WASHINGTON -- Over many decades the federal government upheld civil rights statutes by focusing on correcting long standing systemic bias against Black individuals and other communities of color. The Justice Department pushed schools toward integration. The Education Department advanced equal access and monitored institutions for signs of racial prejudice.

Yet during the Trump presidency initiatives aimed at correcting entrenched disparities for students of color are increasingly labeled as unfair to white students. Longstanding programs that previously passed legal review are now swiftly branded illegal diversity equity and inclusion efforts by the White House. Districts that resist face funding cuts and in certain instances have already lost federal support.

Attorneys specializing in civil rights view these moves as a reversal of established legal precedent.

It turns the intent of civil rights statutes upside down harming not only Black students and students of color but whole school communities said Michael Pillera director of educational equity issues at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The approach ignores the nations actual past and ignores everyday conditions across the country.

The federal government has launched probes or entered lawsuits concerning numerous programs designed to reduce racial gaps. The Justice Department is examining teacher diversity initiatives in Rhode Island and Iowa. Grants supporting teacher training or the hiring of school mental health staff have been pulled when applications referenced diversity goals.

In a statement the Education Department noted that any program using federal dollars must comply with statutes barring racial discrimination.

Meeting student requirements and obeying the law are compatible goals. Advocates and educators have no cause for concern provided they follow legal requirements said Amelia Joy a department spokesperson.

The Trump administration examined Chicago Public Schools and withheld more than twenty million dollars after the district declined to terminate its Black Student Success Program an effort to expand advanced course access for Black students and lessen punitive discipline practices.

A comparable plan to narrow racial achievement gaps in Los Angeles now faces parallel scrutiny.

Los Angeles Unified School District launched the Black Student Achievement Plan following widespread student protests after the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The initiative supplies additional teachers counselors and Black history curriculum to selected schools.

At first the district selected sites partly according to Black student enrollment numbers. In 2023 Defending Education a Virginia based conservative organization lodged a complaint with the Education Department claiming bias against non Black pupils. The district later agreed to drop Black enrollment as a factor and instead rely on indicators such as chronic absence and low test scores while confirming that participation remains open to everyone.

Following those adjustments the Education Department in 2024 found no violation. However when Defending Education resubmitted its complaint this year the Office for Civil Rights opened a fresh investigation.

Sarah Parshall Perry senior legal fellow at Defending Education explained that the group refiled after district officials were recorded stating the program had not substantially changed despite the revised criteria.

Our aim is not to single out LA Unified but to verify that when leaders claim they have removed racially discriminatory elements they follow through on those statements Perry said.

In a written response LAUSD affirmed that its programs comply with state and federal statutes and remain accessible to all students.

Makeda Walker Deen a junior at Dorsey High School described how the program has aided her throughout high school.

A program counselor steered her toward college readiness opportunities allowing visits to the University of California Berkeley and Stanford institutions she is now considering. Psychologists and social workers she met through the effort helped her manage stress and anxiety.

I believe many of the criticisms are misplaced she said. Critics argue that a program intended to support Black students and other students of color is itself discriminatory. Yet we have faced discrimination within school systems for most of our lives.

LAUSD has recorded early positive results. In recent statewide assessments Black students in the district exceeded the statewide average for Black students.

When educators receive the knowledge and tools to assist their lowest performing students everyone benefits said Tyrone Howard an education professor at UCLA who advised on the Black Student Achievement Plan.

Organizers fear that mounting pressure on the program will hinder progress toward closing opportunity gaps for Black students.

Where is the public outcry over the persistent shortcomings of public education for Black children asked Christian Flagg director of youth organizing at Community Coalition which helped create the Black Student Achievement Plan. These students have remained at the bottom for years with large gaps persisting. Yet attempts to address those gaps now draw objections.

The broader shift in the federal approach to school civil rights has appeared in multiple ways under President Donald Trump.

The Justice Department has released districts from longstanding court ordered desegregation decrees describing them as outdated and overly restrictive. The Education Department has also withdrawn funding from some districts that used the money to establish magnet schools intended to promote diversity.

In letters discouraging diversity initiatives the Trump administration has frequently referenced an expansive reading of the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action that barred colleges from directly weighing race in admissions.

Although that ruling applied only to higher education admissions the administration last winter informed schools that any race based differential treatment was unconstitutional. A federal court later invalidated that guidance but advocates note that some districts may still discontinue equity programs to avoid federal attention.

In Los Angeles the Justice Department has moved to terminate another equity measure.

In the 1970s courts directed the district to remedy harms from segregated schools. The resulting case produced a brief era of busing between Black and white students. Longer lasting elements included magnet schools and a special category for Predominantly Hispanic Black Asian or Other Non Anglo schools.

Known as PHBAO the designation provides smaller classes and extra parent teacher meetings when seventy percent of zoned students are students of color. Most district schools meet the threshold.

In January the conservative 1776 Project Foundation filed suit challenging the designation calling it overt discrimination against a new minority White students. The following month the Justice Department filed its own complaint and sought to join the case.

LAUSDs desegregation program has outlived its purpose and become unconstitutional an assistant U.S. attorney stated in a news release.

Decades of unequal outcomes demonstrate otherwise said attorney Mark Rosenbaum who previously represented students of color in the Los Angeles desegregation litigation.

Opponents of desegregation always promised that ending the orders would bring new resources to these schools Rosenbaum said. We continue to wait for that promise to be fulfilled.