COMMUNITY VOICES: We Need Courageous Leadership to Defend Education and Diversity

By: Dr. Rema Vassar, Pamela Pugh (MDE Board President), and Dennis Denno (MSU Trustee).

Dear Colleagues,

This nation’s current administration would like to see our country go back to the 1850s. We, as members of governing education bodies at the state and university level, have the audacity to believe that attacks on women, LGBTQ+ communities, and people of color lead us not toward a better America, but to a United States irreversibly divided; a US that cannot thrive because citizens are barely surviving.

In the face of mounting national, state, and local cutbacks—or outright cuts–of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, we call for others in any leadership role to ask their communities, “Which are you against? Inevitable diversity? Fairness that comes with Equity? Or are you disgruntled with the thought of including all in our commitment to educate young people who are our future?”

DEI initiatives serve all of us, not just a specific few. Education leaders must fulfill a responsibility to our students by not yielding our commitment to the collective freedom brought about through an educated populace. We must honor the timeless ideal of education: to foster a world that is more just, more inclusive, and more free.

Intellectual Freedom is a Necessity

Governing boards of education entities have an obligation to ensure that educators are free from the vicissitudes of the day’s political mandates that prioritize ideological conformity over educational integrity. Board members must use their power to support curricula that represent the full breadth of human experience, including the stories and struggles of those whose histories are suppressed or misrepresented.

Recent political agendas aim to reshape what students are taught and how they are taught, diminishing educators’ professionalism. These orders, which often equate teaching about systemic racism or LGBTQ+ rights with “indoctrination,” limits students’ ability to learn critical lessons about society, history, and their roles in the world.

The current assault on intellectual freedom is an affront to education’s purpose. The right to an education that encourages open inquiry, dialogue, and the exploration of diverse perspectives must not be negotiable.

DEI in Education is an Ethical Imperative

Recent attacks on DEI initiatives in Education—often framed as “anti-indoctrination” measures—are direct assaults on the fundamental ideal of learning. Education boards must recognize that allowing these attacks to go unchallenged is not a neutral stance; it is complicit.

DEI programs can facilitate environments where students learn to appreciate others’ views, engage in dialogue across differences, and develop the critical skills necessary to thrive in a multicultural society. Restricting conversations around race, gender and identity, and demonizing efforts to provide equitable opportunities for students of color and other marginalized groups, perpetuates the inequality this nation purports to have eradicated.

The ethical imperative is clear: protect the integrity of our educational mission by ensuring that all students, particularly those who have been subjected to centuries of systemic inequality and marginalization, have access to a curriculum that is rich, inclusive, and reflective of the world they inhabit.

Protecting Minoritized Students is Our Duty

Above all, governing boards have a duty to protect the rights of minoritized students. In this critical moment, we must ask: What kind of society do we want? When we foster environments that value diversity and inclusion, we ensure that students learn the values of empathy, respect and justice. When students’ lived experiences are embraced and affirmed, all students learn to appreciate and understand the complexities of the world and feel empowered to create a promising future.

Boards of education must take a stand, not just for minoritized students, but for the sake of our collective future.

We Need Courageous Leaders in Order to Maintain Our Collective Freedom

It is when our days are the dreariest and our nights darkest that we must find our courage. This moment in history demands moral leadership. Education boards have the power to stand firm in the face of political pressure to restrict access to comprehensive education, revise history, erase contributions of minoritized communities, and impede students’ intellectual growth. Governing boards cannot be passive or acquiesce.

We call on education board members to be first, to walk ahead on the road of liberation through education by:

1. Promoting Equity-Minded Policies and Practices:
   1. Propose policies for implementing culturally responsive teaching, race-conscious inquiry, and anti-deficit approaches.
   2. Celebrate successful practices that foster inclusive learning environments and honor students’ diverse cultural identities and experiences.
2. Advancing Institutions’ Capacity for Equity-Driven Change:

1. 1. Present strategies to identify and dismantle structural inequities in policies, practices, and curricula.
   2. Facilitate discussions about closing racial equity gaps to improve student outcomes.
   3. Share initiatives that cultivate institutional accountability and create sustainable change for equity in education.

1. Fostering Collaborative Action for Racial Equity and Justice:

1. 1. Highlight collective efforts that confront systemic inequalities in education.
   2. Engage participants in meaningful activities that reinforce equity-mindedness through collaboration and shared accountability.
   3. Protect projects that translate racial equity and justice commitments into actionable practices.

As education leaders, our task is more daunting every day. Indeed, each day brings a different order, a new letter, another unweighted edict that causes consternation, engenders fear and distrust, and brings important funding and programming to abrupt halts. However, our moral and ethical imperative is clear; board members must reject and counter attempts to undermine the integrity of education at every turn.

This is a time for courage, for moral clarity, and for an unwavering commitment to our belief that every student deserves multiple opportunities to learn and thrive. It is incumbent upon us to ensure students have access to environments that prepare them to be a thoughtful, compassionate, and informed citizens—for all our sakes.

History is being written right now and so is our future. The stakes for all of us are too high for us to falter or faint.  Those of us who see education as a way forward in creating positive change in our nation must hold fast.