The Trump administration investigated Louisiana for discriminating against white students in February.
Oregon watched that happen and kept writing checks.
Now two federal civil rights complaints are headed straight for Portland – and what investigators are about to read will be hard to unsee.
Oregon DEI Funding Used a 65 Percent Racial Quota to Block White Students
Defending Education and Do No Harm filed a joint federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights targeting Oregon's Department of Education and its Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
The charge: Oregon is handing out taxpayer money based on race.
Oregon's Charter School Equity Grant program requires schools to hit a 65% enrollment threshold of students from racial groups that bureaucrats decided have "historically experienced academic disparities" before a dollar of grant funding moves.
If your school has too many white kids, you don't qualify.
That's not an interpretation – it's written into Oregon law.
Governor Tina Kotek's budget allocated over $4 million from that program for 2025-2027 to fund eight schools.
"What stands out most about Oregon's system of public school funding is the sheer blatancy of the discrimination – explicit racial quotas and race-based bonuses for distributing public funds written into Oregon law and policy," said Dr. Kurt Miceli, Chief Medical Officer of Do No Harm.
Federal investigators have now opened dozens of reverse discrimination complaints against schools across the country.
Oregon went further than any of them.
Oregon's Department of Education collects more than $150 million annually in federal funding.
That money comes with one condition: no racial discrimination.
Oregon took the money anyway.
Tina Kotek Approved Anti-White Discrimination in a Billion Dollar University Fund
The charter school quota is the smaller scandal.
Oregon's Higher Education Coordinating Commission runs the Public University Support Fund – $1.07 billion budgeted for 2025-2027.
That fund pays universities bonus taxpayer dollars based on how many minority students graduate — not students, minority students.
A white kid who earns his degree is worth less to Oregon's bureaucrats than a minority kid who earns the same degree – and the university's funding reflects that.
Kotek signed off on both programs.
Sarah Parshall Perry, Vice President of Defending Education, didn't hold back: "The Commission fares no better, as it awards taxpayer funds to schools based on the number of minority students who graduate from each. That kind of race essentialism is odious to the Constitution."
Oregon Went Further Than the State That Already Got Caught
When the Trump administration opened its Title VI investigation into Louisiana in February, Education Secretary Linda McMahon called the state's graduation targets for "all races other than white, Asian" unacceptable.
Oregon's program is more aggressive than what triggered that probe.
Louisiana set a graduation goal.
Oregon built a hard enrollment gate – 65% – that schools must clear before a dollar moves.
The complaint notes the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel reviewed similar race-based federal education grants in December and ruled them unconstitutional – and that many of those programs required only a fraction of Oregon's 65% threshold.
The Supreme Court closed this door in 2023 in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard – governments cannot use vague claims of past discrimination to funnel money to one racial group at the expense of others.
Oregon's lawyers knew that ruling existed.
They kept the quota in the law anyway.
Oregon's defense will be that these programs serve disadvantaged communities.
They wrote race – and the federal government is done pretending not to notice.
Sources:
- Spencer Lombardo, "Oregon Under Fire For Grant Program Punishing Schools With Too Many White Kids," Daily Caller News Foundation, May 29, 2026.
- Do No Harm, "Do No Harm and Defending Education File Federal Civil Rights Complaint Against Oregon Agencies for Racial Discrimination," Do No Harm, May 28, 2026.
- "Watchdogs File Civil Rights Complaint Against Oregon Over Racial Quotas in School Funding Policies," Washington Examiner, May 28, 2026.
- "Louisiana's DEI Policies Face Federal Probe for Alleged Racial Bias," Yahoo News, February 2025.
- "U.S. Department of Education Ends Funding to Racially Discriminatory Discretionary Grant Programs," U.S. Department of Education, September 10, 2025.
