Colorado Department of Education will not sign order showing compliance with Trump DEI order
Source: Scripps News
Posted 9:14 AM, Apr 12, 2025
During a board meeting on Thursday, Colorado's Department of Education Commissioner Susana Córdova announced that her department would not sign a letter from the federal government certifying that the state's K-12 school districts are complying with the removal of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices. "I am not signing that," Córdova said. "I'm not asking our districts to sign that."
In a letter dated April 3, the U.S. Department of Education asked state departments of education to sign a "reminder of legal obligations undertaken in exchange for receiving federal financial assistance." The Trump administration has previously threatened to pull federal funding from schools and universities if they do not remove DEI policies and programs to comply with the departments interpretation of federal law.
States were given 10 days to sign and return the notice, according to The Denver Post. During Thursday's board meeting, Córdova said Colorado school districts have already signed assurances saying they comply with Title VI. "They do so on an annual basis in order to be eligible to receive federal funds," she said. "We are not going to be collecting and asking districts to sign a new assurance that came to us in that April 3 request."
Córdova said the April 3 notice is different than the other assurances school districts have signed. "It has not gone through a process that's called the Paperwork Reduction Act, which is a very detailed and structured process that must occur before federal agencies can compel mandatory collections of information like this kind of a certification," Córdova said.
Read more: https://www.scrippsnews.com/politics/president-trumps-first-100-days/colorado-department-of-education-will-not-sign-order-showing-compliance-with-trump-dei-order

LizBeth
(11,182 posts)It served us well.
Norrrm
(1,297 posts)BumRushDaShow
(151,323 posts)and even invoked it!
eppur_se_muova
(38,937 posts)So-called "conservatives" (really extremist reactionaries) love to quote that clause of the Bill of Rights in defense of "States' Rights", but ignore it anytime they want to override policies the states have chosen for themselves, regardless of voters' wishes.