Deadline approaches for Arizona schools to comply with DEI policies or risk losing federal funds

PHOENIX — The deadline for Arizona schools to comply with the U.S. Department of Education’s policies on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is Thursday.

Each school district must sign a certification form stating its compliance with federal DEI, Title VI and Civil Rights Act requirements.

Arizona schools pressured to sign Trump administration’s DEI compliance letter

Failing to sign will lead to the withholding of millions of dollars of federal funding.

Paradise Valley Unified School District approved signing the form last week.

“We have always complied with Title VI, so the board should be confident that we can sign this letter,” the district’s interim superintendent Jason Reynolds said. “It is important to note that this is a bit of a moving target as we figure out what these expectations are.”

West Valley district official has concerns about DEI compliance policy

Meanwhile, Tolleson Union High School District has not yet decided whether to sign the form or not.

Superintendent Jeremy Calles said the policies are “redefining discrimination in a way we’ve never seen before.”

He said there are federal grants designated for specific disadvantaged populations, but the same federal department is claiming that their own grants are discriminatory.

“Signing the letter does not give people the protection that they’re hoping that it will because there are things that you’re agreeing to in this this letter where not only will they come back and take the federal funding, but they will actually hold you liable for a false claim and have treble damages and assess additional fees,” he said.

Calles said the choice will come down to the governing board members, who are holding a special session on Wednesday night to decide a course of action.

What will happen to schools that don’t sign DEI compliance letter?

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said his office will enforce the federal funding ban against any district that doesn’t sign the DEI compliance letter.

“We’ve notified the schools. We will let the federal government know people refuse to sign,” Horne said. “We will also make sure that they do what they said they would do, and I’m in total philosophical agreement with that.”

He said his issue with DEI language is that it prioritizes race-based entitlement over individual merit.

“DEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion,” he said. “In normal language, those are favorable words, but the way they’re used in the colleges and then in the school is that diversity involves stereotyping people and then they want a diversity of stereotypes, not of individuals.”

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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