End the Department of Education to End DEI – The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator

My ancestors were murdered in the Holocaust. My family suffered under the iron grip of the Soviet Union, stripped of their rights, silenced, and treated as second-class citizens because of their identity. They came to America with nothing — no wealth, no connections, no privilege. Just the hope that, in this country, hard work would be enough. And for the longest time, but especially after the civil rights revolution of the 1960s, that’s what America stood for: a place where effort, not ancestry, determined your future.

But then came Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) — a policy that claimed to fight discrimination but, in reality, created a new form of it. DEI wasn’t about fairness; it was about reshaping the system so that race mattered more than merit. It told students like me that my achievements weren’t the most important thing — my skin color was. That’s not just wrong. That’s racism.

This framework of racial preferences and social engineering didn’t emerge in a vacuum. It was cultivated by a bureaucracy designed to exert ideological control over education: the U.S. Department of Education. Created in 1979 under the Carter administration, the Department has steadily expanded its reach, using its regulatory power to impose policies that prioritize identity over achievement. It has been the enforcement arm of DEI, wielding its influence over school districts, universities, and research institutions that rely on federal funding.

The Department of Education made DEI the law of the land in academia. From Title IX reinterpretations to race-based admissions practices, it ensured that schools had no choice but to comply. The result was a generation of students forced to check “what’s your race?” boxes, play identity politics, and navigate a system that treated them not as individuals but as demographic data points.

Why does my family’s suffering under totalitarian regimes not matter? If “equity” is about acknowledging historical hardship, why are some struggles deemed irrelevant?

The answer is simple — because DEI was never about helping the disadvantaged. It was about a well-paid bureaucracy enhancing its power to enforce a new racial hierarchy. One where students like me were expected to accept being pushed aside and other students to accept the humility of unearned promotion. And as long as the Department of Education exists, so will these policies. That’s why it must go.

For years, students were forced to pretend this wasn’t happening. We weren’t supposed to criticize DEI. If we did, we were called “privileged,” no matter what we or our families had endured. But we all knew the truth. We saw brilliant students — those who stayed up late studying, who led school clubs, who put in the work — passed over by colleges for others with weaker credentials. Not because they worked harder. Not because they achieved more. But because DEI, backed by the Department of Education, decided they deserved it more.

That’s not equality. That’s discrimination with a new face.

The Department of Education institutionalized DEI, and now, with its future being debated, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to dismantle the system that enabled it. President Trump’s DEI ban is a step in the right direction, but for as long as the DOE exists, it will find new ways to enforce its ideological agenda. The only way to permanently end DEI’s grip on education is to dismantle the Department of Education itself.

Abolishing the Department isn’t just about shrinking the government — it’s about restoring fairness. Without the ED’s coercive funding and regulatory mandates, schools will be free to focus on academic excellence rather than political orthodoxy. Students will be judged on their achievements, not their demographics. And America can return to what it was always meant to be: a land of opportunity, not a land of engineered outcomes.

The end of DEI begins with the end of the Department of Education. Now, President Trump and the Congress must do their jobs — defund the DOE.

READ MORE:

Universities Must End DEI and Implement DEI

When DEI Ends, Just Call it Something Else