Do No Harm and Defending Education v. Oregon Department of Education and Higher Education Coordinating Commission

On May 28, 2026, Do No Harm and Defending Education jointly filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against two Oregon state agencies for discriminating on the basis of race in programs or activities that receive federal funding.

Oregon’s Department of Education is a state agency that oversees and provides funding to public schools, including public charter schools. Under state law, the department restricts “Charter School Equity Grants” to schools having at least 65 percent of their student bodies composed of prioritized groups, including certain preferred racial or ethnic groups. Similarly, Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission is a state agency that distributes funding to Oregon’s seven public universities and 17 community colleges. Through the Public University Support Fund, the commission distributes “bonus” taxpayer funds to schools based on the number of completed degrees by “underrepresented” students, which considers specified, prioritized racial and ethnic groups.

The complaint alleges that these Oregon state agencies violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by taking race into account when funding public schools. Because Oregon’s racially discriminatory funding schemes are based on “amorphous claims of societal discrimination” repeatedly rejected by the United States Supreme Court and are otherwise without any sufficient legal justification, the state’s discrimination cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny.