The Palm Beach County School Board is considering a broad series of rule changes that would end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in a bid to avoid losing $300 million in federal funding.
If the changes are approved during the board’s meeting on Wednesday, the Palm Beach County School District would end its women -and minority-business enterprise program, which was created to give businesses owned by women and minorities a better chance to get district contract work.
The district would repeal its majority-to-minority transfer rule, which gives students who are in the racial or ethnic majority in their current school first priority in transferring to a school where they would be in the racial or ethnic minority. That rule was put in place to encourage more racial and ethnic balance in schools.
More: Education Department cuts: Loss of money could affect 100,000 Palm Beach County students
Ending DEI programs means no more diversity goals in hiring, retaining teachers in Palm Beach County
District rules would still bar discrimination, but they would no longer require efforts to provide racial, ethnic or gender diversity in hiring or retaining staff. Principals would no longer be required to select faculty advisers, directors, coaches, sponsors and staff “who are diverse in racial, ethnic, and gender composition.”
A staff-generated justification for the rule changes noted that they are being proposed “due to the imminent danger to the health, safety, and welfare posed to the public” if the district continued to administer DEI programs in defiance of the Trump administration, which has repeatedly threatened to pull federal funding from school districts, colleges and universities that do not end those programs.
Republicans have ripped DEI programs as a form of reverse discrimination against whites that put minorities in positions of authority without merit. They also argue that the programs violate federal laws against discrimination. Democrats counter that the programs are a necessary tool to ensure that women and minorities are included in job candidate pools and that the views of people in marginalized communities are taken into account as policy is crafted.
Much of the Trump administration’s anti-DEI efforts have been focused on higher education, with elite institutions like Harvard, Columbia and Penn coming into the administration’s crosshairs.
The anti-DEI push has now come to K-12 education.
On March 14, Superintendent Mike Burke said the district was reviewing its DEI policies to “ensure compliance with evolving state and federal guidelines.”
Trump administration concerned DEI could violate anti-discrimination rules
The U.S. Department of Education sent state education leaders an order on April 3 demanding that they have school districts in their state sign a “reminder of legal obligations” acknowledging that some diversity, equity and inclusion programs could — in the view of Trump administration officials — violate anti-discrimination laws and subject a district to the loss of tens of millions in federal funding.
Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement that federal financial assistance is a “privilege, not a right.” He added that, “when state education commissioners accept federal funds, they agree to abide by federal antidiscrimination requirements.”
A Palm Beach County School District spokesman said that the district received the reminder of legal obligations notice from Education Commissioner Manny Diaz on April 10 and that Burke signed it a week later.
The district is already facing state funding cuts in the upcoming fiscal year that could reach $47 million and threaten the availability of AP, IB and AICE classes. Possible federal funding cuts have added to district fears.
“The potential loss of approximately $300 million in federal funding would have an immediate and detrimental impact to the school district’s budget and its ability to support student education, operate schools, pay employee salaries, and maintain essential services,” district staff noted in statement justifying the proposed DEI pullback.
School district the largest employer in Palm Beach County
The district is the largest employer in Palm Beach County, and the end of its W/MBE program would likely rankle the women and minority business owners who have relied on it to give them a better shot at district contract work. These programs have often been viewed, like other DEI efforts, as a form of reverse discrimination.
Still, the business programs have survived numerous legal challenges, with federal courts determining they are legal if they could survive “strict scrutiny,” meaning they have a compelling government interest and were put in place to address specific, documented instances of discrimination. School districts and local governments must first undertake a market disparity study to determine whether discrimination is hampering opportunities for women and minority business owners before they can put a program in place to address the problem.
One of the anti-DEI changes being proposed in Palm Beach County is the repeal of language authorizing the school board to hire a consultant to conduct a disparity study.
It is not clear, however, that the district needs to end its W/MBE program to avoid the potential loss of federal funding.
The “reminder of legal obligations” districts were required to sign included DEI programs among what the Trump administration views as impermissable racial classifications that “advantage one’s race over another.”
But a footnote of that reminder states: “The only exception to this prohibition on the use of racial classifications is where their use satisfies ‘strict scrutiny.'”
An attorney for the school district signed off on the proposed elimination of its women and minority business program, noting that “the proposed revisions to this policy eliminate references to an advantage or disadvantage conferred on a group based on race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
Palm Beach County School Board members left to right: Gloria Branch, Virginia Savietto, Marcia Andrews, Matthew Lane, Erica Whitfield and Chairperson Karen Brill.
The Palm Beach County School District is the 10th largest in the nation and got $150 million from the U.S. Department of Education in fiscal year 2025. The district used the money to recruit, train and retain teachers at schools with a high percentage of poor students. Some of the money also went to educate students whose first language is not English and to provide equipment, programming and instruction for disabled students.
Beyond the $150 million in federal education money, the district got $120 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which was used to help cover the cost of student meals. It is not clear if that food money is also under threat if districts don’t shut down DEI programs. The reminder of legal obligations only mentioned the potential loss of “federal funding” and did not specify what type of federal funding was at risk or if all of it was at risk.
Critics of the Trump administration’s anti-DEI push view its citing of federal anti-discrimination laws as a painful irony. Minorities fought hard for and in some instances were beaten or killed in the quest to have the federal government pass laws banning discrimination. Now, those laws are being used to threaten funding that, in many places, disproportionately help minority students.
The NAACP has filed suit against the U.S. Department of Education and its top leaders to stop the department from following through on its threat to strip federal funding from school districts that have DEI programs. The organization said the department’s order to state education officials advances “a misrepresentation” of anti-discrimination laws “to deny Black children equal opportunities.”
Wayne Washington is a journalist covering education for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County School District considers ending DEI programs, rules