As school districts cut budgets, DEI work may be first to go

“BROOKLINE, Mass. — Claire Galloway-Jones stepped up to lead the Brookline school district’s Office of Educational Equity in July 2023 at a time when families, staff and students were losing trust. The wealthy, coveted district on Boston’s edge faced allegations of repeatedly failing to address incidents of racial bullying and harassment, including a case in which an eighth grader knelt on a Black classmate’s neck , mimicking the murder of George Floyd. Educators of color had a pattern of staying only a few years ; from 2021 to 2023, 18 left their positions . The Brookline school district, whose staff declined to comment for this article, has also churned through five superintendents in the last decade. At the start of the 2024-25 school year, the district announced a projected $8 million budget deficit, and all operations funding for Galloway-Jones’ department was pulled. She sought other sources of funding, including a $25,000 state grant to recruit and retain teachers of color. But she said the district denied the routine request without explanation. By spring, the school board proposed closing the office altogether, citing budget constraints and saying that the office didn’t provide enough direct student support. Enraged, parents and local organizers raised more than $188,000 in an attempt to save it. But in March 2025, the school board voted 5-4 to shutter the office; all funds raised were returned to donors. “I’m disappointed,” said Galloway-Jones, whose office had responsibility for supporting students from marginalized backgrounds, recruiting and retaining Black and brown educators and holding anti-bias trainings, among other work. “And I don’t think that people are being honest and transparent about what’s happening,” she said, adding, “They didn’t value the work because they didn’t understand it.” The district is one of at least four in Massachusetts that have cut DEI initiatives or positions despite community support, citing shrinking student enrollments and rollbacks in federal funding that threaten school budgets. The Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives have also produced a chilling effect, educators say, even as its anti-DEI directives for K-12 schools have been defeated in court . Some parents, educators and experts say that losing offices and education leaders whose sole job is to advance equity — by reducing racial disparities in academics, school discipline and staffing — will have both short- and long-term consequences for Black, brown and low-income students and those with disabilities . Claire Galloway-Jones, who lost her job as Brookline’s equity office director after a school committee vote to shutter the office last spring, stands outside Sarah Roberts Elementary School in Roslindale, Massachusetts. The school is named after her ancestor, who was part of the first family in the country to challenge school segregation. Credit: Marianna McMurdock for The Hechinger Report “If students don’t feel a sense of belonging, and if they don’t feel heard and valued, then they are less likely to pursue higher education and career opportunities,” said Jennifer Herring, executive director of the Worcester Education Collaborative, which supports the city’s public schools, and an adjunct professor of psychology and the impact of school trauma in eastern Massachusetts. Related: A lot goes on in classrooms from kindergarten to high school. Keep up with our free weekly newsletter on K-12 education . One month before Brookline cut Galloway-Jones’ office, the federal Department of Education’s “ Dear Colleague ” letter threatened to pull funding from schools that engaged in DEI programs or curricula or that provided services in support of students from specific racial or ethnic groups. The department said those efforts discriminated against white and Asian students. After the American Federation of Teachers and other groups sued, the guidance was struck down by a federal judge in August for being unconstitutionally vague, infringing on free speech and violating procedural rules. The Trump administration dropped its appeal in late January and reached a separate settlement with the NAACP, another plaintiff, agreeing to cease use of its NoDEI portal and refrain from reinstating the letter or related guidance under any other names. Michaele Turnage Young, co-lead counsel with the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, said her group and others are now trying to spread the word that “these documents have been declared to be unlawful and unconstitutional; they have been in every sense of the word neutralized,” she said. “It’s perfectly fine for students to learn about systemic racism, whether that shows up in instruction about the civil rights movement, slavery, in any aspect of our history or our present.” Brookline Public Schools is a wealthy, coveted district on Boston’s edge. The district closed its Office of Educational Equity despite community attempts to save it. Credit: Marianna McMurdock for The Hechinger Report Four New England states — Connecticut , Maine , Massachusetts and Rhode Island — said they would not comply with the anti-DEI directive even before it was struck down in court. In an April 2025 letter to the federal government , the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education defended diversity initiatives, citing them as “a reason for our success, not a barrier to it.” Gov. Maura Healey and state Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell have also pledged to challenge anti-DEI education policies. After initially asking its districts to submit letters stating their compliance with the federal anti-DEI guidance, Vermont’s education secretary walked back that request. She also publicly affirmed DEI practices and sent a response to the Trump administration saying it was not in violation of the directive because it complied with state and federal law. New Hampshire is the only state in the region that has not publicly affirmed DEI. The state’s house education chair advocated for politically segregated schools in messages leaked to the Concord Monitor this February. Several New Hampshire districts, including Nashua and Inter-Lakes, signed the letter’s certification requirement to cease DEI efforts before it was struck down. The state is among several around the country to pass what appear to be codified versions of the letter, in the form of “parental rights” laws . Though an anti-DEI bill previously passed in New Hampshire was blocked by a federal judge who argued it could reduce support for students with disabilities, some legislators are making a renewed attempt at passage this session. Soon up for a vote in the state senate, their Countering Hate and Revolutionary Leftist Indoctrination in Education (CHARLIE) Act would prohibit any history teachings that show conflict as being between an “oppressed” and “oppressor” or any discussion of systemic racism. Violations could affect teachers’ licensure. The legislation, named after the late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, is opposed by the state’s attorney general, who said it would prompt litigation for being unconstitutional and risks being in conflict with existing civil rights law. But even in states that say they maintain their commitments to DEI, such as Massachusetts, some diversity work is being walked back. School districts say the cuts and department closures reflect broader financial troubles: Brookline, for instance, has cut nearly 20 central office positions in recent years. Brockton Public Schools — a majority-Black district of about 15,000 students south of Boston — closed its equity, diversity and inclusion office in 2024 amid a projected $25 million deficit. Four staff positions were dissolved. The district planned at first to move the work under a single director, but hiring challenges and continued financial problems prevented it from doing so, Jordan Mayblum, the district’s communications director, wrote in an email. “That said, our commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion remains unwavering,” he wrote. “It is our belief that the work ultimately belongs to everyone in the district every day, rather than within a single department.” Among the halted equity work was an annual conference that brought staff, students, educators and local organizations from across the state to discuss bias, trauma-based practices, deescalation and restorative justice, according to Leon Smith, attorney and director of Citizens for Juvenile Justice and a former presenter at the conference. “A lot of people do not feel included every day they come here. I can hear it in the hallways,” said Marcos Gomes, one of several high school students to protest Brockton’s decision to cut the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion office, at an April 2024 school committee meeting. “I feel like the EDI program has really changed that.” Another student, Amelia Viera, called the office “nothing short of life-changing,” adding, “We discovered a sense of purpose that previously eluded us.” Framingham Public Schools, a demographically diverse district about 20 miles west of Boston that is home to many multilingual families, hired a new director of belonging in December 2025 to “strengthen inclusive practices, elevate student and family voice, and foster a welcoming, equitable learning environment across all FPS schools.” Two months later, however, the district considered eliminating the position to help address a $9 million budget cut. Framingham has lost more than 700 students over the last two school years. The district had already terminated its diversity, inclusion and compliance manager, a similar position ensuring adherence to civil rights law, in March 2024, citing budget constraints. The manager, Saundra Edwards, filed a lawsuit against the district that alleged Framingham had denied her and others professional advancement and wrongfully terminated her. She is one of several Black women suing the district for discrimination. Framingham did not respond to requests for comment. This April, another Boston-area district, Newton Public Schools, approved a new budget that included cuts to its diversity office. The district superintendent, who declined to comment for this article, said in a public presentation that the cuts were necessitated by rising health care and utility costs, among other factors. The district created the DEI office in 2020, and at one point it employed two full-time people and one-part time person. By this school year, only the DEI director was left; the new cuts will reduce that person’s work to part time. Newton serves roughly 11,000 students, and some parents said that even before the latest cuts, there wasn’t enough support for those from underrepresented backgrounds. “I thought it was inadequate as it was,” said Rielle Montague, who has two children in Newton public schools. “To me, it’s a big statement to say, ‘You know what, it’s not even that important to have a full-time person for this large school district.’ It is very disappointing and a step in the wrong direction.” Related: Probes into racism in schools stall under Trump In Brookline, some families see lasting harm from the Trump administration’s anti-DEI letter and the diversity office’s closure. “Sometimes people just need a permission structure to do what they might have done on their own if they didn’t feel like they were gonna be cast as racist or bigoted,” said Raul Fernandez, a parent who is the director of local group Brookline for Racial Justice and Equity, which raised funds to try to save Galloway-Jones’ office. “That letter was all some people needed to say, ‘OK, great. Now we have the pretext to say it’s not us.’” During public meetings, Brookline’s school board members said equity initiatives would be maintained by other district offices. But beyond a preexisting partnership it had with Steps to Success, a local nonprofit supporting students living in Brookline Housing Authority properties, no supplemental initiatives have been communicated in the year since the vote closing the equity office, according to parents and students. Raul Fernandez, education professor, advocate and founder of Brookline for Racial Justice and Equity, outside of Brookline High School. The district rejected the more than $188,000 his nonprofit raised to save its equity office. Credit: Marianna McMurdock for The Hechinger Report The district also recently lost a program dedicated to closing opportunity gaps in math for Black, Latino and low-income students, the Calculus Project, after a dispute over its implementation . (It has now replaced the program with a different one, Fostering Excellence in Math, or FEx, school board member Mariah Nobrega wrote in an email to The Hechinger Report. She also highlighted the continued existence of several cultural affinity groups for students from underrepresented backgrounds.) “I can understand the frustration with the longstanding issues around disparate outcomes in Brookline, as I feel frustration too. I encourage people to report issues they are experiencing,” wrote Nobrega, who was among four board members to vote against the office’s closure. Sofia Laforest, a Black 10th grader involved with Steps to Success and the Calculus Project, said of the math program, “It was important and it did help. I kind of feel bad for the kids who aren’t going to get to experience it.” Laforest said she has also felt the absence of diversity in teaching staff, having attended Brookline schools since kindergarten. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a teacher of color who wasn’t a sub, and I’ve gone here for 10 years now.” Related: A district singled out by Trump says it teaches ‘whole truth history’ Galloway-Jones’ equity office was charged with ensuring students like Laforest from marginalized backgrounds in the district had equal opportunity to succeed academically and socially. Her resolve to continue the work is clear. Once a Boston kid bused to Brookline in the 1980s as part of the famed METCO desegregation program, which she later went on to lead for a decade, she now runs a consulting business for equity and executive leadership. “I always said it’s kind of in my DNA,” said Galloway-Jones, descendant of Sarah and Benjamin Roberts, the first family in the nation to legally challenge school segregation 176 years ago. In 2025, Boston Public Schools opened a new K-6 school named after Sarah Roberts in Roslindale. “When you think about that repair and the work that we’re doing, you say to yourself, you know what, it’s tough, it’s hard, but we can do it,” Galloway-Jones said. “We have to continue to do it. Diversity work, equity work, is not a one and done.” Caroline Preston contributed reporting. Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at preston@hechingerreport.org. This story about DEI was produced by The Hechinger Report , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter . The post As school districts cut budgets, DEI work may be first to go appeared first on The Hechinger Report .

Summary generated from the RSS feed of The Hechinger Report. All article rights belong to the original publisher. Click through to read the full piece on hechingerreport.org.