Rochester school district faces federal complaint over diversity hiring programs

A national parents’ rights group has filed a federal complaint against Rochester Public Schools alleging the district engaged in race-based discrimination in its efforts to boost minority representation among staff.

In the complaint, filed Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Education, Parents Defending Education says RPS violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by offering scholarship and networking opportunities only to people of color.

The complaint focuses on the district’s Employees of Color Resource Group, which received $134,600 from the Minnesota Department of Education in 2023 to fund workshops and professional learning opportunities for teachers of color. The complaint also alleges discrimination in the district’s “Grow Your Own” program. Launched in 2023, the initiative provides financial assistance to people of color in the community who want to pursue careers in education.

“PDE and its members oppose discrimination on the basis of race and political indoctrination in America’s schools,” the conservative-leaning group wrote in the complaint. “Rochester Public Schools has affinity group programming for some teachers that is not open to all. The District allows only some teachers to participate in affinity group programming, mentoring, and scholarship opportunities and their participation is based on their race.”

Reached Wednesday, RPS spokesperson Mamisoa Knutson said the district has not received the complaint from PDE and could not comment on its specifics. However, she said the district believes its efforts to recruit staff from diverse backgrounds are not only lawful but also in line with best practices.

In one study on the long-term impacts of same-race teachers, the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research found that Black students who have one Black teacher by third grade are 9% more likely to graduate from high school and 6% more likely to enroll in college than peers of the same race.

“Research has conclusively shown that when a student of color has a teacher of color, it has powerful benefits to their academic achievement and educational experience,” Knutson said. “As a result, our strategic plan seeks to develop and recruit staff from diverse backgrounds and support them once they are employed in our district.”

RPS has for years struggled to recruit and retain teachers of color, even as the student body — and the community at large — has continued to become more diverse. The latest figures show that despite students of color representing 47.2% of the district’s enrollment, just 11.75% of RPS staff identify as a person of color.

The complaint from Parents Defending Education, a grassroots organization self-described at the “forefront of the fight against indoctrination in the classroom,” comes at a precarious time for districts that promote diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. During the campaign, President-elect Donald Trump repeatedly threatened to take away funding from schools that offer programs not aligning with his views on DEI or transgender rights.