EXCLUSIVE: Washington State School District Defies Trump With Race-Based Hiring Plan

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—As the Trump administration threatens to pull funding from schools with race-based hiring, a Washington state school district is standing by its discriminatory practices.

Bellingham Public Schools in Bellingham, Washington, has a five-year diversity, equity, and inclusion “action plan” to prioritize the retention of “staff of color,” according to documents obtained by Parents Defending Education and first shared with The Daily Signal.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s Department of Education gave schools 14 days to end all admissions, scholarship, discipline, and employment practices that factor in race “preferences and stereotypes.” Schools that do not comply risk federal investigation and the loss of federal funding.

The administration cited the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard as precedent for its action, saying the case ended racial preferences in school admissions and clarified that schools cannot legally factor race into the treatment of students or faculty.

“Action steps” in the Bellingham Public Schools 2024 Affirmative Action Progress Report include working with labor leaders to prioritize “keeping as many certified staff of color as possible,” and addressing the discrepancy in “applicants of color” by training leaders in “anti-racist/antibias applicant screening practices.”

Trump signed an executive order Jan. 29 prohibiting federal funding of K-12 schools that promote critical race theory or radical gender ideology.

When asked if the district would halt its five-year DEI plan in response to the Department of Education guidance against affirmative action, a communications employee of Bellingham Public Schools with she/her pronouns in her email signature cited Washington state law as justification.

“Washington state law, in WAC 392-190-0592, requires school districts to adopt an affirmative action plan or program,” Communications and Community Relations Assistant Director Dana Smith said in an email.

But “the Department of Education will no longer allow education entities to discriminate on the basis of race,” says Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education.

“This isn’t complicated,” Trainor told The Daily Signal in an emailed statement. “When in doubt, every school should consult the [Students for Fair Admissions] legal test contained in the [Dear Colleague Letter]: ‘If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law.’”

Trainor wrote a Dear Colleague Letter released Feb. 14 clarifying the nondiscrimination obligations of schools as established by Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.

Additional guidance on implementation is forthcoming, Trainor said.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights should investigate Washington school districts for refusing to comply with the Trump administration’s guidance, according to Heritage Foundation legal scholar Sarah Parshall Perry.

“Bellingham Public Schools’ insistence that it must adhere to contrary state law on race-based hiring, despite contrary federal statutory and constitutional law, is no doubt going to put their federal funding through the Department of Education at risk,” she told The Daily Signal.

Hiring and firing based on race violates Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, according to Perry.

“The Constitution’s Supremacy Clause in Article VI makes clear that in a conflict between state and federal law, or when a federal law’s goals would be frustrated by application and enforcement of state law, federal law preempts,” she said. “Washington education officials know this—and are continuing to defy contrary law, putting their federal funding at risk.”

The district’s report touts “significantly” increasing the percentile of new hires that are one or more races “from 18.4% to just over 32%.”

Part of the affirmative action plan is to “monitor applicant data” because a “major goal of the affirmative action program is to implement recruiting strategies to attract and employ a more diverse pool of candidates that is reflective of our community and student demographics,” the report states.

“Ongoing” goals include reminding “recruiting and hiring authorities of the district’s commitment and goals under the affirmative action plan” and monitoring the “employee selection process for inclusion of underutilized protected class.”

in 2023, Bellingham Public Schools hosted a “BIPOC” [black, indigenous, and people of color] job fair at which HR representatives helped applicants fill out online application forms because they are “challenging for some applicants.”

The district also offers race-based Employee Resource Groups, including a “Staff of Color Coalition,” a “Black Legacy” group, a “Latinx Connection,” and a “Multiracial Employees Coalition.”

Erika Sanzi, director of outreach at Parents Defending Education, said Bellingham Public Schools’ affirmative action plan is illegal.

“It is not legal for schools to hire or retain staff based on race, and putting lipstick on these practices by calling them ‘anti-racist/antibias applicant screening practices’ doesn’t change that fact,” Sanzi told The Daily Signal. “Similarly, offering race-based ’employee resource groups’ is not defensible, because school districts cannot use skin color to determine who can be included or excluded from school-sponsored programs.”

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