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ELC Submits Public Comments Opposing Attempts by Federal Departments to Gut Public Education and Civil Rights Protections

Education Law Center submitted public comments opposing the U.S. Department of Education’s harmful discretionary grant priorities and urging the U.S. Department of Energy to immediately withdraw rules aimed at gutting key anti-discrimination regulations.

U.S. Department of Education

Last week, ELC submitted public comments opposing Secretary Linda McMahon’s proposed priorities that seek to expand private school vouchers and undermine the U.S. Department of Education’s role in ensuring equal access to educational opportunity for all students. The Department intends to prioritize discretionary grant funding for applicants and projects that seek to expand vouchers or limit the federal role in public education, replacing previous priorities published in 2021.

ELC’s comments enumerate the harms of voucher programs to students and public education since they permit discrimination, result in poor student outcomes, and drain resources from the public schools that welcome all students. They have no place in federal policy that instead must continue to support and resource the public schools that serve the vast majority of students and ensure that these schools provide a high-quality, equitable, and non-discriminatory education for children across the country.

In addition, the comments note that these priorities ignore the critical role the federal government and the U.S. Department of Education play in ensuring states’ ability to deliver a high-quality education to every student, including providing necessary funding, research and evaluation and enforcing civil rights. Eviscerating these essential functions, under the guise of “returning education to the states,” will negatively impact states’ public education systems and interfere with their students’ right to an equal and non-discriminatory education.

“These priorities signal an abdication of federal responsibility for supporting states and districts to improve public education and ensure educational opportunity for children,” said Robert Kim, ELC Executive Director. “Policies and programs stemming from these priorities would cause generational harm, draining resources from public schools and undermining students’ civil rights.”

U.S. Department of Energy

ELC also submitted public comments urging the U.S. Department of Energy to immediately withdraw four Direct Final Rules (DFRs) aimed at gutting key civil rights protections under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (athletics and gender conscious programming), and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

DFRs are intended to be used for routine or uncontroversial regulatory amendments, allowing agencies to bypass public notice-and-comment rulemaking procedures. As ELC’s comments point out, however, these DFRs are neither routine nor uncontroversial as they seek to undo well-established civil rights protections. And though they have been issued by the Department of Energy, they would affect public school students. These DFRs are the Trump Administration’s attempt to bypass legally required procedures to enact its harmful agenda. For these reasons, ELC calls on the U.S. Department of Energy to immediately withdraw the DFRs.

ELC’s significant adverse comments oppose the following DFRs:

  • Rescinding protections under Section 504 requiring recipients of federal funds to ensure that new construction and alteration is fully accessible to people with disabilities;
  • Rescinding protections under Title IX ensuring that all students—especially women and girls—have access to sports;
  • Rescinding protections under Title IX allowing schools to take proactive steps to overcome the effects of discrimination that have resulted in the underrepresentation of women and girls in certain educational fields; and
  • Rescinding protections under Title VI prohibiting actions that appear neutral but have the effect of discrimination (disparate impact).

“These DFRs are not only improperly issued, they would rescind decades-old regulations that protect people with disabilities, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and women, resulting in direct harm to these groups,” said Katrina Reichert, UC Davis Public Service Legal Fellow at ELC. “We firmly reject the Trump Administration’s attempt to unlawfully curtail civil rights protections.”

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Press Contact:
Sharon Krengel
Director of Policy, Strategic Partnerships and Communications
skrengel@edlawcenter.org
973-624-1815, x240