Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling Executive Order #14190
POLICY UPDATE Background On January 29, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order to prevent the use of federal funds to support “discriminatory educational practices” and mandate that public schools exclude systemic racism, privilege, gender ideology, and implicit bias from their curricula. The order also prohibits federally funded teacher training programs from including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) frameworks and limits comprehensive Black history education, reducing students' exposure to foundational historical and contemporary issues affecting Black communities.
Current Landscape On June 27, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case centered around a group of Maryland parents who sought a religious exemption to prevent their children from reading books with LGBTQ+ content at school. The lower courts denied the parents’ petition, rejecting their claim that the school’s curriculum violated their freedom to exercise their religion. In a 6-3 decision that split down ideological lines, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and sent the ruling back to the lower court for a final ruling. While the circuit court deliberates, the Supreme Court ordered the Maryland school board to notify parents when books with LGBTQ+ themes are assigned and to allow parents to exclude their children from related lessons without penalty. Justice Sonia Sotomayer read the dissent aloud from the bench, an uncommon practice typically reserved for times when justices wish to voice extreme opposition to the decision. In the dissent, Justice Sotomayer said that if “exposing students to the ‘message’ that LGBTQ people exist, and that their loved ones may celebrate their marriages and life events [...] is enough to trigger the most demanding form of judicial scrutiny, then little is not.”
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