The Supreme Court told America in 2023 that sorting people by race is unconstitutional.
Minnesota's school boards heard that ruling and kept right on going.
Now investigators have the receipts – and over 50 school districts are exposed.
How 50 Minnesota School Districts Used Taxpayer Money for Race-Based Teacher Pay
Defending Education, a national watchdog group, spent months auditing more than 100 Minnesota K–12 school districts.
What they found was a coordinated, taxpayer-funded racial compensation scheme hiding in plain sight under the bland title "Policy 425 – Staff Development and Mentoring."
The policy is explicit.
Districts could hand out financial bonuses specifically to "teachers of color" and "teachers who are American Indian" – paid with public money.
Any district receiving state grants for staff development was obligated to negotiate extra job protections for minority teachers – layoff shields their white colleagues did not receive.
The policy also directed that minority educators be deliberately clustered together at the same school sites, segregated by race under the stated goal of reducing "isolation."
That is government-mandated racial segregation of employees.
In Minnesota schools.
In 2026.
Fifty districts adopted it.
Rochester Public Schools – the state's largest district with roughly 17,500 students – is on the list.
The Teachers Union Machine Behind Minnesotas DEI School Funding Scheme
The policies followed an identical structure because they were modeled on a template from the Minnesota School Boards Association.
The MSBA keeps that model policy behind a paywall – which made it harder for parents to connect the dots.
They are connected now.
Paul Runko, senior director of Strategic Initiatives at Defending Education, called it what it is.
"Public schools providing financial incentives based on race is racial discrimination, plain and simple," Runko told Fox News Digital.
He said the 50 districts need to examine these policies both morally and legally and bring themselves into compliance with federal civil rights law.
Cristine Trooien, a Minnesota parent and executive director of the Minnesota Partnership for Achievement, made the accountability demand explicit.
"There is no legitimate justification for race-based policies or programs in K–12 education or any other publicly funded institution," Trooien said.
She pointed out that the Minnesota legislature is currently in session and has every opportunity to act.
The school boards that adopted this template didn't stumble into it.
Teachers unions endorsed 44 of 47 winning school board candidates in Minnesota's most recent elections – and those board members were sitting in the room when Policy 425 got approved.
That is a machine, not a coincidence.
Title VI Violations and the Federal Funding These Districts Could Now Lose
The timing could not be worse for the Minnesota education establishment.
The Trump administration spent 2025 systematically targeting race-based programs in every federally funded institution in the country.
The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights opened more than 80 investigations into schools for DEI violations since January 2025.
President Trump's executive orders define race-based preferences in federally funded programs as illegal discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
Minnesota's Policy 425 – which routes state grants and public education revenue into race-specific bonuses and job protections – fits that definition precisely.
The Supreme Court's landmark 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard established that sorting people by race and awarding them different benefits violates the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.
The Minnesota School Boards Association designed the template anyway.
Fifty school boards adopted it anyway.
The teachers' unions backed it anyway.
The investigators now have the names of all 50 districts.
The legislature is in session.
Federal enforcement – whatever form it takes after the courts finish sorting out the administration's legal battles – is watching Minnesota.
The only question is whether state lawmakers act first, or wait for Washington to act for them.
Sources:
- Preston Mizell, "Minnesota school districts use taxpayer money for race-based teacher incentives and layoff protections," Fox News Digital, March 13, 2026.
- "Minnesota taxpayers on the hook for race-based teacher recruitment," Washington Examiner, March 2026.
- Rhyen Staley, "Minnesota school districts allow race-based teacher stipends," The Center Square, March 2026.
- U.S. Department of Education, "U.S. Department of Education Takes Action to Eliminate DEI," Ed.gov, January 2025.