The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, seeking to preserve federal funding, has certified that all of the state's public schools comply with federal nondiscrimination laws.
The certification comes in response to the Trump administration’s threats to pull funding from states that don’t comply.
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State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green, in a Tuesday letter accompanying the certification, questioned whether federal leaders were attempting to establish new rules for funding without going through a public rule-making process.
North Carolina's public schools receive more than $1 billion in federal funds each year.
Public schools must already certify compliance with nondiscrimination laws every year, and North Carolina schools already had this year.
On April 3, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon told states that they must certify compliance with Title IV and the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, or else lose funding.
Title IV, enacted under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin by federally funded programs. The Harvard case prohibits colleges from using race as a factor in admissions decisions
Schools could not be compliant if they use "diversity, equity and inclusion" programs that "advantage one's race over another," McMahon said in the letter.
The April 3 memo followed a February letter to states and universities that letter gave them until the end of February to limit race-based preferences in education programming. The letter didn't have the force of law but still threatened future federal funding if educational institutions didn't comply with the legal interpretations spelled out in it.
States have until Thursday to certify compliance under the April 3 directive, though many have declined to do so, according to news reports, because they believe it's unnecessary. Other state leaders have said they plan to sign but aren't ordering schools to stop any diversity, equity or inclusion initiatives, believing they already comply with federal nondiscrimination laws.
On Tuesday, North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green signed the required compliance documentation but also sent a letter to McMahon explaining that the state's compliance is purely with existing law and rules.
"Your request for certification makes broad statements about 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' without defining what specific practices might violate Title IV or other laws," Green said in the letter. "This ambiguity raises concerns about providing the requested certification without important clarifications."
Green said the federal department doesn't have the legal authority to "change assurances and impose new requirements" without undergoing a federal rulemaking process — a lengthy process that requires public comment and review.
The U.S. Department of Education didn’t immediately respond to WRAL's request for comment on Green's letter and whether the state's certification is sufficient to continue to receive federal funding.
In the February letter to education institutions, department officials asserted that "colleges, universities, and K-12 schools have routinely used race as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring, training, and other institutional programming," but it didn’t provide specific examples.
Many schools have programs intended for specific groups, such as clubs promoting girls in engineering, for instance. The federal education department said in its memo that such groups must be open to all people, including male members. Many schools already adopt the inclusive approach described by federal education officials.
In his letter to McMahon, Green said the state remains "committed to ensuring our public schools provide environments free from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. We will continue working to ensure fairness, remove barriers to opportunity, and make decisions based on merit and need. Public education is about opening doors, not closing them."
Green signed the certification after asking each of the state's 115 public school systems and more than 200 charter schools to sign the same certification and send it back to him.
WRAL News has sought comment from school systems since the original February directive, asking them if they were making any changes in response to the letter. Officials in the Wake County Public School System and Cumberland County Schools, for example, said they conducted reviews and are always ensuring compliance. It's not clear if any districts have made changes, and not all have responded to WRAL's requests.