Pressure campaign
Coming from all sides … A man with a plan … And give these kids a hand.
The Trump administration just ratcheted up the pressure on Arizona schools to get rid of anything resembling DEI.
And state lawmakers aren’t far behind.
The latest move by the Trump administration came in the form of a letter the U.S. Department of Education sent to state officials last week.
The terms were stark: If K-12 schools allow diversity, equity and inclusion programs that “advantage one race over another,” then the federal government will withhold funding.
Meanwhile, GOP lawmakers in the Arizona Legislature are all set to vote on a bill that would do pretty much the same thing. Senate Bill 1694 would strip away state funding for schools that offer DEI programs, which prompted a heated debate at the state House last week.
It’s all part of a wide-ranging crusade against DEI throughout the state and federal governments, on par with the hysteria over critical race theory a few years ago.
Democratic-led states like Minnesota and New York were quick to tell Trump officials they wouldn’t comply with last week’s letter. But the wind is blowing in the opposite direction in Arizona.
Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is fully on board with cutting DEI programs.
As soon as federal officials made their demand to get rid of DEI, Horne issued a statement saying DEI “promotes racial discrimination” and it has “no place in education or society.”
Meanwhile, school officials in Arizona aren’t sure what the U.S. Department of Education would consider acceptable.
Black History Month, for example, appears to be acceptable to the Trump administration, but beyond that, it’s not exactly clear what would trigger the federal funding cuts.
Lawmakers don’t know, either
Like local school officials, state lawmakers had trouble defining DEI when they were debating SB1694 on the state House floor, as Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fischer noted.
As they hashed out what they thought DEI actually is, they inadvertently had what sounded like a pretty decent classroom discussion about the role of race in society.
GOP Rep. Alexander Kolodin hung his hat on what he called the “common sense” definition of racism included in the bill, namely that it blocks funding for institutions that “promote the differential treatment of any individual or group of individuals based on race or ethnicity in contemporary American society.”
The bill also bans funding for institutions that promote “the idea that a student is biased on account of a student’s race or sex.”
That definition didn’t even come close to satisfying Kolodin’s colleagues across the aisle.
Democratic Rep. Cesar Aguilar said he was proud of his country, but he was “embarrassed” by this type of legislation, which he said would erase “the very history that makes this country what it is today.”
He pointed to recent examples of Trump administration officials tacking “DEI” onto the website that commemorates baseball player Jackie Robinson and erasing the stories of Navajo Code Talkers.
Republican Rep. Walt Blackman, the first Black Republican in the state House, said he didn’t want people thinking he was hired because of his race.
“I was born in a time, in 1965, where this was real, and it was needed, and my family was discriminated against,” he said.
Blackman recalled being sick as a child and his parents having to drive from hospital to hospital looking for one that would treat Black patients.
Still, he didn’t want young people of color today to think the main reason they were hired was their race.
He urged his colleagues to vote their consciences and make sure they could look themselves in the mirror when they do.
“We are all Americans, but we do have some issues we need to talk about,” Blackman said.
As the back-and-forth continued, Democratic Rep. Nancy Gutierrez said racism was the result of ignorance and “the way we fix ignorance is through education.”
Lawmakers themselves benefit when they learn about each other’s backgrounds, she said, making them more “respectful and well-rounded as a body” and “the same goes in a boardroom or in a classroom.”
Republican Rep. Lisa Fink said state universities are declining and “DEI takes the focus off of academics,” while it “seeks to divide, not unify.”
For Democratic Rep. Quantá Crews, it was personal.
She said that when she applies for jobs, she never gets an interview if she uses her first name. It’s an entirely different story when she uses her middle name, Marie.
“I have never been given a job because I was Black. If anything, it’s been the opposite,” Crews said. “You see, Quantá, when she applies for a job, never gets an interview. But Marie does.”
She seemed baffled that GOP lawmakers included the term “systemic racism” in the bill, as if it were somehow an invention of DEI-obsessed academics.
“It’s a real thing. It’s not made up,” she said.
Where did all this DEI stuff come from?
To understand that, one of the key people you have to know is Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who led the charge against critical race theory and then DEI.
He also has the ear of the DOGE crew.
Back in February, he called for the Department of Education to cut $226 million from the Comprehensive Centers Program, which works largely with low-income students and promotes more inclusive curriculum.
His posts on Twitter (renamed X after Elon Musk, who also runs the DOGE crew, bought it) made a big splash.
Musk responded with double exclamation points and within hours, the Department of Education made the cuts, Chalkbeat reported. The department’s press release about the cuts even linked to Rufo’s Twitter account as evidence.
Consider that for a moment: A handful of social media posts from Rufo led to $226 million being cut from a nationwide education program.
So what’s Rufo all about?
Rufo sat down with Ross Douthat, a conservative columnist at the New York Times, to talk about what Rufo called the “insane hatred written into the operating manual of our universities.”
The transcript of the interview is long, but enlightening. If you’ve been wondering where the crackdown on DEI came from, this is worth your time.
“The right needs to have its own interpretation of civil rights law and it needs to take over the enforcement of civil rights law,” Rufo explained. “It needs to have essentially an alternative vision, a kind of Spartan system of colorblind equality, that is in my view better grounded in the Constitution and the law.”
It’s also worth mentioning another point Rufo brought up: Privatizing the $120 billion in financial aid for students and universities that the U.S. Department of Education handles every year.
Rufo also echoed an idea that popped up when we wrote last month about Project 2025, which is basically a blueprint for dismantling the federal government’s role in public education.
State officials should be the ones who decide how federal money is spent, Rufo said, instead of federal grants dedicated for a specific purpose.
Guess where Rufo used to work? The Heritage Foundation, which put together Project 2025 and appears to be the intellectual driving force for much of what the Trump administration is doing today.
While we stay on top of education news in Arizona, we’re trying to dig a little deeper into the powers-that-be who decide what happens here. If you want a little help making sense of it all, please consider supporting us with a paid subscription.
Last week saw plenty of Trump administration decisions that hit schools and students in Arizona, like the 50 international students who had their visas revoked or Trump officials cancelling eight humanities grants at the University of Arizona. But we’ve probably talked enough about Trump for the day.
How about an elementary school in Nogales getting recognized for the first time as an A+ School of Excellence? Robert M. Bracker Elementary School was one of 53 public schools that got the accolade from the Arizona Educational Foundation this year, the Nogales International reported.
Or what about a new school opening? Billionaire Jeff Bezos is about to launch the Bezos Academy in Glendale, the Republic’s Erick Trevino reports. The school offers tuition-free preschool for children 3 to 5 in low-income areas. It all came about after Glendale Mayor Jerry Weiers met Bezos four years ago and put him in touch with local educators.
And it’s nice to see people looking out for each other. Polaris Academy in Mesa became the first school in Arizona to be recognized as a Certified Autism Center, Cronkite News’ Samantha Rea reported. More than 80% of the school’s staff were trained in teaching autistic and sensory-sensitive students. The school is a private, for-profit institution that’s mostly funded through Empowerment Scholarship Account money.
Journalists don’t get school vouchers, unfortunately. But you can still support this fledgling publication by smashing that button and becoming a paid subscriber.
Ok, this one’s not so good. After local police got fed up with students not taking active shooter drills seriously, students at Snowflake High School went into lockdown thinking the drill was the real thing, 12News’ Sean Rice reported. That prompted one student to text her mother saying, “We are at the high school for choir and we might die. There is a shooter at the high school. I love you.” Her mother was furious with school officials and police.
Every kid deserves to be Student of the Week, especially with all the arguing adults are doing over education policies.
Meet the nominees this week from the Republic:
A senior at Valley Christian Schools who throws a mean javelin and works hard with kids at sports camps
A junior at Apache Junction High School with a “quiet strength” who leads by example
And the student body president at Central High School, who knows how to turn a $200 prom budget into $30,000