New Report: Federal School Discipline Policy Causes Classroom Disorder

NEW YORK, NY – A federal directive that school districts cease suspending unruly and violent students has caused a decrease in classroom order and safety, according to a new issue brief from Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Max Eden.

Eden’s new report, “Enforcing Classroom Disorder: Trump Has Not Called Off Obama’s War on School Discipline,” calls further attention to what he has been writing about: in its zeal to stop and prevent possible racially motivated suspensions, the federal government has tied the hands of school administrators and teachers in their own classrooms.

Eden’s work on this topic has been cited in outlets including U.S. News and World Report, NPR’s All Things Considered, Sirius XM, Politico, USA Today, New York Post, Washington Times, Townhall, Chalkbeat, The 74 and more. He testified before the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, in a hearing called: "Preventable Violence in America: An Examination of Law Enforcement Information Sharing and Misguided Public Policy."

Eden notes:

• In 2014, the federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and U.S. Department of Justice issued a “dear colleague letter” claiming that: (1) school districts rely excessively on suspensions; (2) black students are suspended at disproportionately high rates primarily because of educators’ racial bias; (3) suspensions cause substantial long-term harm to students; and (4) schools should curtail traditional discipline (suspensions) in favor of new “restorative” approaches that emphasize dialogue over punishment.
• The Office for Civil Rights has been investigating school districts and coercing them through fear of loss of federal funding (generally about 10% of district spending) into adopting lenient federal discipline policies.
• While President Trump has directed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to consider whether to repeal the directive, it’s still in place and the investigations continue.
• Simply rescinding the directive wouldn’t prevent similar practices by future administrations. If the Trump administration wants to respect local control and prioritize student safety, it should consider issuing a formal regulation to constrain the Department of Education’s influence on school discipline.

Click here to read the full report.