Most people will argue “DEI” about this. I think that label hides the real question:

Does federal civil-rights enforcement still function?

Here’s the narrow, testable claim: since Trump returned to office, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has not entered a single new resolution agreement in racial harassment cases involving students. ProPublica reports OCR resolved ~50 racial-harassment cases over the prior three years, but that “accountability” has effectively stopped under the second Trump administration.

Source: https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-education-department-civil-rights-racial-harassment

I’m not saying schools are fine, or that race is the only issue in education. I’m saying a specific enforcement mechanism is being throttled, and the throttle shows up in measurable outputs.

Standard / threshold: If OCR enforcement is “working,” you’d expect:

1. new investigations opened from incoming complaints, and
2. resolution agreements when OCR finds violations.

ProPublica’s reporting (including internal data) suggests the opposite:

• OCR opened only 14 investigations into alleged racial harassment of Black students since Jan. 20, while receiving 500+ complaints in that period.
• The administration laid off/put on leave hundreds of staff and closed 7 of 12 regional OCR offices; meanwhile open investigations reportedly rose from ~12,000 to nearly 24,000.
• OCR also stopped monitoring many districts it previously found violated students’ civil rights.
• ProPublica reports OCR has shifted toward resolving cases alleging discrimination against white students.

Yes, OCR’s caseload is huge and disability cases dominate historically. But zero new racial-harassment agreements + 14 investigations out of 500+ complaints doesn’t read like “triage.” It reads like de facto abandonment.

If the goal is equal protection in schools, what replaces OCR here—state AGs, private litigation, local boards—or do we accept that racial-harassment enforcement is now mostly a local cost?

Source: ProPublica (Dec 19, 2025)
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-education-department-civil-rights-racial-harassment

Key measurable claims in the story:

• 0 new OCR racial-harassment resolution agreements since Trump took office (per ProPublica analysis).
• 14 new investigations opened vs 500+ complaints received since Jan 20 (per internal data obtained by ProPublica).
• 7/12 OCR regional offices closed; ~300 OCR staff affected; backlog growth ~12k → 24k open investigations.

What would change my mind:
Evidence that OCR is (a) opening racial-harassment investigations at normal-ish volume again, and/or (b) executing + monitoring new racial-harassment resolution agreements at anything like prior baselines.