Inside Trump's push against school desegregation plans
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The Trump administration is signaling it wants to ditch federal desegregation efforts in public school systems, a move that would end much-debated, decades-old programs mainly aimed at improving education opportunities for nonwhite students.
Why it matters: Lifting desegregation policies set by federal rules and court orders — some of them a half-century old — could lead to a wide range of changes in more than 80 school systems Axios has identified as still being under such requirements.
- Those systems, primarily in the South, would no longer have to follow policies that set flexible transfer rules, school boundary guidelines, diversity hiring goals, and requirements for equal resources among schools, for example.
- It also would mean that Black and Latino parents in school systems that have been historically resistant to desegregation efforts likely would have less help tackling allegations of discrimination.
State of play: This month, the Trump administration moved to dismiss a school desegregation case in Louisiana that began in 1966 in mostly white Plaquemines Parish.
- Plaquemines schools — like many systems targeted by the government's efforts — were run by white segregationists when Lyndon Johnson's administration sued the district for resisting the 1954 Supreme Court Brown v. Board of Education decision, which outlawed racial segregation in schools.
- Now, President Trump's Justice Department says it has "righted a historical wrong" by "freeing" the Plaquemines school board from federal oversight.
- The DOJ and Plaquemines school officials — who say their district addressed its equity issues long ago — have asked a judge to dismiss the case.
After that announcement, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) said she wants to end more desegregation orders in the state.
- To close desegregation cases, the U.S. government and a school system must agree to end monitoring agreements or get approval from a federal judge in most cases.
The big picture: Trump's administration has been focused on removing programs that have benefited people in historically disadvantaged communities — and on fighting what it has called anti-white discrimination.
- The administration, for example, has said the U.S. government no longer will unequivocally prohibit contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms and drinking fountains.
- Trump also has revoked President Johnson's decades-old order on diversity and affirmative action practices in the U.S. government.
Zoom in: Like those in Plaquemines, some school officials in districts still under desegregation orders say they've met their integration and equity goals — and that the orders still in effect amount to government overreach at a time when enrollments are more diverse than ever.
- However, civil rights advocates argue that desegregation programs are still necessary, citing ongoing disparities in educational opportunities and test scores.
- The advocates also point to the "resegregation" happening in many systems, as white students disproportionately leave neighborhood schools for charter and private schools.
By the numbers: At least 84 school districts remain under court orders or federal monitoring agreements, an Axios review found.
- More than half of those districts — 63% — are in Alabama, Georgia or Mississippi in the South's "Black Belt," a rural and historically impoverished area with large Black populations dating back to enslavement.
- Another 26% of the districts are in Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee and Texas.
Zoom in: The Huntsville City (Ala.) system is among the districts that still have active desegregation orders.
- The district has struggled since 1970 to adjust school zoning policies that often have reinforced racial divides and limited extracurricular activities for Black students, according to court documents.
- The school district recently filed for a partial release from its desegregation order. The Trump administration's Justice Department didn't object.
What they're saying: Raymond Pierce, president and CEO of the Southern Education Foundation, tells Axios the Trump administration appears to see school desegregation with the disdain it's shown for DEI programs.
- "They want to blend diversity, equity and inclusion with civil rights," Pierce said. "DEI is good policy, but desegregation is the law."
Pierce added that many districts that still have desegregation orders have never adopted effective plans, and have been waiting for an administration that would de-emphasize them.
- "These are places that never desegregated seriously, so the chances that minority students will get any response from the courts in the future to violations of rights will vanish," said Gary Orfield, co-director of the UCLA Civil Rights Project.
Noliwe Rooks, author of "Integrated: How American Schools Failed Black Children," told Axios that desegregation failed to address many Black students' needs — whether that meant upgrading their schools, moving them to better ones or providing equal resources.
- "How robust was it?" Rooks said of desegregation efforts.
- "How available was it to all, and where has it led us?"
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