Why Arizona Schools Are Pushing Back Against DEI Cuts

One of the defining characteristics of the latest Trump administration has been their insistence to remove DEI, or Diversity Equity, and Inclusion practices from every facet of American life.

A major starting point was school systems, but the federal government has been running into some issues in Arizona.

National DEI Ban

One of the latest Executive Orders from the White House was a request for all K-12 schools in America to acknowledge they would ban DEI initiatives in their classroom. Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has been heavily backing the order, stating:

We want the schools to treat low-income students and all income students as individuals and not on the basis of what race they were born into. That’s not relevant to anything

A majority of schools in Arizona have already followed the order, 551 of the 658 that are expected to comply. Some districts, however, have a much less favorable opinion.

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Raging Against the Machine

Recently, a federal judge blocked this order, citing that it infringes on teacher's First Amendment rights, and the wording is too vague to ring any actual change. In lieu of this, some Arizona districts have decided to back away from the order, such as the Tolleson Union High School District and the Kyrene Elementary School District.

These districts believe the order is infringing on state's rights, ironic since bringing rights back to the states has been another massive goal for this administration. For the time being, the federal judge's block should allow these schools to keep operating as is, but we have no idea how long that will last.

[AZ Family][NBC12][Axios]