Phoenixville’s school board president says he’s “fighting back.” Other local districts are quietly trying to defy Trump’s orders to end DEI programs.
By Maddie Hanna, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 2, 2025
As President Donald Trump attacks diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and threatens to strip funding from schools that promote “discriminatory equity ideology,” the Phoenixville Area School District has been analyzing everything from its curriculum to after-school activities to see what might run afoul of the new administration’s orders.
But it hasn’t made any changes. “The way we’re fighting back is what we’re not doing,” said Scott Overland, president of the Phoenixville school board. Trump is trying “to bully us into compliance,” Overland, a Democrat, said. “We need to show him that he’s wrong.”
Colleges have been wiping diversity initiatives from websites and overhauling policies as Trump halts their federal fundingand pushes to dismantle DEI efforts. But signs of compliance are less evident in K-12 schools around Philadelphia — and some school leaders say they’re carrying on as normal.
That’s partly because many rely less on federal money: Unlike universities, public schools are largely supported by local and state taxes. Some local officials have also noted they’re navigating conflicts between Trump’s orders and state law, including existing antidiscrimination rules in Pennsylvania.
Trump’s administration has launched investigations into at least two non-Pennsylvania school districts, including the Ithaca City School District in New York, where a complaint alleged that a district event for students of color “reflected systemic discrimination against white students.”
If you like this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Please do not take our word for it, try it free for a full month
