DEI not dead: NJ joins states fighting Trump schools agenda

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is making clear that DEI-related initiatives will remain in New Jersey's schools, despite pushback at the federal level.

Platkin has once more teamed up with other attorneys general to counter an executive action from the Trump administration, joining 15 other Democratic state attorneys general in issuing guidance to schools of all levels regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives.

The guidance is in response to a slew of White House policies targeting DEI in education, most notably a Department of Education memo (known as a "Dear Colleague letter") that gave schools across the country two weeks to eliminate all race-based diversity practices at the risk of losing federal assistance. That memo is currently tied up in the courts.

“New Jersey’s schools are among the top-ranked in our country precisely because they embrace our state’s great diversity and provide a high-quality education to students across the state – and no toothless threats from the Trump Administration will change that,” Platkin said in a statement from his office on Wednesday.

“Along with my colleagues across the country, we are issuing legal guidance to schools so that they can continue to foster diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible environments that benefit all students. Make no mistake – we will fight any attempt by the Trump Administration to take funding away from our schools, and especially our special needs students.”

The statement from Platkin's office says the guidance is meant to remind "educational entities that efforts to seek and support diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible educational experiences for students are legal, and that longstanding legal precedents supporting these programs cannot be changed by an executive order or a letter from the U.S. Department of Education."

A point of emphasis in the guidance regards the Trump administration's broad interpretation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, which eliminated race-based admissions practices for colleges and universities.

The attorneys general clarified the Trump administration's attempt to expand the scope of the ruling does nothing to prevent schools from continuing their efforts to foster a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible learning environments within current legal bounds.

For New Jersey schools, state law gives DEI a prominent place in schools; the guidance asserts that, in effect, the current actions from the executive branch do nothing to those state laws.

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