Comment of 1792 Exchange in Support of the Proposed Rule, “Rescinding the Equity Assistance Center Program Regulations
Dear Assistant Secretary Baesler: 1792 Exchange writes in support of the Department’s proposal to remove the Equity Assistance Center Program regulations, and we strongly urge the Department to complete this process. 1792 Exchange is a nonprofit corporate accountability organization. We document ideological capture across American companies and institutions and work to return them to neutrality by upholding free speech, free exercise, and free enterprise. That work gives us a clear view of this program, because we sit at the far end of the pipeline it feeds. The drift this rule corrects begins at the schoolhouse. We document where it ends. Congress created this program in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for one purpose: to help school districts desegregate. Congress even defined the word “desegregation” so no official could bend it. “Desegregation” means assigning students without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. And in the same sentence, Congress said what desegregation is not: moving children around to hit racial targets. The rule runs in one direction only. Race is not to be used, not even for approved causes. The Supreme Court says the same thing in plain words: “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” That …