The National Academy of Education (NAEd) today filed a formal comment urging the U.S. Department of Education to withdraw its proposed rule rescinding the Equity Assistance Center (EAC) Program. The NAEd board demonstrates that the rescission would dismantle a proven, Congressionally authorized program to address the continuing effects of segregation without identifying any concrete replacement.
Authorized under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the EACs provide states, school districts, and schools with no-cost, specialized, technical assistance to address segregation and its educational consequences.
The NAEd comment explains that the need for the EACs has not disappeared. School segregation remains widespread, and in some important respects intensified. The share of U.S. public schools that are intensely segregated has nearly tripled over the past three decades, from 7.4 percent to 20 percent, and in the South, the share of Black students attending majority-white schools has fallen from a peak of 43 percent in the 1980s to about 16 percent by 2021. Segregation is associated with unequal access to experienced teachers, rigorous coursework, fair discipline, and other conditions that shape students’ opportunities to learn. EACs help states, districts, schools, and educators address these inequities through needs assessment, planning, professional learning, community engagement, coaching, and sustained implementation support.
Since 2024, the NAEd has partnered with the Equity Assistance Center–South at the Southern Education Foundation to provide evidence-supported technical assistance that advances equal educational opportunity. Through that work, the NAEd has witnessed firsthand the extensive coordination, educational expertise, and sustained engagement provided to help school districts design locally responsive solutions, train educators, and implement improvements over time.
The comment emphasizes that the Department’s own data demonstrate substantial demand for EAC services. In fiscal year 2022, the EACs provided targeted and intensive assistance to 24 state educational agencies, 222 local educational agencies, and 145 schools in 46 states and territories. EAC-South alone has provided direct assistance to educational communities serving approximately 1.48 million students and more than 110,000 educators.
The NAEd urges the Department to withdraw the proposed rule and preserve the EAC regulations so that states, school districts, educators, and students can continue to benefit from the specialized, evidence-based support Congress intended under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.