The Education Department's demand that K-12 districts and state officials certify their schools are free of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs is being met with open defiance from blue states and open arms by red ones.

Highlighting an already stark divide on the issue, states including New York and Minnesota are telling the federal government they will not sign off on any such certification, while several red states are already collecting signatures from their districts.

The issue poses the first major test for states and local districts bucking the education agenda of President Trump, who has shown willing aggression in going after colleges and universities he thinks are out of line.

“I am on the reservation, so pretty much ... I mean, everything that we do is DEI,” said a principal in a Republican-led state who oversees a school that is 95 percent Native American, and who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

"We don't really have a plan for it,” the principal added regarding the certification letter. “In talking to some of my other district administrators, it's kind of an attitude of, ‘We'll see what happens when it gets sorted out in the courts’ [...] ‘we'll worry about it when the time comes,’ ‘it's really not going to be what everybody thinks.’ It is just kind of a lot of disbelief, which is really frustrating.”

The April 3 letter was sent to state........

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