a stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America’s most vulnerable student populations,” the judge wrote.
Joun also said that prior to the mass layoffs, the department was &#8220;already struggling to meet its goals,&#8221; so more reductions would &#8220;likely cripple&#8221; it.
The ruling came after two lawsuits, one filed by a pair of Massachusetts school districts and the American Federation of Teachers union, and the other filed by 21 Democratic attorneys general.
In March, President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-signs-order-dismantling-department-of-education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> an executive order dismantling the Department of Education, following through on a key campaign promise to strengthen parental rights and improve academic outcomes across the country.
Trump’s order directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States and local communities.”
However, the order also told McMahon to “ensure the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
Also, any programs still receiving Department of Education funds will “terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology.”
Frustration with public schools reached a boiling point over the last several years. During the pandemic, parents pleaded with schools to open the classrooms and stop requiring face masks on children. After COVID, parents complained of crippling learning loss, schools hiding children’s gender identity changes, and teachers pushing controversial ideologies like Critical Race Theory.
“Everybody knows it’s right. The Democrats know it’s right,” Trump said just before signing the order. “We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs, and this is a very popular thing to do, but much more importantly, it’s a common sense thing to do, and it’s going to work. Absolutely, it’s going to work.”
Trump said the United States has “two stats you don’t want — the most money spent per pupil, and you’re at the bottom of the list, and that’s where we are, like it or not, and we’ve been there for a long time.”

Judge gavel with Justice lawyers, Businessman in suit or lawyer working on a documents. Legal law, advice and justice concept.

Judge Blocks Dismantling Of Education Department, Orders Fired Workers Back

Courts

Donald Trump

Politics

A major medical organization that accredits all graduate medical education programs, like internships and residency programs, announced Friday that it was suspending some of its &#8220;diversity&#8221; requirements.
The board of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education released a statement announcing it was pausing certain &#8220;diversity&#8221; requirements due to concerns about compliance with federal law. The announcement comes after President Donald Trump called out the accreditation organization in an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-takes-sledgehammer-to-dei-in-latest-round-of-executive-orders-targeting-education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> asking the Education Department to crack down on accreditation bodies mandating universities adopt DEI programs.
&#8220;The ACGME has heard significant concerns from multiple constituents in several states and from federal Sponsoring Institutions about their ability to comply with some of the ACGME requirements addressing diversity in light of state or federal laws,&#8221; the organization said Friday, noting that it was suspending multiple diversity requirements because of &#8220;uncertainty&#8221; about their legality.
The organization said that it would be further addressing the requirements at its June board meeting.
The diversity <a href="https://www.acgme.org/globalassets/pfassets/programrequirements/800_institutionalrequirements2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">requirements</a> included mandating that institutions sponsoring medical education programs implement policies to recruit a &#8220;diverse and inclusive&#8221; workforce of residents and faculty.
&#8220;The Sponsoring Institution, in partnership with each of its programs, must engage in practices that focus on ongoing, mission-driven, systematic recruitment and retention of a diverse and inclusive workforce of residents/fellows, faculty members, senior administrative staff members, and other relevant members of its GME community,&#8221; the requirement reads.
<div id="attachment_919167" style="width: 2190px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-919167" class="size-full wp-image-919167" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-1.44.23-PM.png" alt="" width="2180" height="341" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-1.44.23-PM.png 2180w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-1.44.23-PM-300x47.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-1.44.23-PM-1024x160.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-1.44.23-PM-768x120.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-1.44.23-PM-1536x240.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/05/Screen-Shot-2025-05-12-at-1.44.23-PM-2048x320.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2180px) 100vw, 2180px" />ACGME Institutional Requirements.</div>
The board also paused a <a href="https://www.acgme.org/globalassets/pfassets/programrequirements/cprresidency_2023.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">similar policy</a> for its residency program requirements.
In an April <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/reforming-accreditation-to-strengthen-higher-education/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a>, Trump mentioned the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education as one of the accrediting bodies he said had “abused&#8221; its &#8220;enormous authority” by forcing universities to adopt DEI policies.
“The Secretary of Education shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, hold accountable, including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, accreditors who fail to meet the applicable recognition criteria or otherwise violate Federal law, including by requiring institutions seeking accreditation to engage in unlawful discrimination in accreditation-related activity under the guise of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ initiatives,” Trump wrote.
The announcement from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education earned praised from Dr. Travis Morrell, a senior fellow at Do No Harm, an organization devoted to getting politics out of medicine.
&#8220;ACGME has finally cracked after three months of doubling-down on its commitment to radical identity politics. ACGME’s suspension of absurd diversity rules is an encouraging first step but now it must permanently eliminate these requirements – along with the equity in education rule it still enforces,&#8221; Morrell told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The sudden change of tune is a direct result of President Trump’s historic executive order dismantling accreditors’ ability to impose DEI requirements on schools. By prioritizing expertise over politics, we will slowly but surely restore a culture of meritocracy to American medical institutions.&#8221;

close-up of a doctor’s gown with stethoscope

Major Medical Org Changes Tune On DEI After Trump Executive Order

medical school

The Department of Education opened up an investigation on Thursday into Western Carolina University over reports that it housed a male alongside a female and retaliated against a student after she complained about the presence of a male in a female locker room.
The Education Department&#8217;s Office of Civil Rights announced that it had initiated a Title IX investigation into Western Carolina University over allegations that the university &#8220;has openly refused to comply with Title IX and to ensure sex-separated intimate spaces in federally funded institutions of higher education.&#8221; The announcement comes one day after the group Speech First <a href="https://speechfirst.org/news/foia-records-show-western-carolina-universitys-defiant-response-to-trump-administration-policies-on-gender/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published</a> communications from the university showing that it was not planning on making changes in response to President Donald Trump&#8217;s executive order to keep men who identify as women out of female spaces.
“WCU’s reported contempt for federal anti-discrimination laws and indifference to, and retaliation against, girls who have spoken up about males invading their intimate spaces is simply unacceptable,” Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-educations-office-civil-rights-launches-title-ix-investigation-western-carolina-university">said</a>. “The Trump-McMahon Department of Education will continue to deploy every lawful means to eradicate this wholly unnecessary and egregious violation of women and girls’ civil rights.”
In response to the investigation, the university said that it was compliant with all federal regulations.
&#8220;Western Carolina University is compliant with all current state and federal regulations and will continue to adjust any necessary campus policies and practices to remain in compliance with future changes,&#8221; the university told The Daily Wire. &#8220;At this time, we have no further comment regarding this matter.&#8221;
The probe comes one day after documents posted by Speech First and first <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/news/western-carolina-university-refusing-to-comply-with-trump-order-protecting-womens-spaces-emails-show/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> on by National Review show the school&#8217;s chief compliance officer stating that the university is &#8220;not making changes based&#8221; on Trump&#8217;s executive order called &#8220;Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.&#8221;
Another one of the components of the Education Department&#8217;s investigation is that the university launched a Title IX investigation into former student Payton McNabb after she complained about the presence of a male in a dress in a woman&#8217;s bathroom. While McNabb was later cleared of any wrongdoing, her lawyer <a href="https://www.thecollegefix.com/student-payton-mcnabb-wins-title-ix-case-over-trans-bathroom-dispute/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stated</a> that the university had encouraged the complaint to be filed against her.
&#8220;In addition to my experience discovering a male in the women’s restroom on campus, men who self-identify as transgender are entering other women’s intimate spaces like restrooms, dorm rooms and locker rooms,&#8221; McNabb said Thursday. &#8220;Female college students will not sit idly by as men take over our spaces. I’m thankful to have an administration that will stand up for us.”
The department&#8217;s action was praised by Nicole Neily, the acting executive director of Speech First.
“Actions speak louder than words, and the Department of Education’s commitment to protecting women and girls is second to none,&#8221; Neily said. &#8220;This investigation sends a clear message to colleges and universities across the country: compliance with the law is not voluntary.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon Visits “Fox & Friends”

Another University Facing Probe Over Defiance Of Trump Executive Orders

Civil Rights

North Carolina

Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Harvard University in a letter on Monday that it would no longer be eligible for new federal grants, saying that it has systematically violated federal law.
McMahon&#8217;s letter to Harvard President Alan Garber comes after the Trump administration has frozen more than $2 billion in federal dollars to the university over DEI and its handling of anti-Israel protests. President Donald Trump last week said that Harvard would lose its tax-exempt status.
&#8220;Harvard University has made a mockery of this country&#8217;s higher education system. It has invited foreign students, who engage in violent behavior and show contempt for the United States of America, to its campus,&#8221; McMahon wrote. &#8220;In every way, Harvard has failed to abide by its legal obligations, its ethical and fiduciary duties, its transparency responsibilities, and any semblance of academic rigor.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Dear <a href="https://twitter.com/Harvard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Harvard</a>: <a href="https://t.co/XmMimXfkX0">pic.twitter.com/XmMimXfkX0</a>
— Secretary Linda McMahon (@EDSecMcMahon) <a href="https://twitter.com/EDSecMcMahon/status/1919517481313427594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Harvard University, despite amassing a largely tax-free $53.2 billion endowment (larger than the GDP of 100 countries), receives billions of dollars of taxpayer largess each year. Receiving such taxpayer funds is a privilege, not a right. Yet instead of using these funds to advance the education of its students. Harvard is engaging in a systemic pattern of violating federal law,&#8221; she added. 
She called for Harvard to institute &#8220;common sense&#8221; reforms, including merit-based hiring, ending programs that promote &#8220;crude identity stereotypes,&#8221; disciplinary reform, cooperation with law enforcement, and reporting compliance with directives from the Trump administration.
McMahon said the letter served as notice that Harvard should no longer apply for federal grants because &#8220;none would be provided.&#8221;
&#8220;Harvard will cease to be a publicly funded institution, and can instead operate as a privately-funded institution, drawing on its colossal endowment, and raising money from a large base of wealthy alumni. You have an approximately $53 billion head start, much of which was made possible by the fact that you are living within the walls of, and benefiting from, the prosperity secured by the United States of America and its free-market system you teach your students to despise,&#8221; she wrote. 
McMahon said that the primary issue the administration had with the university was its response to the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision to strike down affirmative action.
&#8220;Perhaps most alarmingly, Harvard has failed to abide by the United States Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling demanding that it end its racial preferencing, and continues to engage in ugly racism in its undergraduate and graduate schools, and even within the Harvard Law Review itself,&#8221; she said. Our universities should be bastions of merit that reward and celebrate excellence and achievement. They should not be incubators of discrimination that encourage resentment and instill grievance and racism into our wonderful young Americans.&#8221;
Trump has been sharply critical of Harvard, calling it a &#8220;threat to democracy&#8221; and &#8220;far left institution.&#8221;

Trump Signs Executive Order To Begin Dismantling Education Department

Harvard Gets More Bad News From Trump Admin Amid Funding Fight

Funding

Harvard University

The Trump administration this week slashed $1 billion in so-called &#8220;mental health&#8221; grants for educational institutions, many of which were going to promote leftist ideology and train leftist activists.
The Education Department <a href="https://apnews.com/article/school-mental-health-grants-trump-biden-dei-00bec2d96371f023ac56fe3f32f3e92f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confirmed</a> Wednesday that it was making cuts to grants handed out by the Biden administration ostensibly for the purpose of &#8220;mental health&#8221; because of the focus of many of the recipients on racially-focused programs. In a notice to Congress, the administration said it was going to &#8220;re-envision and re-compete&#8221; the funds allocated for mental health at schools in a gun control bill signed by former President Joe Biden.
&#8220;These grants are intended to improve American students&#8217; mental health by funding additional mental health professionals in schools and on campuses,&#8221; Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications Madison Biedermann <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-administration-discontinues-1-billion-school-mental-health/story?id=121360858" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;Instead, under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden Administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help.&#8221;
The move was first reported on Tuesday by Christopher Rufo, who <a href="https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1917314079406055660" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on X that there would be &#8220;no more slush fund for activists under the guise of mental health.&#8221;
In March, the conservative organization Defending Education <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-education-department-spent-100m-funding-university-leftist-activist-programs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">put out a report</a> finding that the Department of Education had given at least $100,964,880 in grants to 25 universities to increase their social worker training programs ostensibly for the purpose of mental health. Defending Education found that many of these grants were going to programs steeped in leftist ideology.
This money was allocated through the Mental Health Service Professional Demonstration Grant Program and the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant Program.
For example, Portland State University was <a href="https://ktvz.com/news/government-politics/2023/04/11/dept-of-education-awards-1-6-million-to-help-osu-psu-train-school-based-mental-health-professionals/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">awarded</a> $1,189,801 by the Department of Education to increase the number of social workers. DEI principles are built into the school’s Master of Social Work program, the stated <a href="https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A42f35593-1dd0-3ca0-b163-1b9431eec989&amp;viewer%21megaVerb=group-discover" target="_blank" rel="noopener">goal</a> of which is to train social workers to dismantle “systems of oppression; build[] racial equity and social, political, and economic justice.”
&#8220;The grants were meant to support school counselors and mental health staff. In reality, they became a pipeline for training activist educators steeped in DEI, CRT, and gender ideology. Federal dollars went to universities pushing &#8216;anti-racist social-emotional learning&#8217; and racially preferential hiring,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/nickineily/status/1917947212341875076" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Defending Education President Nicki Neily on Thursday. &#8220;Parents want real support for children in crisis, not counselors or social workers trained to divide, shame, and re-educate. Good on the Trump administration for ending this. Now, let’s make sure the replacements actually serve students.&#8221;

Department Of Education Plans To Lay Off Half Of Its Staff

Trump Admin Deals Blow To Taxpayer-Funded Leftist Activist Training Program

Joe Biden

Mental Health

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump&#8217;s Education Department is investigating the University of California at Berkeley for allegedly failing to properly report hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign funding, The Daily Wire has learned.
The Education Department sent a notice of investigation and records requests to UC Berkeley on Friday, senior Education Department officials shared Friday morning. The notification came amid widespread media reports that Berkeley has received a substantial amount of money from foreign governments, the official said, specifically China.
These substantial amounts of money have not been reported to the department as required by law under Section 117&#8217;s Foreign Funding Disclosure Requirements for Universities, one official shared. The department is concerned about the university&#8217;s deep involvements with Chinese entities, particularly how it has shared the development and transfer of important technologies with China.
“They’ll have 30 days to respond with the records that we requested,&#8221; an Education Department official said, &#8220;and so we hope to have quite a volume of records and we’ll be able to verify the degree to which UC Berkeley is or is not compliant after our examination of those records.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_912241" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/education-department-investigating-uc-berkeley-for-improper-reporting-on-china-ties/sather-gate" rel="attachment wp-att-912241"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-912241" class="wp-image-912241 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1053601948-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1053601948-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1053601948-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1053601948-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-1053601948.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Close-up of metalwork on Sather Gate, the iconic entrance gate to the campus of UC Berkeley in downtown Berkeley, California, October 9, 2018. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)</div>
“Over the course of the last two years, UC Berkeley has been cooperating with federal inquiries regarding 117 reporting issues, and will continue to do so,&#8221; a spokesman for UC Berkeley said on Friday. The univeristy declined to comment further.

UC Berkeley

Education Department Investigating UC Berkeley For Improper Reporting On China Ties

Berkeley, California

California

University of California Berkeley

President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders on Wednesday, including multiple directives that seek to further cut diversity, equity, and inclusion policies from influencing education.
The orders covered a host of topics, including artificial intelligence, foreign funding of universities, accreditation associations, and school discipline policies. Trump signed them in the Oval Office with Education Secretary Linda McMahon at his side.
One of the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/reinstating-common-sense-school-discipline-policies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">orders</a> rolled back school disciplinary guidance issued during the Obama administration that told schools across the country that they could lose federal funding &#8220;if their disciplinary decisions ran afoul of a newly imposed disparate-impact framework under which race-neutral disciplinary policies, applied in an even-handed manner, may be improper if members of any racial groups are suspended, expelled, or referred to law enforcement at higher rates than others.&#8221;
Trump wrote that the Obama guidance &#8220;required schools to discriminate on the basis of race by imposing discipline based on racial characteristics, rather than on objective behavior alone.&#8221; The order mandates that schools do not consider race when enforcing discipline policies. 
Several executive orders focus on education at the university level, including <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/reforming-accreditation-to-strengthen-higher-education/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one</a> that goes after accreditors, whom Trump writes have &#8220;abused their enormous authority&#8221; by forcing universities to adopt diversity, equity, and inclusion policies. 
Specifically named in the executive order are the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/top-medical-association-academic-blames-health-care-problems-on-cisgenderism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Liaison Committee on Medical Education</a> and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, which calls for institutions to implement “policies and procedures related to recruitment and retention of individuals underrepresented in medicine,” specifically including racial minorities. 
&#8220;The Secretary of Education shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, hold accountable, including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, accreditors who fail to meet the applicable recognition criteria or otherwise violate Federal law, including by requiring institutions seeking accreditation to engage in unlawful discrimination in accreditation-related activity under the guise of &#8216;diversity, equity, and inclusion&#8217; initiatives,&#8221; Trump wrote. 
Another higher education <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/transparency-regarding-foreign-influence-at-american-universities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> calls for greater transparency around the foreign funding of American universities and calls for the Education Department and the Justice Department to develop more stringent reporting requirements. 
&#8220;It is the policy of my Administration to end the secrecy surrounding foreign funds in American educational institutions, protect the marketplace of ideas from propaganda sponsored by foreign governments, and safeguard America’s students and research from foreign exploitation,&#8221; Trump wrote. 
<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/advancing-artificial-intelligence-education-for-american-youth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Another order</a> directs the formation of an artificial intelligence task force to &#8220;promote AI literacy and proficiency among Americans&#8221; by integrating AI into education, providing AI training for teachers, and &#8220;fostering early exposure to AI.&#8221; 
The final two education-related orders establish a White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/white-house-initiative-to-promote-excellence-and-innovation-at-historically-black-colleges-and-universities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">initiative</a> for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, while another <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/preparing-americans-for-high-paying-skilled-trade-jobs-of-the-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">directs</a> the creation of additional workforce development programs with the goal of enabling Americans &#8220;to produce world-class products and implement world-leading technologies.&#8221;
A separate <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/restoring-equality-of-opportunity-and-meritocracy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> directed the federal government to stop using disparate impact theory in government policy and regulations. The order defines disparate impact theory as the &#8220;presumption&#8221; that &#8220;unlawful discrimination exists where there are any differences in outcomes in certain circumstances among different races, sexes, or similar groups, even if there is no facially discriminatory policy or practice or discriminatory intent involved, and even if everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.&#8221;
Trump wrote that this theory undermines America&#8217;s values of meritocracy and a colorblind society while also violating the Constitution.
&#8220;It is the policy of the United States to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible to avoid violating the Constitution, Federal civil rights laws, and basic American ideals,&#8221; Trump wrote, revoking the use of disparate impact for Justice Department actions taken to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits government funding from going to entities that discriminate based on race.

President Trump Signs Executive Orders Focused On Education In The Oval Office

Trump Takes Sledgehammer To DEI In Latest Round Of Executive Orders Targeting Education

Executive

Executive Orders

As the Department of Education yanks $175 million of federal funding from the University of Pennsylvania for violating Title IX by allowing males into women’s sports, Secretary Linda McMahon should also consider cracking down on other, more common procedural violations of Title IX that have been routinely committed by colleges for over a decade: that is, violations against due process for students and faculty accused of sexual misconduct.
This status quo was created by the Obama Department of Education’s 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter, which gutted protections for the accused in the name of “victims’ rights,” under penalty of losing federal funding. The letter mandated that colleges use the “preponderance of evidence” standard — which only demands that the guilty be deemed over 50% likely to have committed misconduct — as opposed to the stronger “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt” standard employed in criminal trials in actual courts. It also allowed alleged victims to appeal the result of a disciplinary hearing — a form of double jeopardy otherwise barred by the legal system. Moreover, it discouraged cross-examination of victims, claiming this would “retraumatize” them, and enabled a single-investigator model, in which the person investigating the sexual misconduct claim would also adjudicate the sexual misconduct claim and decide as to whether or not the accused was guilty — giving the investigator the near absolute power to be “prosecutor, judge, and jury” at once, as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Education <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/breaking-new-title-ix-regulations-undermine-campus-free-speech-and-due-process-rights" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> it.
Having received Obama’s memo, colleges went above and beyond — the Constitution, that is: even after President Trump took office for the first time and then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos rescinded the Obama-era “Dear Colleague” letter in 2017, colleges kept their kangaroo courts — and began to be taken to court themselves. In two notable cases, federal courts determined that accused students at the <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/09/26/us-appeals-court-finds-student-accused-sexual-assault-was-denied-due-process" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Cincinnati</a> and the <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/court-holds-university-michigan-administrators-personally-liable-violating-students-due" target="_blank" rel="noopener">University of Michigan</a> had their constitutional rights to due process violated. Per a 2019 <a href="https://nyujlpp.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Harris-Johnson-Campus-Courts-in-Court-22-nyujlpp-49.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> by Samantha Harris and K.C. Johnson, over 500 lawsuits were filed by accused students in the post-2011 period; 340 lawsuits went to federal court; colleges lost over 90 federal decisions; and colleges chose to settle over 70 lawsuits out of court before a decision could be made. This was around the peak of #MeToo and #BelieveAllWomen: in that cultural moment, anyone accused of sexual misconduct was essentially presumed guilty until proven innocent, a horrible inversion of the American rule of law.
Eventually, in 2020, DeVos established a rule ensuring Title IX proceedings would respect due process and treat both accuser and accused fairly. Because DeVos used the rulemaking process, rather than ruling by “Dear Colleague” fiat as her predecessor did, her decision was harder to reverse by the Biden administration. As a result, the Biden rule came toward the end of his administration in 2024, and, thanks to the administration’s overreaching attempt to rewrite Title IX to include “gender identity,” was immediately caught up in federal injunctions and barely implemented by the time Trump took office a second time and officially brought back the DeVos rule. That means that despite the change in administrations and attempted changes to Title IX by Biden, most colleges have been subject to the DeVos rule for most of the past five years.
Nevertheless, <a href="https://x.com/kcjohnson9/status/1893051067799060764" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuits</a> over the past several years have continued to be filed by accused students and faculty alleging that their colleges treated them unfairly in Title IX proceedings. Just this month, the Fourth Circuit <a href="https://www.carolinajournal.com/expelled-unc-student-can-pursue-reinstatement-not-money-in-federal-suit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ruled</a> in favor of an accused student at the University of North Carolina, noting that due process, live hearings, and cross-examination are crucial in Title IX proceedings. The persistence of lawsuits from the accused suggests that colleges are still not treating the accused fairly, and, as a result, are not only potentially disciplining, expelling, and firing perfectly innocent people — mostly men — they are also undermining the validity of all allegations, which makes it more difficult for real victims — mostly women — to be taken seriously.
College bureaucrats act this way in part because they are concerned with their own interests first: the #MeToo zeitgeist of yesterday still has them convinced that the fallout from blatantly unconstitutional proceedings will be less damaging to them than the possibility of activists calling them “rape apologists” for treating accused students and faculty with fairness. The Department of Education can change this calculus by stripping federal funds from every institution violating the rights of the accused. Only harsh federal action and the potential for penalties where it hurts will show colleges that they will suffer more for presuming guilt and holding unfair proceedings than they will for presuming innocence and treating both parties fairly, as the American rule of law demands.
On a more human note, colleges are often the places where young men and young women form their opinions of the world and of each other. Especially at a time when relations between the sexes are <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2024/03/13/why-the-growing-gulf-between-young-men-and-women" target="_blank" rel="noopener">souring</a>, it is crucial that colleges be expected to follow the law if they are to continue to be entrusted with taxpayer dollars.
* * *
Neeraja Deshpande is a policy analyst and engagement coordinator at Independent Women.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Views Of Yale University As Ivy League Pay Soars

‘Prosecutor, Judge, And Jury’: Why Campus Kangaroo Courts Should Lose Federal Funding

'Prosecutor, Judge, And Jury': Why Campus Kangaroo Courts Should Lose Federal Funding

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