The Trump administration’s latest “civil rights” investigation into the Cherry Creek School District should be greeted with all the credibility and skepticism as the president’s previous forays into white supremacy and xenophobia couched as “ending racism.”
The U.S. Department of Education announced this week that it is investigating the Aurora school district over allegations that it sponsors “racially discriminatory programs,” excludes students based on race, and promotes equity training for educators.
Cherry Creek officials flatly reject those claims, and federal officials have yet to provide any evidence supporting the allegations.
This is hardly the first time the Trump administration has launched headline-grabbing investigations against schools and colleges that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, which are proven to benefit everyone.
School districts that have worked to improve outcomes for students of color, create healthy environments for LGBTQ+ students, or address long-standing achievement gaps have found themselves targeted by a federal government determined to redefine equity efforts as discrimination.
Cherry Creek is only the latest example.
It’s part of a much broader Trump administration effort to root out policies that support students of color and LGBTQ+ students. Similar investigations have targeted school districts in Democratic strongholds in cities across the country, including New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago, as the Associated Press and Chalkbeat have reported.
The Cherry Creek district’s Voices of Color Committee, now under scrutiny, has a straightforward mission. Online information about the group says it was created to help students of color succeed by building relationships between families and schools and ensuring that parents have direct access to district leaders.
School officials say anyone can participate regardless of race.
Yet federal officials are portraying this and other similar programs as evidence of racial exclusion.
The officials behind this and the people who support this propaganda are a large part of the reason diversity and equity programs and policies are needed.
The pattern of Trump’s “investigations” should concern every Colorado parent and taxpayer. Programs designed to foster inclusion, improve educational outcomes for historically marginalized students, or create safe learning environments for LGBTQ+ youth are routinely recast as violations of civil rights law, a corruption of both the letter of the law and its intended mission.
The allegations arrive first. The supposed evidence arrives later, if it arrives at all.
That is why Cherry Creek officials are right to push back. District leaders have not even received the complaint underlying the latest “investigation.”
In typical Trump administration fashion, federal officials have already issued inflammatory public statements suggesting that racial discrimination “permeates” the district.
Colorado schools track academic achievement, graduation rates and other indicators by race because disparities are real. Educators do not examine those gaps because they want to divide students. They do so because responsible public institutions measure problems they hope to solve.
The very nature of public education is to provide access and opportunity equally to everyone who lives here. Everyone.
Equity programs exist to help communities move closer to parity, ensuring that race, ethnicity, income or identity do not predetermine educational outcomes.
Colorado leaders should not just shake their heads at this stunt.
Cherry Creek officials, local school boards, state education leaders and elected officials must stand together and vigorously defend programs that help all students succeed.
The Colorado Department of Education should demand evidence, insist on fairness and refuse to abandon initiatives that have been shown to improve engagement, opportunity and achievement.
The real threat to Colorado schools is not a committee designed to help students of color thrive. It is a corrupt federal campaign that treats inclusion as a crime and equity as something to be feared.
Students and parents deserve accurate curricula based on facts and reality, no matter how unpleasant they are. Slavery in the United States happened. Racism happened. Lynchings happened. Using propaganda and bending the law to promote a political agenda are machinations that countries like North Korea and Iran execute. It’s wrong here on endless levels.
