NWLC Reacts to Troubling GAO Report Concerning the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights
WASHINGTON – Today the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a damning report outlining the harmful effects of the Trump administration’s Reduction-in-Force (RIF) efforts at the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, an office that works to prevent and remedy discrimination and harassment in schools.
Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice at the National Women’s Law Center, issued the following statement in response to the findings in the report:
“Historically, the Department’s Office for Civil Rights has made public the types and number of complaints it receives, but under Trump-appointed officials, that transparency has vanished. What we do know from this report is shocking: 90 percent of discrimination claims that were “resolved” by the Office for Civil Rights were actually just dismissed without investigation.
“This report exposes how the Trump administration has grossly squandered taxpayer dollars in the tens of millions at the expense of protecting students. For months, DOGE and the administration claimed they were eliminating government waste when, in truth, they failed to even track the cost of their mass layoffs at the Department of Education.
“This administration is using the sham of efficiency to gaslight the public and to gut civil rights. They’re using their extremely scarce resources to attack trans students, diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools, and student protesters while ignoring rampant sexual harassment, racism, and disability-based discrimination in schools. They dismissed discrimination complaints haphazardly without investigation; just like they fired everyone haphazardly. The public, and especially students, deserve answers.”
