FIX EXCLUSIVES
Program is no longer accepting applicants, Stanford says
Stanford University is facing a federal civil rights complaint over a teacher training program that allegedly excludes applicants based on race, in violation of the Supreme Court’s ban on race-based discrimination in education.
However, the university told The College Fix the program in question is being sunsetted, and it denies the discrimination allegations.
The March complaint, filed by Defending Education with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, claims that Stanford has offered a program for several years that only considers an applicant if they “identify as a person of color.”
The program, part of Stanford’s National Board Resource Center, offers a fully-funded training cohort for teachers seeking National Board Certification. This credential opens doors to unique benefits.
“Certification helps teachers receive higher salaries and quicker advancement, and many states distribute financial awards and incentives to certified teachers working in the state,” the complaint states.
According to the complaint, white and Asian teachers are excluded from the opportunity.
“Based on the eligibility criteria clearly stated on Stanford’s BIPOC cohort webpage, Stanford has adopted, implemented, and enforced a racially discriminatory program and it maintains this program through the present day. That is incompatible with the ‘color-blind’ mandate of Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause,” the complaint states.
Defending Education also argues that Stanford’s program constitutes “separate treatment” banned by the Supreme Court in 2003 and affirmed in 2023.
Participants receive mentoring, coaching, and resources designed to help them complete the certification process—advantages that teachers who do not meet its racial requirement don’t have access to.
Defending Education Vice President Sarah Perry told The College Fix that this has been an ongoing battle for the Trump administration.
“Removing race discrimination from higher education has proven a challenge to this Administration because schools like Stanford refuse to accept the clear pronouncements from the Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that race discrimination of any kind is illegal,” Perry said.
“Any federally funded programming that prioritizes one race or ethnicity above another is illegal, period,” she said.
She said Defending Education hopes that the Department of Education “takes a hard look” at Stanford University to “send a message that the Supreme Court’s mandates aren’t merely suggestions.”
The university, however, denies that it is currently engaging in racial discrimination.
“Stanford University is committed to meeting its obligations under the federal Civil Rights Act and maintaining an environment free of prohibited discrimination,” spokesperson Luisa Rapport told The College Fix.
She also said that the cohort program “is not accepting new teachers and is being sunsetted,” adding that it was funded by external grants, including from the National Education Association—the nation’s largest teacher union known for its left-wing political activism.
The school did not specify when it made the decision to end the program.
“The Center is open to any primary or secondary teacher, regardless of their race, who is pursuing the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification,” Rapport told The Fix.
The Office for Civil Rights has not yet announced if it will move forward with an investigation based on the complaint.
Last year, Stanford shut down a DEI fellowship it had offered for about two decades due to the Supreme Court’s prohibition on affirmative action, The College Fix previously reported.
The program was only open to “underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities, first-generation college students, women in fields such as natural science and engineering, LGBT students, students with disabilities, and others whose backgrounds and experiences would diversify the professoriate in their academic fields,” according to the student newspaper.
