Posters created by ethnic studies students for community projects and organizing during Black Lives Matter week of action hang on the walls of a Parkrose High classroom.Angie Diaz, Youth Voices

Oregon school districts have been advised in no uncertain terms to sit tight while state leaders at the governor’s office, the Oregon Department of Education and the attorney general’s office evaluate what appears to be the most direct threat yet to school funding from the Trump administration.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Education told state education leaders, including state schools chief Charlene Williams, that public schools were in danger of losing federal funding if any of their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts “advantage one race over another.”

Most previous Trump administration actions to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and reshape education policies have been a few steps removed from the school and district level. The exception: targeted investigations like the one underway against Portland Public Schools for allowing a transgender track athlete from McDaniel High School to compete with girls, in accordance with Oregon Student Activities Association rules.

But Thursday’s action threatens money allocated from the federal government to schools, including those that serve a high percentage of students from low income families and for special education services. In the 2023-2025 biennium, Oregon schools received about $2.1 billion in federal funding on top of $10.2 billion from the state school fund.

Williams, director at the Oregon Department of Education, has 10 days to decide how to respond.

The state is particularly vulnerable because Oregon has invested significantly in initiatives that aim to boost students who have been historically poorly served by the public school system. Oregon has special multimillion dollar initiatives known as “plans for student success” for Black, Indigenous, Latino, LGTBQ2SIA+ and Pacific Islander students.

It’s not exactly clear which of the state’s programs might run afoul of the federal government’s directive, how the administration could enforce its directives given the gutting of staff at the federal education level and whether its directives will stand up to court challenges. But here are some Oregon program that could draw examination from the Trump administration.

Ethnic studies

Former Gov. Kate Brown in 2017 signed a statewide law requiring that all Oregon public schools incorporate ethnic studies standards into social sciences lessons, a requirement that school districts are supposed to fully phase in by 2026.

The standards go from kindergarten to high school and require everything from learning about culturally significant holidays and traditions celebrated by historically marginalized culture in early elementary school to being able to “identify and critique how implicit bias, institutional racism, racial supremacy, privilege, intersectionality and identity influence perspectives in the understanding of history and contemporary events.”

In its written directives about the new standards, the state notes that it does not require any particular text or curriculum but “allows school districts to select materials that best support their students in achieving the learning required by the standards.”

The state’s guidelines pointedly note that “Patriotism does not require ignoring or censoring the history of the United States … Ethnic studies may require students to examine a history in which individuals or groups struggled against forces that would deny them equality, but that struggle is part of the American story.”

The Trump administration has in the past pushed back against that concept, arguing that studying such topics can leave white students feeling guilt and shame for long-ago actions.

Scholarships for prospective teachers, school administrators

Oregon’s Educator Advancement Council, Teacher Standards and Practices Commission and Department of Education offer grants of up to $12,000 to individuals who are “culturally or linguistically diverse” and seeking to become a licensed teacher, school counselor, school social worker, administrator or school psychologist.

The grant programs are part of a decade-long push to diversify the adults who work in the state’s schools, in line with research demonstrating that shared demographics between teachers and students can boost learning and attendance and reduce suspensions and disciplinary incidents.

They’ve paid off: in 2024, the Oregon Educator Advancement Council found that 20% of first-year teachers in the state came from diverse backgrounds, a 12 percentage point jump over the last 10 years but still well below the 40% of Oregon students who are not white.

But in its letter to education leaders in every state this week, the administration wrote that “the use of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs to advantage one race over another is impermissible. The use of certain DEI practices can violate federal law” and therefore lead to the discontinuation of federal funding for state and local education agencies.

The Student Success Act

One of the signature accomplishments of Gov. Tina Kotek’s years as speaker of the Oregon House, the Student Success Act of 2019 sets aside more than $1 billion per year for K-12 schools and early learning, funded by a corporate income tax.

A small part of that directs millions of dollars to regional education hubs, community organizations, school districts, charter schools and others to help Black, Indigenous, Latino, Pacific Islander and LGBTQ+ students who have been historically underserved by the public school system and typically have test scores and graduation levels that trail their white and Asian peers.

Additionally, about half the funds, some $500 million a year, are parceled out among every school district in the state via what’s called the Student Investment Account. Districts may choose how to spend those funds, but they must concentrate them in two areas: mental and behavioral health and improving outcomes for students of color, those with disabilities, those who don’t speak English as a first language and those impacted by poverty, all of whom lag behind their counterparts when it comes to reading and doing math proficiently and graduating on time.

Previous Trump administrative guidance, issued as part of a Dear Colleague letter in February, advised: “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.”