Education Department cites DEI in withdrawing from Native American inequality resolution
The U.S. Department of Education has withdrawn from a resolution aimed at addressing disciplinary disparities affecting Native American students in South Dakota’s Rapid City Area School District. This decision came after the department resolute that the initiative was improperly based on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) principles. An investigation, completed in 2024, revealed that Native American students faced significantly harsher disciplinary actions compared to their white peers, being four times more likely to be suspended and five times more likely to be arrested.
Despite the district’s progress in implementing some recommendations from the agreement—such as implicit bias training—the Education Department concluded that the compliance review would cease due to violations of civil rights laws centered on DEI. Concerns have been raised by local advocates that the school district may abandon the necessary reforms without federal oversight, as ancient data indicates inadequate implementation of the proposed measures. this situation highlights the ongoing tensions between federal initiatives aimed at combating discrimination and local educational governance.
Education Department cites DEI in withdrawing from Native American inequality resolution
The Education Department has backed out of an agreement to address disciplinary imbalances affecting Native American students in a South Dakota school district, stating that the initiative was improperly based on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
The investigation into Rapid City Area School District began in 2010 and was completed in 2024. It found that Native American students were four times as likely than white students to be suspended and five times as likely to be arrested.
However, the Education Department told the district last month it was closing its compliance review because it was in violation of civil rights laws since it was centered on DEI.
The school system had already completed much of the work outlined in the resolution agreement, which included implicit bias training and improved discipline data tracking, according to the district’s acting superintendent, Cory Strasser. He said that the district will continue its work without federal oversight.
Some in the region are concerned that the school district will abandon implementing the resolutions’ recommendations.
“The agreement exists because the Rapid City Area school board needed to be held accountable to implementing those provisions,” Nick Tilsen, the founder of a Rapid City-based indigenous advocacy organization, told the Associated Press. “They can’t just simply say that they’re doing it, because the data already shows that they’re not implementing these things.”
HOW TRUMP’S PROMISE TO ABOLISH THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION WOULD WORK
President Donald Trump’s administration has taken a much different approach to anti-discrimination laws than the Biden administration.
The Trump administration has already revoked another civil rights resolution agreement involving the removal of books from a Forsyth County School District library in Georgia. An Education Department official indicated that additional agreements are also under review.
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