Trump orders changes to civil rights rules, college accreditation

President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders Wednesday aimed at undoing his predecessor’s policies and furthering a conservative agenda to reshape American education.

The seven orders took on a wide range of topics, from discipline and the use of artificial intelligence in schools to foreign donations and accreditation at colleges.

Among the new orders is a directive to eliminate a civil rights enforcement tool long used to fight discrimination in education, housing and other aspects of American life – and long criticized by conservatives. Under the concept of disparate impact, actions can amount to discrimination if they have an uneven effect on people from different groups even if that was not the intent. It relies on data analysis to help identify discriminatory results.

The new order Trump signed Wednesday instructs the attorney general to “repeal or amend” Title VI regulations that include disparate impact liability.

Supporters of disparate-impact analysis say it is a critical tool because finding “smoking gun” evidence to prove someone intended to discriminate is difficult. But conservatives have argued that proving discrimination should require proof that someone intended to treat people differently. And they say the reliance on data may encourage the use of racial quotas.

At the Education Department, officials are reviewing agreements already reached with school districts where civil rights violations were alleged, looking to cancel agreements to resolve issues that may be based on statistical disparities. This month, the agency terminated an agreement reached last year with the school district in Rapid City, South Dakota, where Native American students were more likely to be disciplined and less likely to be in advanced classes.

In signing the order, Trump said disparate impact hinders civil rights. “Under my Administration, citizens will be treated equally before the law and as individuals, not consigned to a certain fate based on their immutable characteristics,” the order said.

Separately, Trump signed another order that also dealt with the enforcement of civil rights law as it relates to racial disparities in school discipline. The Biden administration had advised school districts that they may be in violation of civil rights law if they unfairly discipline students from different groups. The new executive order revokes the Biden-era discipline guidance.

“This approach fails to create a safe and welcoming environment,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers union. “It simply ignores a history where Black and Brown students were disproportionately suspended or expelled from school rather than provided the opportunity to thrive.”

On the higher education front, Trump signed an order to overhaul the college accreditation system. Accrediting agencies are little-known but powerful organizations the Education Department relies on to determine if colleges are worthy to participate in the federal student aid program. Every few years, they review every aspect of a college’s finances, operations and student achievement, with some assessing the diversity of the student body or efforts to make students feel welcomed.

Conservatives have derided those assessments as discriminatory, and some accreditors have responded in kind. Amid intense pressure, the accrediting arm of the American Bar Association in February suspended its requirement that law schools promote diversity.

Trump is now directing the secretary of education to deny, suspend or terminate the recognition accreditors need from the department to operate if they take into account a college’s diversity. The order mandates the secretary to “realign” accreditation with student-focused principles by requiring institutions to use student outcome data to improve results, without reference to race, ethnicity or sex.

Robert Shireman, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation who also serves on the federal advisory committee that oversees accreditors, called the order wrongheaded and counterproductive. “Gathering and reviewing data regarding students’ backgrounds and their retention and graduation helps colleges to do a better job serving all students,” he said.

The accreditation order also calls on institutions to prioritize intellectual diversity among faculty, a request Shireman called an intrusion into academic affairs and one that could severely undermine institutional independence.

“Phrases like intellectual diversity, if judged by the government, will inevitably be weaponized to pursue political goals and punish enemies,” Shireman said.

Jason Altmire, president and chief executive of Career Education Colleges and Universities, praised the executive order for “rewarding institutional quality and student outcomes.” Proponents of for-profit education have pushed for accreditation reform to expand the sector, accusing the current system of bias against such schools. Trump’s order will also make it easier for new accreditors to enter the system.

The Education Department already recognizes more than 60 accrediting agencies. In Trump’s first term, his administration ended regional restrictions that had made colleges beholden to the largest accreditors in their geographic area. Colleges now have the flexibility to choose any federally recognized agency. Florida and North Carolina have passed laws mandating public colleges and universities change accreditors every 10 years, following a dispute with one of the largest accreditors in the region.

Trump also signed an executive order Wednesday bolstering oversight of foreign gifts to universities – and clarifying that some federal grant funding could be revoked if schools fail to comply.

For decades, federal law has required universities to report significant sources of foreign funding, but the executive order said that has not been robustly enforced and “the true amounts, sources, and purposes of foreign money flowing to American campuses are unknown.” That lack of transparency raises concerns about “potential foreign influence, national security risks, and compromised academic integrity,” the White House said in a statement.

The order calls on the education secretary to more specifically disclose information about foreign funds, provide more information to the public and ensure enforcement.

Sarah Spreitzer, a vice president and chief of staff for government relations at the American Council on Education, said this reporting has been a requirement since the 1980s and universities have known this would be a continuing bipartisan priority. She said institutions will continue to seek guidance from the Education Department to ensure they are in compliance with the law.

The remaining education orders Trump signed on Wednesday pledged support for the use of artificial intelligence in schools, the creation of more apprenticeships for students and strengthening historically Black colleges and universities.