Georgia district scrubbed DEI policies to dodge federal crackdown
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A public school district in Georgia quietly cleaned up its website and changed race-based policies to avoid a sweeping federal crackdown on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. a new watchdog report claims.
The report, published by the Defense of Freedom Policy Research Institute (DFI), How are the details? The Decatur City Schools (CSD) district allegedly “embedded” “racially discriminatory” DEI ideology throughout teacher training and curriculum, only to hide the evidence when federal funding was threatened.
The small school district, located just outside Atlanta, spent millions on DEI initiatives, staff salaries and race-focused education between 2017 and 2024, according to DFI.
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A public school in Georgia allegedly deleted its website and changed race-based policies to avoid a sweeping federal crackdown on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, according to a new watchdog report. (getty)
“Decatur City Schools went to great lengths to enact a racially discriminatory agenda and then hide their illegal behavior from federal oversight,” DFI Senior Counsel for Policy and Regulation Paul Zimmerman told Fox News Digital.
“Records show that county leaders were so obsessed with racial ‘equality’ that they spent more than $2 million at the expense of true justice,” Zimmerman said. he added. “Training teachers to ‘decolonise’ the curriculum and blame achievement gaps on white supremacy is completely unhelpful to the mission of educating students.”
The report mentioned the following: Decaturish report He noted that CSD “spent approximately $1.8 million on salaries for capital department staff between 2017 and 2024.”
The report alleges that CSD trained teachers and administrators using “Beyond Diversity” seminars and “Brave Conversations About Race” frameworks; critics say he blames “whiteness” for racial inequities in schools and broader society.
Other findings from the DFI monitoring report show that administrators are actively working to reduce the “Eurocentric” emphasis in the curriculum.
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo)
“‘Organizing district infrastructure for racial equity’ involved requiring educators ‘to recognize that many aspects of curriculum and instruction have historically been based on Eurocentric principles and content…and to develop the organizational capacity, skills, and competencies to decolonize curriculum and practice by diversifying content to sustain a just, humane, and democratic society that ensures all students are safe, visible, and successful,'” according to the report.
“The CSD equity database contains a wide variety of resources related to training educators and teaching students that white supremacy has permeated schools across America and that ‘whiteness’ and ‘Eurocentrism’ need to be decentered in their learning,” DFI said.
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The district developed the Justice, Action, Diversity and Equity program, framing it as an anti-racism and social justice course specifically for middle school students.
Equity teams were established in each school, appointed by “anti-racist” leaders who allegedly pressured colleagues to center race in all teaching decisions.
The district’s open promotion of its race-centered agenda came to a halt following the Trump administration’s crackdown on school systems operating allegedly discriminatory DEI offices under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The report alleges that CSD officials, faced with federal directives to prove they were not involved in racially discriminatory practices, removed the policies from public view. DFI discovered that “Equity @ CSD,” an online database of the district’s DEI and Critical Race Theory (CRT) focused resources, had disappeared from the website, along with references to the equity department.
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Education Minister Linda McMahon. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In April 2025, the school board officially rescinded the equity policy to comply with federal standards. But comments from district leadership suggest the changes are entirely superficial. During a school board meeting, the board’s vice president stated that removing the policy “doesn’t stop us from doing the job, it keeps us from using the words.”
“When the U.S. Department of Education began requiring school districts to comply with federal civil rights law, CSD did not abandon its discriminatory DEI agenda,” DFI said. “Instead, the district briefly rescinded equity-related policies, then reinstated them and quietly removed or sanitized race-based materials from the website.”
CSD did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.
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