On Feb. 27, the U.S. Department of Education launched an End DEI portal, a resource for parents, students and teachers to report acts of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within public schools. This can include but is not limited to initiatives that assist non-English speakers, queer youth, people of color and students with disabilities. This portal was launched to “submit reports of discrimination based on race or sex in publicly-funded K-12 schools,” according to ed.gov.

Lawrence citizen and Free State parent Tiffany Dixon has had her two children in public schools for 14 years, and says she feels the portal is extremely harmful.

Dixon also believes that the portal may be misused over the next few years.

“I could see [the portal] being abused by people who just disagree with a certain school district. They’ll report things that aren’t really necessarily even an issue, but they’ll make it an issue,” Dixon said.

On the other hand, the co-founder of Moms for Liberty Tiffany Justice feels that the portal gives power back to the parents.

Furthermore, people with backgrounds in U.S politics have unique views on the portal such as social studies teacher, Jeffrey Haas. Haas feels that the portal is an unnecessary and last resort options for parents who could use local resources.

“The portal opens the door for parents and families to identify districts, buildings and individual teachers, and I assume they’re only going to go there if they are dissatisfied about some aspect of their child’s education,” Haas said.  “If a parent is going to use the federal government’s portal as a primary source there are many better, more local avenues for them to go to before they just start calling out districts, buildings and teachers in a Federal Government portal.”