C.W.
Thanks for your question. President Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders banning DEI programs, many of which he signed on his first day in office. He also signed one requiring federal contractors to certify that they don’t promote DEI.
During his inauguration speech, Trump described it as a move to end efforts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”
The reason the Trump administration can do this is because it has made receiving federal funding contingent on whether or not schools comply with its orders on removing DEI.
AP’s Collin Binkley wrote about a memo from the Department of Education on the use of DEI programs at schools and universities. Here’s some of his reporting, and what the Trump administration says is its reasoning for terminating DEI:
The memo is an extension of Trump’s executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs. As legal justification, it cites the 2023 Supreme Court decision barring race as a factor in college admissions.
“Put simply, educational institutions may neither separate or segregate students based on race, nor distribute benefits or burdens based on race,” it said.
“Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “We will not yield on this commitment.
”Department officials said that the group limits eligibility based on race and that colleges that partner with it are “engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.