Colorado’s K-12 education department won’t comply with Trump’s DEI order
Colorado will not comply with a federal order to certify that the state’s K-12 school districts are following civil rights law and eliminating what the Trump administration says are illegal diversity, equity and inclusion practices, Education Commissioner Susana Córdova said Thursday.
The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to state education departments on April 3 threatening to pull federal funding from public schools over such programs. States were given 10 days to sign and return the notice, but multiple states, including New York and Minnesota, have said they won’t comply with the order.
Córdova said during a meeting of the Colorado State Board of Education on Thursday that she won’t sign the certification letter and will not ask districts to do so. Colorado schools already comply with federal anti-discrimination laws, she said.
“Frankly, I would be uncomfortable signing a certification that binds us to federal guidance that doesn’t have the force of law,” Córdova said. “I would be uncomfortable signing a certification that lacks definitions and clarity around what is or is not prohibited. I think that’s particularly true given that the certifications come with the potential consequence of loss of federal funds.”
The federal Education Department’s notice said the “use of certain DEI practices can violate federal law” and that it is illegal for programs to advantage one race over another.
Córdova said her decision was also made, in part, because the document sent by the Trump administration wasn’t approved under a federal law called the Paperwork Reduction Act, which is a process that must occur for the federal government to collect information, including such certifications, from state and local agencies.
“It would be unlawful to restrict federal funding because somebody declines to sign a document that we’re not legally obligated to sign,” she said.
The State Board of Education met in an executive session, which was closed to the public, on Wednesday to discuss a legal memo related to how the Colorado Department of Education planned to respond to the April 3 letter.
But Republican members of the board, most notably Steve Durham, who represents the 5th Congressional District, pushed for the board to hold a public discussion about the agency’s response.
“The real reason, I think, behind not signing this is political rather than legal,” Durham said during Thursday’s public meeting. “There can be significant debate or disagreement, I guess about, what DEI actually is, but there is plenty of evidence of its misuse.”
Durham’s comment was the furthest any of the nine members, including the four Republicans on the board, went in criticizing Córdova’s decision to not sign the letter.
And, as with Durham, several members vaguely mentioned diversity, equity and inclusion practices being used to discriminate against students in Colorado classrooms, but none identified specific incidents or evidence of such discrimination having taken place.
Democratic members of the board supported Córdova’s decision.
“If you ask 15 people to define DEI, all 15 would define it differently,” board member Karla Esser said. “Because we have no definition, I wouldn’t sign it to begin with.”
The Trump administration has targeted both K-12 and higher education institutions, threatening to revoke federal funding because of their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The University of Colorado’s Colorado Springs is among more than 50 universities under investigation for allegedly discriminating against white and Asian American students. The administration is also investigating Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest district, for “discriminating against its female students” by creating an all-gender bathroom at East High School.
Córdova said both during Thursday’s meeting and in a letter sent to K-12 school districts that Colorado is already in compliance with Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin.
Districts are already required to affirm their compliance with Title VI when they receive federal money and those assurances are binding, Córdova wrote in the letter to district leaders.
Colorado’s schools receive millions of dollars from the federal government.
DPS received about $96 million from the federal government for the 2024-25 academic year and about 75% of that money is Title 1 and IDEA — Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — funding.
Douglas County School District, the state’s third largest district, receives about $15 million from the Department of Education, including $1.5 million from Title 1 funding and $11 million from IDEA funding.
So far, the state education department and local K-12 school districts haven’t said whether they plan to cut any departments, programs or classes related to diversity, equity and inclusion practices.
In Colorado, local school boards and educators decide what is taught in the classroom. But the State Board of Education does approve standards, such as for social studies and science, which are a framework for teachers developing lessons.
In 2022, the board approved adding much-debated references to people of color and the LGBTQ community into the state’s social study standards to comply with a 2019 bill passed by the state legislature that aimed to add diverse views into students’ history and civics lessons.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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