Bellingham Public Schools – located in the far northwestern corner of the state – had a five-year diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) plan to prioritize retention of a "staff of color." According to documents obtained by the group Parents Defending Education, the district's "affirmative action" plan ran from 2019-2024. A June 2024 progress report suggests the DEI-focused plan is "ongoing."
Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, White House correspondent for The Daily Signal, says by violating Trump's order, Bellingham and other like-minded districts risk losing federal funding.
"These departments of education particularly are just getting millions and millions, so much money from the federal government," Mitchell tells AFN. "And it would be a humongous loss to them if they weren't to have that funding."
Legal scholar Sarah Parshall Perry with The Heritage Foundation told The Daily Signal that hiring and firing based on race violates Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause. Perry argues education officials in Washington "know this," yet continue to defy law, thereby "putting their federal funding at risk."
Mitchell warns state education officials and departments that they best take heed.
"I think people maybe don't believe that President Trump is serious when he does so with full federal funding, but he most certainly is," she states. "The Trump Education Department is going to be extremely vigilant in finding out which districts are doing that and really rooting it out."
Mitchell reports Bellingham Public Schools offers race-based Employee Resource Groups such as a "Staff of Color Coalition" and a "Latinix Connection." The district also hosted a BIPOC Job Fair (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) in 2023 in which personnel with human resources were present to assist potential applicants because the online application system "can be challenging for some applicants."
