Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be windy with a high of 56. Sunrise is 6:03 and sunset is 7:44, for 13 hours, 41 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 44.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.

This day in 753 BC is the traditional date on which Romulus founds Rome.

The Trump Administration takes an extreme view of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, and assumes that institutions public and private must comply unquestioningly with the administration’s interpretation of that decision. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction chooses otherwise:

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction rejected the Trump administration’s request to certify compliance with a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion in K-12 public schools. 

State Superintendent Jill Underly said in a statement that Wisconsin schools are following the law. 

“We’ve put that into writing to the USDE,” Underly said. “We believe in local control in Wisconsin and trusting our local leaders – superintendents, principals, educators – who work together with parents and families every day to support students. They know their communities best. Washington, D.C. should not dictate how schools educate their kids.” 

The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter earlier this month to state agencies across the country requesting that agencies check with local school districts to ensure they don’t have diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs. 

The federal administration is trying to apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard decision, which said race-based programs in higher education violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, to K-12 education. The administration said state agencies needed to ensure compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Supreme Court decision. 

Wisconsin is one of several states, mostly led by Democrats, that have pushed back on the request. The Trump administration, which has been targeting diversity efforts in K-12 schools as well as in higher education and other sectors, has threatened that it could pull funding from states that don’t comply with the request.

See Baylor Spears, Wisconsin DPI rejects Trump administration request for certification on DEI ban compliance, Wisconsin Examiner, April 18, 2025.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) was Trumpism’s chief enemy not long ago, but it’s since been replaced with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Trumpism is at bottom a cultural movement,¹ seeking to exact revenge against the movement’s cultural enemies (e.g., gays, ethnic minorities, and others identified now and again to give the movement an opponent).

Today it’s DEI. Tomorrow it will be something and someone else. Today will be easier for them if their targets simply comply. They’ll not stop; their grievances are fathoms deep.

There’s no reason to make their lives easier while they make others’ lives harder. They expect swift compliance. Refusing to comply at their mere demand is a strong initial response. They are unworthy of others’ anticipatory obedience (to borrow an apt phrase).

Underly was sensible to respond with a rejection.

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1. Trumpists are laughable on economics, for example, because their authoritarian movement’s sustaining energy is cultural. They’ve no developed economic theories because their attention is elsewhere and they find it’s too much work for middle-aged men and Boomers to rummage around for a coherent economic concept or two. Instead, they wind up plucking terms and assembling them into nothing better than a Frankenstein’s monster ↩︎

Fact Check — What Mars Rovers Really See: