Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on April 22, 2025
BOISE, ID – In order to secure a share of federal funding, Idaho administrators will have to state, in writing, that their schools are following federal anti-discrimination law.
“This will be an ongoing requirement,” state superintendent Debbie Critchfield said in a letter last week to the U.S. Department of Education.
Targeting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the K-12 level, the feds are requiring states to disavow DEI, in letters that are due Thursday. Critchfield sent Idaho’s response on April 16.
Critchfield said Idaho’s schools are complying with Title VI — a section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination in federally funded programs “on the ground of race, color or national origin.” Every Idaho school district or charter school receiving federal money has said, in writing, that it is following Title VI, she wrote.
If the state receives a “credible complaint” of a Title VI violation, it will refer the case to state and federal investigators, Critchfield wrote. If a complaint checks out, the state will pause or withhold federal funding.
The Trump administration stepped up its push against DEI on April 3. That’s when the federal Education Department threatened to withhold funding to states that continue to support DEI initiatives — a demand that prompted Critchfield’s April 16 reply.
Response to the federal dictate has been mixed, according to Education Week. Sixteen states, including Idaho, have said they intend to comply, Education Week reported, while another 16 states say they won’t comply. The status of the remaining 18 states is unclear.
Not surprisingly, the responses gleaned by Education Week tend to fall along partisan lines. The states planning to comply skew Republican. Fourteen of the 16 states resisting the feds have Democratic governors.
And for weeks, the Education Department has ratcheted up its rhetoric on DEI — both in higher education and K-12.
“The department will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this Nation’s educational institutions,” said Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, in a Feb. 14 letter that Critchfield sent to Idaho administrators this month. “Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding.”
In her response to the feds, Critchfield highlighted the Idaho Legislature’s record on the issue.
She attached a copy of a 2021 anti-discrimination law — which says critical race theory and its tenets “exacerbate and inflame divisions on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, or other criteria.”
Critchfield also cited a 2025 state law banning DEI offices and officers on college and university campuses, and a December State Board of Education policy restricting DEI.
“While this law and policy apply to Idaho’s higher education institutions, they signify the state’s stance regarding DEI practices in public education,” Critchfield wrote.
