this post was submitted on 05 Apr 2025

451 points (99.3% liked)

News

35867 readers

2239 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.

Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, blogs, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.

7. No duplicate posts.

If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.

All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

JonsJava@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

451

New York Warns Trump It Will Not Comply With Public School D.E.I. Order (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 10 months ago by Stamau123@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The New York State Education Department on Friday issued a defiant response to the Trump administration’s threats to pull federal funding from public schools over certain diversity, equity and inclusion programs, a remarkable departure from the conciliatory approach of other institutions in recent weeks.

Daniel Morton-Bentley, the deputy commissioner for legal affairs at the state education agency in New York, wrote in a letter to federal education officials that “we understand that the current administration seeks to censor anything it deems ‘diversity, equity & inclusion.’”

“But there are no federal or state laws prohibiting the principles of D.E.I.,” Mr. Morton-Bentley wrote, adding that the federal government has not defined what practices it believes violate civil rights protections.

The stern letter was sent one day after the federal government issued a memo to education officials across the nation, asking them to confirm the elimination of all programs it argues unfairly promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Title I funding for schools with high percentages of low-income students was at risk pending compliance, federal officials said.

New York’s stance differed from the muted and often deferential responses across academia and other major institutions to the Trump administration’s threats. Some universities have quietly scrubbed diversity websites and canceled events to comply with executive orders — and to avoid the ire of the White House.

top 21 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] PortoPeople@lemm.ee 101 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Good. All blue states and people who believe in democracy need to tell this government to fuck off at every opportunity.

[–] TimLovesTech@badatbeing.social 23 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

My hope is we (NY) withhold what we would get in school funding from our federal taxes, or maybe we just stop paying them. Get all the Blue states to stop paying for the Red ones and maybe we can stop letting this asshole use economic threats to get States to submit to his bullshit.

Edit - Also what about all that "States Rights" bullshit these mouth breathes were spewing when they were banning books and bullying trans kids?

[–] Hugin@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

States don't pay federal taxes. Residents of the state pay federal taxes.

So it would have to be you underpaying the IRS and taking the legal and financial risk.

[–] PortoPeople@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago

maybe we just stop paying them.

Yes.

[+] dryfter@lemm.ee -32 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I’m torn on this because I love that blue states are standing up for DEI. But, like, kids are already suffering enough especially in Rochester which already is ranked one of the worst school districts in the country based on test scores and graduation rates. The teens are already out of control on crime sprees ands joy rides (some young as 11 and 12)here thanks to these kids having nothing better to do than get into gangs due to peer pressure.

If NY state has a backup plan to at least maintain funding levels for schools once federal funding gets cut I’d feel better about this. Spoiler alert: they don’t. They’re also forcing all school districts in the state to switch to electric buses amidst all this new crap going on.

The only people who will suffer from this decision are the students and the communities that will have to put up with even more crime sprees and joy rides. But I guess in war, causalities will happen whether we like it or not.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 31 points 10 months ago (2 children)

How old are you, 95?
This is the dumbest "the youth are bad!" scaremongering I've ever seen.

[–] Gumbyyy@lemmy.world 0 points 10 months ago

I live in the Rochester area. dryfter isn't wrong.

[–] NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 9 points 10 months ago

Since New York is a net giver than receiver of federal money they probably have the money to keep schools running. Urban blue states are filthy rich so it's a matter of political will more than anything. Also New York City is one of the cities with the least crime in America, so while the media likes to play up crime for views it's not really a thing.

[–] FinnFooted@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I get your concern in a sense because kids in Rochester do have it pretty rough. While crime stats in the us and NY are down, violent crime Rochester specifically has stayed pretty steady since the 90s and is higher than national and NY crime levels.

But I don't think this will be the thing that impacts these kids and school districts the most. The issues Rochester face come from poor incentive management for schools, high teacher burnout and poor employee retention, large classroom sizes, issues with corruption within specific school systems, and concentrations of low socioeconomic people.

I need to admit I left the public education world in NY a while ago. But it used to be that the worse a school performed the less money it got. Because schools only get a small percentage of funding from the federal government that gets pulled from them when they underperform (I very quickly looked at the numbers and it appears Rochester gets less than the national % average in federal funding, about 10% compared to the national 13% depending on what year you're looking at). So schools with students who needed the most help either lost money or just tried to cover up student issues to hide them instead of address them. As long as this and property tax funding is the model and admin dictates their own salaries, schools aren't going to improve.

IMO, it's even specifically DEI policies that briefly helped some schools excel in the us during school bussing. Bussing students forced integration of students from all different backgrounds and socioeconomic groups. Rich and attentive parents with more bandwidth made sure whatever school their kid was at was well funded and well run. Kids from different backgrounds became friends and humanized each other. Kids from poor backgrounds were offered support systems outside of gangs and violence. And these poor kids didn't poison the well and bring crime to their new schools. Kids are kids. If you offer them opportunities, they don't choose gangs and violence.

What will really fix schools and improve things for kids

small class sizes (15 kids MAX)
force integration
better support for teachers
free school lunches
statewide tax funding instead of property tax

[–] Alexstarfire@lemmy.world 34 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Finally, an entity with balls. Columbia capitulating was such a blow. Not sure if Harvard has made a decision yet. These intuitions are supposed to stand for progress and education.

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

While I agree with the sentiment, you’re comparing the New York State Education system with two private for-profit Ivy League colleges. Every for profit Ivy League college will capitulate. The bigger question is if other State Education departments turn down federal funding in the interest of better serving the public

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I also hope Harvard does the right thing but they’re being shaken down for a lot of money. Doing the right thing is not financially prudent.

My personal stake is the hit to Children’s Hospital. My kid survived cancer, where federal funding supported a long term study by Harvard that reversed the odds of surviveability . Over more than a decade of improvements to care, the odds went from 90% fatality to 90% survival. We can not afford to lose progress like this over some old man’s spite and vanity

[–] SeeMarkFly@lemmy.ml 28 points 10 months ago (2 children)

No need to warn him, just don't do it. He'll never know.

[–] gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 months ago

Even better: say “ok sure”, do nothing, and then gaslight them about it.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 1 points 10 months ago

It's less about warning Trump and more about announcing that Trump is over stepping and encouraging others to also not go along with it.

[–] Stamau123@lemmy.world 22 points 10 months ago

Not like there will be a department of education to control them anyhow

[–] mp3@lemmy.ca 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

If that doesn't work then you can use their playbook, saying that you're complying but you're doing absolutely nothing of the sort, like the deportation court orders they willfully ignore yet say they're complying.