While universities and corporations have been racing to dismantle DEI programs over the past year, New York City’s toniest private schools are heading to a woke “diversity symposium” this week, the New York Post reports.
The New York State Association of Independent Schools is hosting its Diversity Symposium 2026 at the Lycee Francais De New York starting April 9. Goal: “assess the current state of diversity, equity and inclusion in practice and pose the critically important question: where do we go from here?”
One workshop on the schedule is titled “Reclaiming Belonging in the Classroom: Equity as the Universal Design for Teachers and Schools.” It openly admits that “equity language” has gotten “increasingly politicized”, then proposes to “reclaim equity work” by quietly relabeling DEI as “Universal Design for Learning.” Critics call it a straightforward rebranding play.
Another session digs into “African indigenous knowledge systems long ignored or undervalued” and frames Western education as a colonial structure to move beyond.
Trump announced in his State of the Union in February that DEI in America was done. Federal pressure produced real changes at places like Columbia University. But private K-12 schools sit outside most of that pressure.
The symposium keynote speaker is Liza Talusan, billed as a DEI consultant and “strategic change partner” for schools and corporations. Critics of NYSAIS say its parent organization, the National Association of Independent Schools, has a documented record of “antisemitic and anti-Western actions” and has turned elite K-12s into what some parents call “indoctrination centers.”
Other academic institutions have been accused of implementing DEI, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Arizona State University.
