Defending Education filed a complaint with the Department of Education‘s Office for Civil Rights last week over Minneapolis Public Schools’ use of anti-constitutional race-based segregation after several high schools in the district offered courses required for graduation only to black students.
The school district’s black only course, which forces non-black students to choose from a narrower list of class options in order to graduate, clearly violates the color blindness mandated by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, and contradicts the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
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“With an exercise that mirrors the efforts of 1950’s segregationists in the deep south, Minneapolis Public Schools has proven that the racism of old is new again. In a jaw-dropping experiment in race essentialism, South High School in Minneapolis offered classes on the ‘lived reality’ of black men and women in the US — classes that were open only to black students,” Defending Education Vice President & Legal Fellow Sarah Parshall Perry told the Washington Examiner.
In the complaint shared with the Washington Examiner, Defending Education wrote that “race-segregated classrooms clearly qualify as such discrimination and are thus incompatible with the color-blind mandate of Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause. As such, MPS’s segregated classrooms are clear violations of both Title VI and the 14th Amendment.”
“The third largest school district in Minnesota actively discriminates against its students based on race,” Defending Education added. “Several MPS high schools prohibit white and Asian students from enrolling in certain courses on black culture.”
The organization’s complaint stemmed from a Freedom of Information Act request it submitted to the school district seeking curriculum materials as part of its broader investigation into ethnic studies programs in both universities and K–12 schools.
Earlier this month, Defending Education filed two additional complaints with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging gender discrimination in New Mexico’s two largest school districts.
“Title IX was enacted to secure equal educational opportunities for the women who were unable to enjoy all the scholastic offerings available to their male counterparts. But Las Cruces and Albuquerque schools seem to think that ‘sex’ and ‘gender identity’ are one and the same. They are not. And the Supreme Court has never held otherwise,” Perry added.
“Both school districts are inviting federal investigations,” Perry told the Washington Examiner.
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The Education Department and all three public school districts have yet to issue a response to the complaints. However, Defending Education remains optimistic that its complaints will prompt federal investigations.
“We hope that ED will open up an investigation into Defending Education’s complaint. MPS is one of many K-12 districts across the country that appears to be in violation of Civil Rights laws. This disturbing trend of race-based practices needs to end,” Rhyen Staley, director of research at Defending Education, told the Washington Examiner.