Two education watchdog organizations, Defending Education and Do No Harm, submitted a joint complaint to the Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights on May 28, 2026. They allege that Oregon's education funding policies unlawfully consider race. The Oregon Department of Education mandates that 65% of a charter school's student body must be from minority groups or disabled to qualify for a Charter School Equity Grant. Additionally, the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission allocates funding to public universities based on the number of minority students who graduate.
Dr. Kurt Miceli, Chief Medical Officer of Do No Harm, stated that Oregon's approach to funding allocation is inconsistent with constitutional and federal antidiscrimination laws. The charter school grant program has over $4 million allocated in Governor Tina Kotek’s budget for 2025 to 2027, while the public university fund is set to manage over $1 billion during the same period.
The complaint references Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. Oregon's education department receives more than $150 million annually in federal funding. The complaint also notes that the Department of Justice previously analyzed similar race-based federal education grants and found them to be unconstitutional following the Supreme Court's decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which ruled that race consideration in college admissions is illegal under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
The complaint requests that the Office for Civil Rights investigate the Oregon Department of Education and the Higher Education Coordinating Commission for potential violations of Title VI and the Equal Protection Clause. The decision to pursue an investigation now rests with the Justice Department's Office of Civil Rights.