PA Tells Trump To Back Off In Slickest Way Possible

Some days I love my commonwealth's current administration.

Here's the sequence. First, the US Department of Ed had a civil rights office, the purpose of which was to make sure that states did not violate student civil rights, which mostly meant standing up for students with special needs and pushing back on Certain Parts of the country where some folks have never really stopped trying to get out of providing poor students and students of color with a fully-funded quality education.

The Trump 2.0 repurposed the same department. They kept much of the language of the original mission:

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides that “[n]o person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

But in one weird trick that right wingers like to use, they have reinterpreted that to mean "don't deny any white guys cool stuff that other people get," grouped those naughty behaviors under the DEI label, and tried to back it up by brandishing the SCOTUS decision for SFFA v. Harvard-- the one that struck down Affirmative Action. 

Having decided that simply declaring their new version of the law was not enough, the regime has declared that every state and local district must sign a loyalty oath, saying they have reviewed the regime demand and admit it's a requirement for federal financial support. This is an attempt to get state and local educators to comply in advance, as if the courts have already agreed with the regime's assertion that DEI is actually illegal. 

Many Democrat-led states and districts have pushed back hard. California and Vermont told districts to go ahead and ignore the loyalty oath demands. Chicago's mayor said, "See you in court." 

Pennsylvania has simply employed ju-jitsu or a double-reverse or whatever you want to call it.

First, the latter from Executive Deputy Secretary of Education Angela Fitterer was sent via e-mail, like the regime's demand, because if the regime doesn't know how to manage major pieces of business, we can play that game to.

Second, the PA letter is addressed "Dear Sir or Madam," underscoring the fact that the regime's edict was sent out unsigned. 

Third, the letter affirms that Pennsylvania follows Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1864, always has, always will. So no problem here. It ignores the attempt to re-interpret that language and simply addresses the issue that the feds pretend to raise--whether or not people are following Title VI. 

We'll see how this plays out. Maybe someone at the federal ed department will actually sign a real letter saying, "No, we need you to swear allegiance to our cockeyed new definition of Title VI." Or maybe they will just say, "See, Pennsylvania also agrees to follow Title VI" and pretend that people don't mean two entirely different thing when they talk about Title VI. Maybe they'll get pissy and yell, "No, you have to agree that Title VI only means what WE think it means and not what people have thought it meant for the last sixty years." 

It's not as feisty as some states, nor as subservient as others, but it puts Pennsylvania on the right side of this issue. I do love a display of passive-aggressive non-compliance, and anything that puts MAGA "clarifying" and reasserting their racist intentions is better than the obsfucatory bullshit they've been employing.

"We're just demanding you follow Title VI," they said, pleased with their own cleverness at owning the libs by turning their own laws against them.

"What a coincidence," says Pennsylvania. "We have been following Title VI all along and have every intention of continuing to do so. So glad we agree on this."

We'll see what the next move is.