Since President Trump has been in office, there have been many changes resulting from executive orders, the changes regarding education have brought uncertainty and concern to some staff and students within Bellevue Public Schools.
Due to the executive order, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” released on January 20, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education released an “End DEI” portal on February 27, 2025. The public portal located on their website allows anyone to report a school for discriminatory practices that follow Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) policies. DEI being a controversial and confusing topic to navigate.
“It feels like we are regressing, like we are going backwards in terms of equity, in terms of diversity, and promotion of inclusivity within our schools and then just our society,” GSA sponsor Abigail Ceremuga said.
According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, the Trump administration gave public schools two weeks to remove DEI initiatives. If schools do not remove their DEI initiatives, they risk losing federal funding.
“Due to the executive order, our DEI committee is no longer meeting,“Superintendent Jeff Rippe said.“By doing so, our 10 million dollars are not in jeopardy of being eliminated.”
According to Bellevue Public Schools’ annual report for 2024, 8% of funding came from federal funds. Bellevue Public Schools are funded by federal funds, state aid, and local taxes. According to Superintendent Jeff Rippe, federal grant money can be used within Bellevue Public Schools to fund special education, early childhood programs, and breakfast and lunch programs.
“Bellevue Public Schools receives about 10 million dollars from the federal government,” Rippe said.
The threat of losing federal funding has become a reality for school districts in San Diego, California. According to Shannon Handy in her article “San Diego schools lose nearly $1M in DEI funding amid federal cuts” written for CBS 8, San Diego County school districts have lost almost $1 million in federal funding due to their teacher training programs that promoted DEI. San Diego Unified School district will lose $200,000 of federal funding each year for the next four years some of which would be used for general program operating costs. If Bellevue Public Schools were to lose federal funding, many programs would be affected.
“A 10 million reduction in our budget would have a huge impact on our school district and would directly impact students,” Rippe said.“That cannot happen, so we will continue to make adjustments as needed to keep our federal funding.”
The order to eliminate DEI in school has also become confusing as to what all applies. At Bellevue East, certain clubs such as Gender and Sexuality Alliance, otherwise known as GSA, and Diversity Club are based on race and sex which directly relate to DEI policies.
“I think that DEI is such a broad umbrella and that people can be misguided by it because so much of what our society is, is benefited by DEI,” Ceremuga said. “I could definitely see other clubs being affected and having some negative impact on that through DEI and the end of DEI.”
At Bellevue East, GSA club is intended as a safe place for students who are a part of the LGBTQ community and their allies. The club also works within their community to promote support and advocacy for the LGBTQ community.
“I definitely think that we can help change the narrative around the LGBTQ community, what it means to be an ally, and ways that we can help show support especially in times like now with the end of DEI,” Ceremuga said.“Just helping promote so people are more aware of how they can be better allies, how they can better support queer people in their school, and just make sure people feel safe in their school.”
GSA’s next event will be the Day of Silence on April 4, 2025 which is a day to spread awareness about the LGBTQ community. A member of the club, senior Addison Pithan says that this event works to bring people in the community together.
“Well, I know that in April there’s a day where we used to be silent, but now since the things that are happening with politics, it’s like “speak out” and take action, so we are going to make posters about how to be a good ally,” Pithan said.
Like many, Ceremuga is uncertain of how the rollbacks on DEI will affect her club. As of now, clubs such as GSA and Diversity Club are still meeting at Bellevue East high school.
“At this point, I do not believe they [clubs such as GSA and Diversity Club] are in jeopardy,” Rippe said.“That being said, we will have to watch things closely and make adjustments as needed depending on what happens at the federal or state level.”