Trump administration drops appeal over anti-DEI funding threat to schools and colleges

The Trump administration is dropping its appeal of a federal court ruling that blocked a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion threatening federal funding to the nation’s schools and colleges.

The Education Department, in a court filing Wednesday, moved to dismiss its appeal. It leaves in place a federal judge’s August decision finding that the anti-DEI effort violated the First Amendment and federal procedural rules.

The dispute centered on federal guidance telling schools and colleges they would lose federal money if they kept a wide range of practices that the Republican administration labeled as diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The department did not immediately comment.

Democracy Forward, a legal advocacy firm representing the plaintiffs, said the dismissal was “a welcome relief and a meaningful win for public education.”

“Today’s dismissal confirms what the data shows: Government attorneys are having an increasingly difficult time defending the lawlessness of the president and his cabinet,” said Skye Perryman, the group’s president and CEO.

The department sent the anti-DEI warning in a “Dear Colleague Letter” to schools last February.

The memo said race could not be considered in decisions involving college admissions, hiring, scholarships and “all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.” It said efforts to increase diversity had led to discrimination against white and Asian American students.

The department later asked K-12 schools to certify they did not practice DEI, again threatening to cut federal funding.

Both documents were struck down by U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland. In her ruling, she said the guidance stifled teachers’ free speech, “causing millions of educators to reasonably fear that their lawful, and even beneficial, speech might cause them or their schools to be punished.”

The challenge was filed by the American Federation of Teachers.

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—By Collin Binkley, AP education writer