Education group requests federal investigation into race-based hiring at Kansas City Public Schools

A grassroots group working to counter indoctrination in public education has requested the federal government open an investigation into race-based hiring practices at a large Missouri school district.

The group Parents Defending Education (PDE) said Kansas City Public Schools’ (KCPS) strategic plan makes it clear that despite being illegal, the district has set quotas for recruitment based on race.

PDE sent a letter to the director and regional attorney of the Kansas City Area Office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requesting the probe, according to a statement by the education reform group. 

“Attached to this complaint is supporting evidence in the form of a strategic plan, ‘Blueprint 2030’ (Exhibit A), which outlines its mission to hire and retain new staff, solely on the educator’s race,” PDE said. 

An analysis by The Lion of the exhibit provided by PDE shows that in at least six ways, the school district provides benefits to “teachers of color” that are not provided to other teachers. 

KCPS says that its primary mission under its workforce development plan is to increase “our teachers of color to 40% by 2025 and achieve a goal of 45% teachers of color by 2030.” 

To that goal, the district proposes targeting the recruitment of teachers of color by:  

• Developing diverse and robust career pathways for non-certified staff and providing increased guidance and resources for equitable access. 

• Establishing a ‘Grow Your Own’ student pipeline, providing tutoring and scholarship opportunities for teacher certification programs/assessments. 

• Maintaining diversity recruiting partnerships and establishing targeted recruiting initiatives with Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), and the Historic Association of Colleges & Universities (HACUs). 

• Evaluating and adjusting the hiring process with a core focus on improving equitable and diverse hiring practices, including creating a culturally responsive, equity-based interview tool. 

• Deploying intuitive and adaptable engagement strategies and supports to increase teacher retention on a continuous basis. 

• Developing diverse and robust career pathways for certified staff, with guidance and resources for equitable access for all employees. 

Similar wording is also included on the district’s “About” page, including the specific goal to increase “teachers of color to 40% by 2025 and achieve a goal of 45% teachers of color by 2030.” 

“[M]any of the mechanisms by which the District intends to meet these goals includes implementing hiring quotas directly related to an educator’s race, as opposed to their merit,” said PDE. 

The district also maintains an “equity, inclusion and innovation” department, as well as a “restorative justice” department.  

“Equity is at the core of everything we do,” says KCPS. “By equity, we mean ‘educational policies, practices, interactions, and resources that are representative of, constructed by, and responsive to all students such that each individual has access to, can meaningfully participate, and make progress in high-quality learning experiences that empowers them towards self-determination and reduces disparities in outcomes regardless of individual characteristics and cultural identities.’” 

The problem with reducing “disparities in outcomes,” is that disparities can only be measured by individual characteristics and cultural identities of two or more things. Without segregating outcomes into white versus black, black versus Asian, for example, only averages, not disparities, emerge. 

Recent Supreme Court rulings have found that boosting outcomes on the basis of race in admissions is illegal. The KCPS hiring policy also flies in the face of recent policy announcements by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to end diversity, equity (DEI) and inclusion practices.  

“By March 1, 2025, consistent with Executive Order 14173, the Civil Rights Division and the Office of Legal Policy shall jointly submit a report to the Associate Attorney General containing recommendations for enforcing federal civil-rights laws and taking other appropriate measures to encourage the private sector to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including policies relating to DEI and DEIA,” said the DOJ memo.  

But the precedent banning DEI hiring is even older than these recent developments, said PDE.  

In its EEOC letter, PDE cited an event under the Obama administration that excluded whites which resulted in an order from the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). 

In that case, a Chicago-area high school held a Black Lives Matter event only open to black students. OCR later entered into an agreement with the school that under the law activities had to be open to all races. 

“Kansas City Public Schools likewise cannot discriminate against employees based on their race. We ask that your office promptly investigate the allegations in this complaint, act swiftly to remedy unlawful policies and practices, and order appropriate relief,” concluded PDE.  

Requests for comment from the deputy superintendent of equity and the district’s chief legal officer went unanswered before publication.