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Since assuming office on January 20, President Donald Trump has taken swift but necessary action to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) projects and initiatives from all federal agencies and institutions. For too long, our government worked against the interests of Americans rather than for the American people.
Take our education system, for example.
Achievement scores for American students have significantly declined in the past few years. From 2019 to 2023, math scores for fourth-grade students declined by 18 points and by an astronomical 27 points for eighth-grade students.
New data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress additionally revealed that the average reading scores for students also declined between 2022 and 2024. The average reading score declined by two points both for fourth-grade students and for eighth-grade students. One-third of eighth-grade students now cannot read at a basic level.
The rapid decline in student achievement in our schools coincided with the rise of DEI. Parents Defending Education found that President Joe Biden's Department of Education spent more than $1 billion providing grants to schools promoting DEI initiatives such as race-based hiring and student activism.
The Biden administration's Education Department spent further resources attempting to rewrite Title IX to include radical gender ideology. If the administration had been successful, the new Title IX rules would have allowed boys to participate in girls' sports as well as use their restrooms and locker rooms. The Biden administration scrapped the new rules after pushback from 26 states resulted in a federal judge striking down the ridiculous changes.
In an immediate move to correct course, on the first day of his administration Trump signed a flurry of executive actions, ordering his administration to eradicate DEI entirely. All these actions were necessary and are a great start to making the government truly work for all Americans.
Within his first week in office, Trump signed an executive order tasking the Department of Health and Human Services, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and Department of Education to define gender as only male or female. The president additionally signed executive orders to eliminate DEI in grantmaking, contracting, and financial assistance and to issue guidance that public schools must end DEI initiatives to continue receiving funding.
More recently, Trump signed another executive order to stop schools from teaching gender ideology and to protect parental rights. The administration will also cut funding from schools that continue to teach these harmful ideas. The president's overall goal is to align our education system back to merit-based standards.
Trump has even revoked an executive order from President Lyndon B. Johnson that established affirmative action in the federal government. The president's Office of Personnel Management then issued a memo to federal agencies to purge DEI staff.
In addition to eliminating DEI from government agencies, Trump has aimed at eliminating wokeness from our nation's military. He issued executive orders eliminating DEI initiatives from all military branches while also discarding radical gender ideology from the armed forces.
Potentially the boldest executive order in this regard is one banning individuals who identify as transgender from the military. "A man's assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member," Trump stated in his order. He added that "military service must be reserved for those mentally and physically fit for duty."
Trump is cutting the DEI fat out of our government and guaranteeing that it works for the American people once again, which arguably has not happened since Lyndon Johnson signed his executive order creating affirmative action in 1965. For the first time in 60 years, our government will judge people not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
With these actions, Trump has ensured that the federal government will use available resources to make sure Americans have what they need to thrive in today's world. This is especially important for our nation's youth, who are struggling more than ever in our schools.
DEI has no place in our government and is an impediment to progress. This administration understands the importance of meritocracy and is looking forward to the future.
Casey Ryan is a writer and investigative reporter at Parents Defending Education.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
