On Feb. 14, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education released a letter explaining that schools that receive federal funding must cease the use of race as a determining factor in scholarships, admissions, financial aid and more. Schools had two weeks to comply with this order before the Department of Education would begin checking for adherence. If schools do not abide by this, they could lose their funding.
“In recent years, American educational institutions have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families,” the letter reads.
As of now, JCPS does not plan to stop any programs. If they choose to comply, the district may have to eliminate some of the district’s Diversity, Equity and Poverty (DEP) initiatives and resources available that aim to promote an inclusive school environment. If they don’t comply, the district could lose their federal funding. Since JCPS receives 22.2% of its funding from the federal government, losing funds could force them to make budget cuts to other programs.
“Our state legislators and our federal government are attacking the work of racial equity every single day, and it’s something that we have focused on in this district for the past eight years,” said JCPS Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio during his 2025 State of the District speech on Feb. 26.
The district is also facing threats to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts (DEI) from Kentucky State Senate Bill 165 (SB 165). If this bill is passed, it will ban DEI initiatives in schools. The bill is still being debated in the Senate education committee. School leaders are alarmed by this bill and are adamant that DEI initiatives are needed to ensure that schools are inclusive.
“Hearing from someone that looks like them, there are many studies that show that that is how we charge success in our schools,” said Dr. Monica Hunter-Kirby, principal of W.E.B. DuBois Academy.
Bianca Phoenix, the vice president of the Black Student Union at Atherton High School, recently spoke at a NAACP forum regarding the benefits she has experienced as a member of BSU. Phoenix spoke about how following the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, she experienced a sense of loneliness when she returned to school. She also mentioned that since her middle school was primarily white, she did not feel like she was a part of her school community. That all changed when she joined BSU.
“I went from being almost stripped of my worth, sense of belonging and sanity to finding an outlet to put those emotions into. A few months into being at Highland [Middle School’s] BSU, I joined the district BSU and made a long-term friend, and even helped raise money for a mural at Justice Fest,” Phoenix said.
Dr. Hunter-Kirby also described the impact losing organizations such as BSU could have on schools.
“Pivoting from the focus on inclusion of all students to the way things were before when we were marginalized… it’s baffling and it’s upsetting as well. And then just to think about it, we just started HSU, the Hispanic Student Union, potentially losing BSU and other programming that promotes knowledge of different cultures is really, it really hurts,” Hunter-Kirby said.
SB 165 is still in the Senate Education Committee, though it has not undergone a reading, leading some to declare the bill to be dead.
“I do believe we’ve done amazing work over the past eight years to ensure all children have what they need to be successful. That’s what equity is,” Pollio said.
