“Federal statute already prohibits any president from telling schools and colleges what to teach,” the American Federation of Teachers said. “And students have the right to learn without the threat of culture wars waged by extremist politicians hanging over their heads.”
Educators and academics have filed a lawsuit challenging Trump administration guidance giving universities two weeks to eliminate any and all “race-based” practices.
According to The Associated Press, the lawsuit was filed Tuesday on behalf of the American Federation of Teachers labor union and the American Sociological Association. Attorneys for the two groups say that the Department of Education’s memo violates provisions of the First and Fifth Amendments by forcing schools to teach only a government-mandated perspective.
“This letter radically upends and re-writes otherwise well-established jurisprudence,” the lawsuit says. “No federal law prevents teaching about race and race-related topics, and the Supreme Court has not banned efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in education.”
The lawsuit claims that the Department of Education has overstepped its authority by seeking to restrict teaching about “systemic and structural racism.”
“It is not clear how a school could teach a fulsome U.S. History course without teaching about slavery, the Missouri Compromise, the Emancipation Proclamation, the forced relocation of Native American tribes,” and other subjects that broadly pertain to race and racial relations.
“Federal statute already prohibits any president from telling schools and colleges what to teach,” the American Federation of Teachers said. “And students have the right to learn without the threat of culture wars waged by extremist politicians hanging over their heads.”
The Department of Education has yet to respond to the lawsuit. However, in the memo, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights said that DEI efforts have been “smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline.”
“But under any banner, discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is, has been, and will continue to be illegal,” acting assistant secretary Craig Trainor said.
The lawsuit also raises concerns that the memo’s language is so broad that it could penalize universities for hosting even voluntary student groups, like African-American student unions and Irish-American heritage clubs.
“This vague and clearly unconstitutional memo is a grave attack on students, our profession, and knowledge itself,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “It would hamper efforts to extend access to education, and dash the promise of equal opportunity for all, a central tenant of the United States since its founding.”
The Associated Press notes that the American Federation of Teachers is one of the largest teachers unions in the country. The American Sociological Association is a higher-education-oriented organization comprised of about 9,000 college students, professors, and teachers.
Together, both groups say that the Department of Education’s mom could make it more difficult for instructors to teach.
Sources
Educator coalition sues to block Trump anti-diversity orders: ‘A grave attack’
Teachers union sues over Trump administration’s deadline to end school diversity programs
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