Trump pushes civil rights enforcement to the states [View all]
Source: Politico
06/27/2026 03:00 PM EDT
President Donald Trump’s decision to gut the federal office charged with protecting students from discrimination is creating new responsibilities for states that aren’t ready to take them up.
Amid mass layoffs of government employees and Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department, the agency shuttered seven of its 12 regional Office for Civil Rights branches that families turned to when they felt their rights were violated. That pullback is starting to expose the gaps students will have to navigate after states spent decades shaping their anti-discrimination policies assuming the federal government would handle it.
Some states, including Maryland and Pennsylvania, have well-funded civil rights commissions capable of investigating complaints but don’t have the authority to step in. And many state education agencies, like those in Mississippi and in Arizona, are directing families to take discrimination complaints to the federal government.
Trump has tied the moves to his quest to return “education back to the states where it belongs” — a theme visible in other areas the federal government has traditionally taken responsibility for, like disaster relief. But the existing patchwork of state-level enforcement powers against discrimination risks leaving some students without protection.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/06/27/trump-civil-rights-states-discrimination-00969872
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