For years, City Schools of Decatur openly obsessed over race. In 2017, the superintendent of the small school district miles from downtown Atlanta launched an equity office that trained its teachers and staff to pay an “education debt” to black students and families by discriminating against white students. The school district further directed white teachers and parents to confront their supposed racial biases by examining how “whiteness” controls their decisions and actions. CSD also pushed to “decolonize the curriculum” by reducing a classroom emphasis on Western (“Eurocentric”) principles and teaching that traditional subject areas such as history, math, and music are corrupted by white supremacy.
As explained in a new report from the Defense of Freedom Institute, these practices culminated in a policy that infused a race-based “equity” in CSD’s mission and decision-making. “Pay the debt” was the shibboleth justifying racial affinity groups, race-based hiring processes, and anti-racist pressure groups at every school. According to one media report, between 2017 and 2024, CSD spent over two million dollars on trainings, staff salaries, and other expenses promoting this racially obsessed version of “equity.”
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The heady times for “racial equity” ended in early 2025, when the Trump administration launched strong enforcement measures against schools running discriminatory DEI offices and programs. Almost by magic, publicity around the race-based nature of Decatur’s equity project suddenly disappeared from its website. “Equity @ CSD,” an online district database of DEI- and CRT-focused policies and resources, vanished. So did website references to the district’s equity department. Much of the district’s guidance relating to “anti-racist” policies, hiring practices, teacher training, and curricula are no longer publicly accessible.
Discussions at school board meetings confirm that CSD is trying to deflect attention from its discriminatory racial equity policies. In April 2025, facing a federal directive to affirm that it is not engaged in discriminatory DEI practices, the school board formally rescinded its equity policy. At the same time, the board’s vice chairman said he didn’t expect the rescission of the policy to have any impact on CSD’s pursuit of DEI, pointing out that it is “not stopping us from doing the work—it’s stopping us from using the words.” When district courts blocked the Education Department’s enforcement methods, the board summarily voted to reinstate the policy. It’s effective today.
Decatur’s dilemma is one faced by many school districts nationwide. Shockingly, some state and local education agencies, such as the California and Minnesota departments of education, have opted to fight the federal government rather than comply with the law.
CSD has taken a different path. Rather than openly discriminate (risking the withdrawal of federal and state funding) or publicly disavow its DEI practices (risking backlash from community members and interest groups), it has simply removed from its website evidence of its racially discriminatory DEI policies and programs until the enforcement threat blows over.
WHEN INCLUSION BECOMES ILLEGAL
It’s easy to see the attraction of such evasive tactics. The Trump administration wants to root out unlawful CRT in schools? Voilà: no more resource page explaining the benefits of CRT in classrooms. The Justice Department enforces Supreme Court case law prohibiting favoring one race over another in education? Presto: the district’s website explains that its “equity” policy now applies to all students, not just the “historically marginalized” ones. With its DEI policies on hiatus from public scrutiny, the district can simply wait for a change of administration.
Hiding DEI resources and changing racially discriminatory wording on websites are not the same as ending unlawful discrimination policies and practices that demean students and distract from academics. Parents and teachers deserve and should push for accountability in the form of transparent and permanent policies prohibiting differential treatment on the basis of race. Until then, the Education Department must step in to ensure that school districts such as CSD have not just paused, renamed, or concealed their unlawful DEI programs, but have ended these discriminatory practices for good.
Paul Zimmerman is senior counsel, Policy & Regulatory, at the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies.
