For years, City Schools of Decatur openly obsessed over race. In 2017, the superintendent of the small school district miles from downtown Atlanta launched an equity office that trained its teachers and staff to pay an “education debt” to black students and families by discriminating against white students. The school district further directed white teachers and parents to confront their supposed racial biases by examining how “whiteness” controls their decisions and actions. CSD also pushed to “decolonize the curriculum” by reducing a classroom emphasis on Western (“Eurocentric”) principles and teaching that traditional subject areas such as history, math, and music are corrupted by white supremacy.
As explained in a new report from the Defense of Freedom Institute, these practices culminated in a policy that infused a race-based “equity” in CSD’s mission and decision-making. “Pay the debt” was the shibboleth justifying racial affinity groups, race-based hiring processes, and anti-racist pressure groups at every school. According to one media report, between 2017 and 2024, CSD spent over two million dollars on trainings, staff salaries, and other expenses promoting this racially obsessed version of “equity.”
The heady times for “racial equity” ended in early 2025, when the Trump administration launched strong enforcement measures against schools running discriminatory DEI offices and programs. Almost by magic, publicity around the race-based nature of Decatur’s equity project suddenly disappeared from its website. “Equity @ CSD,” an online district database of DEI- and CRT-focused policies and resources, vanished. So did website references to the district’s equity department. Much of the district’s guidance relating to “anti-racist” policies, hiring practices, teacher training, and curricula are no longer publicly accessible…