New York schools tell the Trump administration that they will not comply with the order. new York

New York State officials told the Trump administration that they would not comply with its requests to put an end to diversity, equity and inclusion practices in public schools, despite the administration’s threats to end the funding of federal education.

Daniel Morton-Bentley, lawyer and deputy commissioner of the State Department of Education, said in a letter dated Friday to the Federal Department of Education that State officials did not think that the Federal Agency has the power to make such requests.

“We understand that the current administration seeks to censor all that it considers as diversity, equity and inclusion,” he wrote. “But there are no federal or state laws prohibiting Dei’s principles.”

Morton-Bentley has also written that state representatives were “unconscious” of any authority that the Federal Ministry of Education must demand that states agree with its interpretation of legal decisions or to terminate funding without official administrative processes.

The United States Ministry of Education did not immediately respond to requests for comments sent by email.

Thursday, the Trump administration ordered K-12 schools at the national level to certify within 10 days that they follow federal laws on civil rights and implements discriminatory practices of the DEI, as a condition for receiving federal money. Federal funding represents approximately 6% of the total financing of K-12 schools in New York.

“Federal financial aid is a privilege, not a right,” said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, in a statement when the request was made. He said that many schools have flouted their legal obligations, “including using Dei programs to discriminate a group of Americans to promote another.”

The certification request has asked the leaders of the State and the School to sign a “recall of legal obligations” recognizing that their federal money is conditioned on compliance with federal laws on civil rights. It also requires respect for several pages of legal analysis written by the administration.

Demand specifically threatens the financing of title I, which sends billions of dollars a year to American schools and targets low -income areas.

Morton-Bentley wrote that the State Education Department has already certified the Federal Government on several occasions that it complies with title VI of the 1964 civil rights law, more recently in January. He said that the Federal Department is based on its requests to end the DEI programs on a defective legal interpretation.

“Since you are already in possession of NYSED guarantees that it has and that you will respect the title VI, no other certification will be coming,” he wrote.

He also declared that the position of the administration is a “brutal change” compared to that taken by the first Trump administration, citing comments in 2020 facts by the Secretary of American Education, Betsy Devos, that diversity and inclusion were “the cornerstone of high organizational performance”. He wrote that the administration did not explain why she changed post.

Critics of the certification request declared that he was in conflict with Trump’s promise to return education to schools and states.

The threat of financial sanctions is similar to that which the Trump administration has exploited against colleges in its efforts to suppress demonstrations against Israel that it deems anti -Semitic.

New York state has also refused to comply with a request from the Trump administration to close a program to finance public transport in New York with high tolls on cars that lead to Manhattan.