THE SET-UP: Degenerate art. That’s the label Nazi Germany used to describe the work of some of the greatest painters of the day. Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Max Beckmann, Emil Nolde and Georg Grosz were among the artists featured in the Nazi Party’s Degenerate Art Exhibition of 1937. The BBC World Service’s history program Witness describes their work as “modern, abstract, [and] non-representational.” The Nazi Party saw it as an affront to the true spirit, nature and character of the German people.
To highlight those improper notions of German-ness, the Party simultaneously staged a show of Hitler-approved art. The “Great German Art Exhibition” featured “statuesque blonde nudes along with idealised soldiers and landscapes” that conveyed the Nazi Party’s idea of what it meant to be German.
These two exhibitions were the culmination of a systematic purge of the nation’s museums and art collections that, according to a key document held by the Victoria & Albert Museum, led to the “confiscation of more than 16,000 works of art which the Nazis deemed 'degenerate'.” That purge was orchestrated by Josef Goebbels’ Ministry of Propaganda.
Improper ideology. That’s the label the Trump regime has given to exhibitions of art, history and zoo animals (yes, zoo animals) that fail to…
….remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity, and human flourishing.
That comes from an Executive Order (EO) directing the Smithsonian to purge “improper” and “corrosive” ideologies from its wide variety of displays and exhibits (yes, including the National Zoo) and replace those with displays and exhibits that conform to Trump’s idea of what it means to be American.
And what exactly is “improper”?
Any representation of US History that fosters “a sense of national shame, disregarding the progress America has made and the ideals that continue to inspire millions around the globe” or undermines “the remarkable achievements of the United States by casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light.”
As for art, the EO gives a specific example of what the regime regards as … degenerate:
[T]he Smithsonian American Art Museum today features “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” an exhibit representing that “[s]ocieties including the United States have used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.” The exhibit further claims that “sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism” and promotes the view that race is not a biological reality but a social construct, stating “Race is a human invention.”
Oddly enough, race is widely seen by scientists and anthropologists as an invented concept and not a biological reality. In fact, one can explore the fulsome history of race as an invented concept through an online course at the Science History Institute. Here’s a Spoiler Alert: The high point of scientific racism and the eugenics movement it spawned was … Nazi Germany. - jp
TITLE: K-12 schools must sign certification against DEI to receive federal money, administration says
https://apnews.com/article/dei-trump-school-discrimination-federal-funding-7d1025753b9bd924711ace4069fca399
EXCERPTS: A notice sent Thursday by the Education Department gives states and schools 10 days to sign and return the certification. It’s the latest escalation against DEI policies, apparently giving the Republican administration a new lever for terminating federal money.
“Federal financial assistance is a privilege, not a right,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement. He said many schools have flouted their legal obligations, “including by using DEI programs to discriminate against one group of Americans to favor another.”
The certification asks state and school leaders to sign a “reminder of legal obligations” acknowledging their federal money is conditioned on compliance with federal civil rights laws. It also demands compliance with several pages of legal analysis written by the administration.
“The use of certain DEI practices can violate federal law,” the administration wrote in the certification, adding that it is illegal for programs to advantage one race over another.
Schools and states that use illegal DEI practices can face a loss of federal money, including grants and contracts, and can be held liable under the False Claims Act, according to the certification. It specifically threatens Title I funding, which sends billions of dollars a year to America’s schools and targets low-income areas.
TITLE: Education Department threatens funding for public schools over DEI–but doesn’t clarify what counts as DEI
https://thegrio.com/2025/04/03/education-department-threatens-funding-for-public-schools-over-dei/
EXCERPTS: According to USA Today, the Education Department memo does not clarify what kinds of programs would be deemed DEI. Instead, it says that “illegal” DEI practices “advantage one race over another.”
The memo doesn’t clarify what the administration views as a DEI program, but it says so-called illegal DEI practices take advantage of one race over another and the use of “certain” DEI practices amounts to a violation of federal law.
During her Senate confirmation hearing, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said public schools observing Black History Month or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, for example, would be permissible. However, she declined to give the same affirmative for certain classes about Black history.
“I’m not quite certain … I would like to take a look at these programs and fully understand the breadth of the executive order and get back to you on that,” said McMahon.
The Trump administration’s Thursday memo is significant in that it targets public schools receiving Title I funding, which have a high percentage of low-income students who are predominantly Black and brown. While federal funding accounts for a small percentage of total education funding in most states–as low as 8% nationally, for example, according to the New York Times–in states in the South like Mississippi, that percentage is as high as 23%.
According to the Brookings Institute, “Economically disadvantaged and Black and Hispanic students receive less education funding than economically advantaged or white students.” Any additional funding lapses could be critical for impacted schools.
TITLE: Some Philly-area schools are sticking with DEI, despite Trump’s orders
https://www.inquirer.com/education/trump-dei-order-schools-phoenixville-lower-merion-20250402.html
EXCERPTS: As President Donald Trump attacks diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and threatens to strip funding from schools that promote “discriminatory equity ideology,” the Phoenixville Area School District has been analyzing everything from its curriculum to after-school activities to see what might run afoul of the new administration’s orders.
But it hasn’t made any changes. “The way we’re fighting back is what we’re not doing,” said Scott Overland, president of the Phoenixville school board. Trump is trying “to bully us into compliance,” Overland, a Democrat, said. “We need to show him that he’s wrong.”
Colleges have been wiping diversity initiatives from websites and overhauling policies as Trump halts their federal funding and pushes to dismantle DEI efforts. But signs of compliance are less evident in K-12 schools around Philadelphia — and some school leaders say they’re carrying on as normal.
That’s partly because many rely less on federal money: Unlike universities, public schools are largely supported by local and state taxes. Some local officials have also noted they’re navigating conflicts between Trump’s orders and state law, including existing antidiscrimination rules in Pennsylvania.
Trump’s administration has launched investigations into at least two non-Pennsylvania school districts, including the Ithaca City School District in New York, where a complaint alleged that a district event for students of color “reflected systemic discrimination against white students.”
It’s also investigating Denver Public Schools for converting a girls bathroom into a nonbinary bathroom — though that district hasn’t backed away from policies affirming students questioning their gender identities, said Jeffrey Sultanik, a solicitor for numerous Pennsylvania school districts.
Schools also face uncertainty around what exactly would violate Trump’s orders. In a lawsuit challenging a February “Dear Colleague” letter sent by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that warned schools against discriminating on the basis of race, the American Federation of Teachers and American Sociological Association said the letter was “broad, vague, and imprecise,” failing to define DEI programs beyond describing them as discriminatory.
“For example, it is not clear which of the following activities OCR would consider a violation of the letter,” the lawsuit said, listing scenarios including “leading a class discussion on the history of slavery in America or Japanese internment during World War II,” telling students they could not use a racial slur “and why other students might find the slur hurtful,” and “maintaining a school mission built around advancing excellence and equity.”
“Schools are navigating a lot of uncharted territory,” said Erica Hermans, president of the Spring-Ford Area school board. During “volatile times,” she said, “I think it’s important not to overreact.”
Spring-Ford has an equity, diversity, and inclusion policy that calls for providing every student access to curriculum and supports, “even when this means differentiating resource allocation,” and reviewing district programs and professional development “to ensure the promotion of racial equity.”
Hermans, a Democrat who said she was speaking only for herself as board president, said she was “firm in my commitment” to DEI.
“Our focus on inclusivity and diversity is not going to change,” she said, adding that Spring-Ford is “not making any broad, sweeping changes to anything we deliver.”
While federal funding accounts for a larger share of poorer school district budgets — in Philadelphia, it’s about 10% — affluent districts are less dependent. Spring-Ford received $1.4 million in federal funding last year, or less than 1% of the district’s budget.