On Dec. 21, the last day of school for children across America before Christmas break, the Trump administration provided an early gift to greet them as they return to classes later this week. After an interminable delay, the White House announced the revocation of an order issued by the Obama administration requiring the nation’s public schools to discipline their charges based on race or face federal prosecution for violation of the Civil Rights Act. The result of the Obama-era decree was mischief, mishap, and mayhem as miscreants went unpunished. Most famously, it had a hand in causing the massacre in Parkland, Fla.
One wonders, what took so long for the rule to meet its demise?
The Obama administration’s “Dear Colleague” letter dated Jan. 8, 2014, violates federal law, misinterprets Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and pressures schools to violate the Equal Protection Clause. In addition, it constitutes illegal rulemaking in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, promotes a policy that has a horrific record of injuries to teachers and students when used by local school districts, and has been the subject of almost universal condemnation by knowledgeable experts. In St. Paul, Minn., for example, racial quotas to discipline students resulted in “violence and chaos.” Because “[some] kids … consider themselves untouchable [there was] more violence and more serious violence. … At many elementary schools, anarchy reigned.”
Jason Riley, in a Wall Street Journal column, questioned why, two months into the Trump administration, the “Dear Colleague” letter was still official policy. Referencing a newly released study by Max Eden of the Manhattan Institute, Riley noted that more than half of the nation’s 50 largest school districts have reduced suspensions because of racial quotas “to the dismay of those on the front lines.”
In April 2017, in letters to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, I called for revocation of the policy. I got form letter responses from career bureaucrats. In November 2017, hoping Sessions and DeVos might have more fully staffed their offices with like-minded appointees, I wrote again. Still, nothin’ but crickets. In March 2018, I repeated my call and, although little appeared to have changed in the Trump administration, the world had shifted from beneath it, specifically with the horrific massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
Jack Cashill, writing in the American Thinker, was the first to argue the murders were due to Broward County’s use of racial quotas in disciplining its students. Paul E. Sperry, formerly of the Hoover Institute who writes often for the New York Post, reached the same conclusion. Finally, pundit Ann Coulter pronounced, “President Obama did a lot of bad things, but pound for pound, one of the worst was the January 2014 ‘Dear Colleague’ letter … browbeating schools for their failure to discipline every race of student at the same rate.” Meanwhile legal experts urged an end to the Obama-era edict, including Gail Heriot, Hans Bader, and Roger Clegg.
“In the tragic aftermath of the murders in Florida,” I urged, “we simply cannot take the chance that other school districts will continue to enforce or will implement this disastrous race-based, discipline-free program. The risk to human life and safety is far too great.” Nine months later, the Federal Commission on School Safety, established after the Florida massacre and chaired by DeVos, quietly recommended revoking the “Dear Colleague” letter. Even more quietly, late on the Friday before Christmas, an arm of the Education Department published the rule that ends the illegal, unconstitutional, and deadly policy.
No matter the delay, the Trump administration did the right thing. America’s school children and those who watch over them are now safer.
William Perry Pendley, an attorney, is author of Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today.
