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Despite President Donald Trump’s bid to close the U.S. Department of Education, New York City Education Department officials told parents on Friday they are not changing any policies or programming in response.
“We are not changing our policies. We’re not telling schools to change any of their programs or their practices, the way they go about doing things,” said David Mantell, the Education Department’s executive director of policy and advocacy. “Our message continues to be that we know that we’re doing things that are in compliance with the law.”
Trump’s executive order signed Thursday aims to shift more power to states — a longstanding goal of his. At the same time, however, it calls on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to ensure “the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
Funding from the federal government covers roughly 5% — or $2.2 billion — of New York City’s Education Department budget. The three biggest pots of federal dollars to New York City help high poverty schools through the Title 1 program, offsets the cost of special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, and covers the bulk of school meals, which are free to all public school students through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The executive order also directs McMahon to ensure that programs receiving federal support “terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ or similar terms and programs promoting gender ideology,” — a reference to policies intended to create more welcoming environments for students of color and LGBTQ students. This comes on the heels of previous efforts to curb these policies, which has already garnered legal pushback.
Already, the U.S. Department of Education has brought investigations against Illinois and Maine for alleged violations of the Title IX, federal law that prohibits sex discrimination.
“They are throwing a lot out there, creating a lot of fear, sowing a lot of confusion,” Mantell said. “I think that’s part of the point… that they’re hoping that people are just going to kind of comply in advance.”
Mantell added: “These executive orders, these guidance documents: They do not have the same force of law of something passed by Congress, something in the Constitution… All of these things are subject to legal challenges, and the courts are really going to have to sort them out.”
Still, he didn’t want to come across as naive or “paint a rosier picture than it is,” and said the department was preparing accordingly if aid was cut and would deal with such issues as they arise.
The impact of the recent executive order was on the minds of several parents from Lower Manhattan’s Community Education Council, which invited Mantell along with his colleagues Katherine Jedrlinic and Serge St. Leger Jr. — all from the department’s newly created Office of Policy and Advocacy — to a committee meeting to share more insights about their work.
Jedrlinic, the Education Department’s senior executive director for policy and advocacy, told families that officials were working “very hard” on creating materials that explain how “all these wacky” things affect schools and what they’re doing in response.
Parents said they wanted more information in a timely manner, complaining that it took Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos several weeks before she sent out a citywide letter expressing support for the rights for immigrant students. Parents previously complained about the chancellor’s delay in responding to Trump’s executive order on race and gender.
“As a parent, I would love to see that in writing just to see that you are standing up for us, that everything calmed down. You are taking care of it. You are aware,” said Grauven Olivares, the vice president of District 1’s Community Education Council.
Jedrlinic said the Education Department was grappling with getting the message out more broadly, noting there’s a lot of “legalese” involved, and it can be challenging to share a letter that is “static in a situation that’s so dynamic.”
“I think what we’re just trying to impart to people, and we’ve said this to our superintendents, we’ve been saying it to a lot of different advocacy organizations, which is that: We’ll let you know if things are impacting us,” Mantell said, “but for right now what we’re seeing doesn’t have the same force of law, and we’re sticking with what we know is our identity, our values and our policies and practices that have been in place for a long time.”
Amy Zimmer is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat New York. Contact Amy at azimmer@chalkbeat.org.
