A parental rights education group has filed a federal complaint against a California school for allegedly offering training sessions to some teachers and not to others based on the teachers’ race.
Parents Defending Education is filing a complaint with the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights Monday pointing to Kingmakers of Oakland, an organization focused on helping “black boys” in San Leandro Unified School District in San Leandro, Calif and “black male teacher recruitment.”
“Kingmakers of Oakland prides itself in being a race-focused organization,” reads the complaint, first obtained by The Center Square.
“It is ‘fundamentally transforming the education system and building the capacity of people to design and sustain thriving and liberated systems, structures, conditions, and culture to improve educational and life outcomes for Black Students,"” the complaint continues.
Complaints of this kind can prompt the Department of Education to investigate with a potential loss of federal funding, though that is not common.
The program in question is one of thousands like it that is now in question after President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs at the federal level. Critics argue the programs discriminate against other students, most often white and asian students, and violate federal law.
Federal law bans federally funded schools from discriminating against students on the basis of race, though what constitutes discrimination will likely be disputed.
“It is discriminatory for San Leandro Unified School District to offer educational and mentorship opportunities to students based solely on their race in order to promote race-focused outcomes,” Nicole Neily, founder and president of PDE, told The Center Square.
The Education Department sent out a letter earlier this month warning all school districts that refusing to nix DEI programs will cost them their federal funding beginning in March.
“Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding,” he added.
DEI education programs lost some legal footing when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federally funded universities could not practice affirmative action policies in admissions.
As The Center Square previously reported, PDE released a report showing that thousands of schools across 46 states have embraced the very kind of DEI programs that could now cost them federal funding.
The report showed 21,232 schools have implemented DEI programs or policies in 610 school districts across 46 states as well as the District of Columbia, which impacts over 13 million students.
Cracking down on this wide range of schools would be an epic federal effort, but Trump has so far shown the appetite.
PDE says “Kingmakers of Oakland” has a contract for $74,750.
“The ‘needs assessment’ provided in the contract separates students by race, with an exclusive focus on the ‘needs’ of black students,” the complaint said. “It notes broadly that ‘the largest demographic on the campus identifies as Hispanic/Latino’ and many others ‘identify as Asian’… But it breaks down black student enrollment in much more detail, identifying the number in each grade level.”
PDE called on the Education Department to investigate.
“The Public schools need to abandon discriminatory programming that contributes to an ‘oppressor vs oppressed’ paradigm,” Neily added. “Children will better thrive in an environment that isn’t permeated by an ideological agenda that insists that differences in skin color are more important than academic achievement.”
