Training and Advisory Services (Equity Assistance Centers)

(Equity Assistance Centers)

Department of Education

Proposed Cut

$7M

% Reduction

100.0%

Action Type

elimination

Who Is Served

School districts seeking technical assistance on civil rights compliance

Summary

Equity Assistance Centers are a small U.S. Department of Education program that gives free training and technical help to public school districts working through civil rights compliance issues tied to school desegregation, such as harassment, bullying, and racial bias. The FY2027 budget proposal eliminates all $7 million in funding for this program, a 100% cut, arguing the assistance has been used to push DEI-related practices on local districts.

Who Is Affected

The centers directly serve state education agencies, school districts, and individual schools that request help; in fiscal year 2022 alone they provided targeted assistance to 24 state education agencies, 222 school districts, and 145 schools across 46 states and territories. Four regional centers currently operate under this program, and the department reported accepting 96% of the assistance requests it received during that period.

What this cut would actually mean

If this funding is eliminated, districts working through desegregation-related disputes—like complaints of racial harassment, discriminatory discipline, or unequal treatment of students—would lose access to free, specialized federal training and advisory support built specifically for these Title IV civil rights issues. Districts would have to find and pay for private consultants or legal counsel instead, or go without that support altogether, which advocates argue could leave real bias and discrimination complaints unaddressed in some communities, especially smaller or rural districts with fewer resources.

Why this hits Alabama harder

Alabama has an unusually large number of school districts still bound by federal desegregation orders and consent decrees, more than most other states. Losing the Equity Assistance Center that covers Alabama would remove free technical help districts use to meet civil rights compliance requirements tied to those orders, like the ongoing Jefferson County case decided in 2025. Because Alabama has so many districts under this kind of federal oversight, the loss of this assistance would likely be felt more here than in most states.

Alabama School Connection - Desegregation Orders: What They Are and Which Districts Have Them — Reports that 46-48 of Alabama's 135 school districts remain under federal desegregation orders, a notably high share among U.S. states.
NAACP LDF - Stout v. Jefferson County — Describes a 60-year-old Alabama school desegregation case with a new consent decree entered in March 2025, showing continued reliance on federal civil rights oversight and technical assistance in Alabama school districts.
EAC-South About Us - Southern Education Foundation — Confirms Alabama is served by the EAC-South regional center, which provides desegregation and civil rights technical assistance to school districts across an 11-state southern region.

Sources

Educational equity on the chopping block in Trump FY 2027 budget request — Reports that the FY2027 budget proposes eliminating all $7 million for Equity Assistance Centers, describing their origin in desegregation efforts and the administration's DEI-related justification.
Education Department targets Equity Assistance Centers again — Details the number of state agencies, districts, and schools served by Equity Assistance Centers in FY2022, the acceptance rate for assistance requests, and ongoing legal disputes over their closure.
DEPARTMENT of EDUCATION FY2027 Budget Justification — The administration's official budget document listing the $7 million elimination of Equity Assistance Centers and its stated rationale about 'weaponized' DEI programming.
Budget Blog — Southern Education Foundation analysis describing Equity Assistance Centers' history as Desegregation Assistance Centers and disputing the administration's characterization of the program.