Scholars are not happy about another of President Trump’s executive orders, this one banning the consideration of race when it comes to school discipline.
The officially named “Reinstating Common Sense Discipline Policies” EO singles out the “disparate-impact” framework upon which many current school discipline policies are based.
Disparate impact posits that the “presumption of unlawful discrimination exists where there are any differences in outcomes in certain circumstances among different races, sexes, or similar groups, even if there is no facially discriminatory policy or practice or discriminatory intent involved.”
In other words, if the number of, say, black students being suspended doesn’t match up proportionately to the black population within the school/district, teachers and/or administrators can be presumed to be acting in a racially discriminatory manner.