Public schools and universities in Massachusetts and across the U.S. have less than two weeks to scrub their curriculums and outside contracts of any diversity, equity and inclusion policies or risk losing access to federal funds.

According to a “Dear Colleagues” letter sent by the Department of Education’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Craig Trainor and delivered to the leading education officials in each the 50 states, the federal government will now will interpret regulations to mean that any policy, “motivated by racial considerations” is at odds with the law.

“The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent. All students are entitled to a school environment free from discrimination. The Department is committed to ensuring those principles are a reality,” the letter reads.

The Trump administration’s missive indicates the law will be interpreted in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which saw the end of affirmative action, and reflects the belief that DEI policies violate “Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution, and other relevant authorities.”

Any preschool, elementary, secondary, or post-secondary school accepting federal funds is instructed to “ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights law,” and to “cease all efforts” to go around existing laws in matters of “admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”

“Put simply, educational institutions may neither separate or segregate students based on race, nor distribute benefits or burdens based on race,” Trainor wrote in the message delivered late Friday.

Institutions receiving federal funding have until February 28 to come into compliance, the letter indicates, and the Department of Education will “take appropriate measures to assess compliance” with the law according to their interpretation. “Additional legal guidance,” Trainor writes, “will follow in due course.”

Trainor said the deadline and policy change is being delivered in response to an increase in discriminatory practices based on race, including against “white and Asian students” seen “in recent years.” The Acting Assistant Secretary said that the “embrace of pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences” has permeated “every facet of academia.”

“Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism’ and advanced discriminatory policies and practices. Proponents of these discriminatory practices have attempted to further justify them — particularly during the last four years — under the banner of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (‘DEI’), smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline,” he wrote.

Schools that fail to come into compliance with the Trump Administration’s take on the law, according to the letter, “face potential loss of federal funding.”

“The Department will vigorously enforce the law on equal terms as to all preschool, elementary, secondary, and postsecondary educational institutions, as well as state educational agencies, that receive financial assistance,” Trainor wrote.

The letter also calls on “anyone who believes that a covered entity has unlawfully discriminated” to file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights.

Governor Maura Healey told the Herald on Monday that DEI is good for schools and that the benefits extend beyond classrooms and hallways.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion make our education system, our communities, our businesses and our economy stronger. When we bring people with different backgrounds and perspectives to the table, we get better results. We are going to stay true to who we are in Massachusetts,” she said.

On Friday, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, joined more than a dozen other state AG’s in issuing DEI guidance of their own for companies doing business in their states. Federal law, the Attorneys General advised, can’t prevent private entities from using diversity, equity, or inclusion goals in their hiring decisions or day-to-day practices.

“Importantly, diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility best practices are not illegal, and the federal government does not have the legal authority to issue an executive order that prohibits otherwise lawful activities in the private sector or mandates the wholesale removal of these policies and practices within private organizations, including those that receive federal contracts and grants,” they wrote.

The Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision, the AGs wrote, may have upended the way colleges consider applications for admission, “but neither the case — nor the principles it decided — have any application to properly designed and implemented diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives in the workplace.”

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, minority chair of U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations, said via social media that the Trump Administration’s anti-DEI order for public schools constitutes a violation of federal law, and suggested it’s a significant step beyond what he was sent to Washington to accomplish.

“Federal laws prohibit any president from telling schools (and) colleges what to teach. Parents want local schools to have the funding they need so their kids can get a great education — they don’t want Trump (and) Elon to impose their deranged culture war onto our kids,” she wrote.

---------