April 29, 2025
One college district in Kentucky is refusing to signal the Division of Schooling’s letter citing DEI applications as unlawful.
A college district in Kentucky is jeopardizing its federal funding by defying the Division of Schooling’s Trump-directed initiative to acknowledge DEI insurance policies as unlawful.
On April 22, Jefferson County Public Faculties (JCPS) Superintendent Marty Pollio despatched a letter to the U.S. Division of Schooling explaining the district’s determination to reject a civil rights compliance type aimed toward eradicating DEI applications from colleges, WHAS 11 experiences. As a substitute of signing the DOE’s letter, Pollio signed and submitted his personal letter, attaching the declaration he made in August 2024, which assured the U.S. DOE that the district complies with federal regulation.
Now, a college principal within the district is voicing native issues about how the refusal might influence future funding for Jefferson County colleges, particularly his personal, which serves a scholar physique that depends closely on extra assist.
“Completely, we’re involved, and we hope that issues keep the best way they’re,” Johnsontown Street Elementary Faculty Principal Stephen Howard mentioned.
“We’ve got a variety of college students with particular wants. We’ve got a really numerous inhabitants. [We’re] additionally a college that may be a excessive proportion of free and diminished lunch, so we have now a variety of poverty and we want a variety of help to make sure that each scholar will get the whole lot they want and deserve.”
Pollio’s letter was a response to a DOE directive issued earlier this month, which warned that sustaining DEI initiatives might jeopardize federal funding and set off authorized motion from the U.S. Division of Justice. Together with his refusal, district staffers are anxiously watching to see how the DOE responds.
“It supplies a stage of fear to academics and workers, in addition to directors, as a result of we simply don’t know what might occur and the impacts,” Howard mentioned. “What could possibly be taken away or what could possibly be expanded?”
Including to the strain on JCPS colleges, Jefferson County Board of Schooling member Linda Duncan confirmed the district is already going through a $100 million native price range lower as COVID-19 reduction funds dry up.
“We added some nice issues throughout COVID – nurses, psychological well being counselors, large police division, weapons detection methods, extra nice issues… Now we should determine what we are able to lower since we’re all the way down to our personal cash,” she mentioned.
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