“Stanford University is facing a federal civil rights complaint over a teacher training program that allegedly excludes applicants based on race, in violation of the Supreme Court’s ban on race-based discrimination in education,” reports The College Fix:
However, the university told The College Fix the program in question is being sunsetted, and it denies the discrimination allegations.
The March complaint, filed by Defending Education with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, claims that Stanford has offered a program for several years that only considers an applicant if they “identify as a person of color.”
The program, part of Stanford’s National Board Resource Center, offers a fully-funded training cohort for teachers seeking National Board Certification. This credential opens doors to unique benefits.
Defending Education says that white and Asian teachers are excluded from the program.
“Based on the eligibility criteria clearly stated on Stanford’s BIPOC cohort webpage, Stanford has adopted, implemented, and enforced a racially discriminatory program and it maintains this program through the present day. That is incompatible with the ‘color-blind’ mandate of Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause,” it alleges.
Defending Education says Stanford’s program constitutes racially “separate treatment” of the sort banned by the Supreme Court in a 2023 ruling against Harvard. Categorically excluding whites and Asians also violates earlier federal court rulings, such as Podberesky v. Kirwan (1994), which struck down a university scholarship reserved for blacks.
The College Fix notes that “participants receive mentoring, coaching, and resources designed to help them complete the certification process—advantages that teachers who do not meet its racial requirement don’t have access to.”
Defending Education Vice President Sarah Perry says that schools have engaged in resistance to the Supreme Court and federal civil-rights officials in the Trump administration seeking to curb race-based programs:
“Removing race discrimination from higher education has proven a challenge to this Administration because schools like Stanford refuse to accept the clear pronouncements from the Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that race discrimination of any kind is illegal,” Perry says. “Any federally funded programming that prioritizes one race or ethnicity above another is illegal, period,” she added.
Defending Education wants the Department of Education to “take a hard look” at Stanford’s race-based program to “send a message that the Supreme Court’s mandates aren’t merely suggestions.”
