In response to the Department of Education’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights issuing a “Dear Colleague” letter threatening to withhold federal funds to educational institutions that engage in DEI programming, training, or other activities, PEN America released the following statement:
The administration’s outrageous “Dear Colleague” letter seeks to declare it a civil rights violation for educational institutions to engage in any diversity-related programming or to promote any diversity-related ideas–potentially including everything from a panel on the Civil Rights Movement to a Lunar New Year celebration. This declaration has no basis in law and is an affront to the freedom of speech and ideas in educational settings. It represents yet another twisting of civil rights law in an effort to demand ideological conformity by schools and universities and to do away with critical inquiry about race and identity.
By threatening to deprive students and researchers of access to federal funds unless a school or university bans certain ideas, the administration announces its intention to diminish the American educational system from a place where all concepts can be discussed and debated to one where certain ideas about race and identity are banned by government decree. In particular, the government has no role whatsoever in determining what ideas are permissible on any college campus, or in any private K-12 institution–both of which are encompassed by this letter. To enact government interference in the intellectual life of such institutions is to end the United States’ centuries-long history of intellectual freedom in educational settings, and to reduce our colleges and universities to the status of echo chambers, similar to those controlled by authoritarian states.
This letter joins a variety of executive orders issued since the inauguration that seek to distort the law and bully educational and cultural institutions into ideological conformity, in the name of supposedly implementing civil rights laws and ending indoctrination and discrimination. In fact, it seeks to impose its own form of indoctrination on schools and colleges. We urge the Department of Education to rescind this letter immediately. And we urge educational leaders not to be cowed by the threats of government officials whose erroneous interpretations of the Constitution would undermine the freedom to learn.