OPINION: Calling all California education leaders: This is no time to sit back and watch our world-class systems be demolished

As the nation plunges deeper into chaos, this moment is testing the values, fortitude and courage of California’s leaders. Our state’s rich diversity, which has transformed and powered California’s economy, is under attack.

The world-class universities that have made California home to innovation are caught in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s agenda. The very foundation of our civil society — the activists, lawyers, nonprofits and media who serve as a bulwark against government overreach — is being eroded. 

Now more than ever, we need a vociferous defense of the fundamental values that have allowed progress and racial justice to flourish. Instead, we are seeing a troubling retreat in higher education. And this is no time to retreat. Higher education leaders must be courageous upstanders and unite in protecting California’s values.

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Just weeks ago, President Trump dismantled the U.S. Department of Education, which provides essential educational services for all communities — especially to students in rural communities and students with disabilities — and financial aid for countless students. To justify this sweeping assault, partisan leaders have demonized the ideals of diversity, equity and inclusion and launched investigations into over fifty universities for simply wanting to create a place of belonging for all students.

Universities that in the past were our nation’s epicenters for social progress and freedom of ideas are now deafeningly silent when their voices are most needed. The Trump administration’s attacks on practices that foster belonging and inclusion have led to quick capitulation from too many leaders in higher education, from Columbia University to the University of Michigan.

That makes Harvard University’s legal challenges to Trump’s demands, along with a letter from many other college presidents who are pushing back, much more significant. 

Regrettably, here in California, long seen as a beacon of hope for the nation, we have far too few colleges and universities taking meaningful action.

In recent weeks, the University of Southern California scrubbed its commitment to DEI and eliminated it as one of its values. Under threat by the federal government, the University of California system will no longer require diversity statements for faculty applicants. 

Nothing about what USC or the UC system were doing prior to these actions was dangerous or illegal. They were simply seeking to create environments in which students and faculty from diverse backgrounds felt included and supported, something that is hugely important in a state like California, where more and more of the students who enroll in higher education come from diverse and marginalized backgrounds. 

As president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, I know firsthand how commitments to equity and inclusion have opened the door to higher educational opportunity for millions of students and catapulted California to become the fourth-largest economy in the world. 

We’ve worked hard, via legislative efforts, to ensure equitable course placement — so that Black, Latino and low-income students in community college, often from low-performing high schools, are no longer derailed by remedial courses. We’ve pushed to expand financial aid for over 150,000 low-income students in California and for historic transfer reforms that streamlined pathways for more than half a million community college students, the largest share of whom are Latino, and our equity and student-centered policies have brightened California’s economic future. 

Higher education leaders must not cave to the current administration. Doing so is not only shortsighted, but also contradicts the mission of educators to better the lives of all students.

Recent polling shows that most Americans oppose this administration’s efforts to shut down the Department of Education, and another poll finds that a majority of Americans disapprove of the Trump administration’s actions to end diversity, equity and inclusion policies. 

Related: OPINION: With higher education under siege, college presidents cannot afford to stay silent

Meeting this moment demands that we stand up for marginalized communities and fight back against those seeking to dismantle education for their own political gain. For the fights that lie ahead — especially for diversity, equity and inclusion within higher education — I am calling upon education leaders to do the following:

• Commit to maintaining any university policies or practices relating to DEI until education leaders have fully analyzed the potential impact of the changes on students and introduced a corresponding plan for ensuring inclusive campus communities. 
• Commit to having a full and public discourse that includes stakeholder and student engagement before taking regressive action.
• Deploy evidence-based strategies, such as those outlined in our“Equity, Inclusion, Action” briefs, that advance more equitable outcomes in college preparation, access and completion for historically underrepresented students.

With the nation’s largest higher education system — a driver of economic growth for the entire country — California has a vital role to play in vigorously defending higher education institutions from federal attacks. 

To counter the Trump administration’s regressive policies, our leaders must separate fact from fiction. They must fight for civil rights protections and reaffirm that the future of our democracy and economy is directly tied to the success of all students. 

That means we need to lean into the policies and programs that help our diverse collective of students to thrive and excel. The popular saying, “as California goes, so goes the nation,” reminds us once again that it’s time for California to lead the way forward.

Jessie Ryan is a state and nationally recognized education equity leader with more than two decades of experience shepherding policy transformation. She currently serves as president of the Campaign for College Opportunity.

Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.

This story about higher education and the Trump administration was produced byThe Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’sweekly newsletter.

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