New York’s latest state budget offers a clear picture of where the state’s political leadership still stands on diversity, equity, and inclusion. While Washington has spent the last year moving away from DEI programs, Albany continues to fund many of the same priorities through education spending and broader public policy.

When President Donald Trump signed executive orders in January 2025 directing federal agencies to eliminate DEI mandates, preferences, and identity-based programming, many viewed the move as the beginning of a broader national shift. Federal funding tied to DEI came under scrutiny. Agencies were instructed to end programs centered on race- and identity-based decision-making.

The message was straightforward: government institutions should return to merit, equal treatment, and individual opportunity rather than demographic balancing.

New York has chosen a different path.

The state’s 2026-27 People’s Budget, released by the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic, and Asian Legislative Caucus, continues directing public money toward programs rooted in the same ideological framework, even if the terminology has changed.

The education section of the budget makes that especially clear.

New York lawmakers included $250,000 to develop “inclusive teaching resources and curricula” focused on racial and cultural inclusivity in K-12 classrooms. The budget also directs $8 million toward teacher diversity recruitment, training, and retention initiatives designed to diversify the education workforce.

Those spending priorities stand out because New York’s school system is facing a much more immediate challenge: academic performance.

According to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 31% of New York fourth graders scored at or above proficiency in reading. In math, only 26% of eighth graders met proficiency standards. Those numbers reflect a statewide academic crisis affecting hundreds of thousands of students.

Students who cannot read proficiently by elementary school often struggle across every subject that follows. Weak math performance in middle school creates long-term barriers in science, technology, and higher education. These are foundational academic problems with measurable consequences for graduation rates, workforce readiness, and long-term opportunity.

That reality raises a simple question: why are identity-based education initiatives continuing to receive budget attention while basic academic outcomes remain so weak?

Students should learn American history honestly and completely. Schools should teach slavery, segregation, civil rights, immigration, religious discrimination, and every major chapter that shaped the country. A serious education does not avoid difficult history.

But teaching history is not the same as teaching students to view public life primarily through the lens of race, power, and identity. There is a difference between learning about injustice and being taught that institutions are fundamentally defined by oppression and privilege. Education should develop knowledge, reasoning, and independent thought. It should not train students to interpret every issue through political identity categories.

The broader budget reflects the same pattern outside K-12 education.

State funding includes millions more for diversity-related medical education initiatives, scholarship pipelines, and programs focused on representation in public systems.

The goal is often framed as equity. But the governing assumption remains that unequal outcomes between demographic groups require government correction through targeted policy.

That approach becomes harder to justify when core public systems continue underperforming.

A public school system exists to educate children. A civil service system exists to hire qualified employees. A state budget exists to allocate taxpayer money where it delivers the strongest public benefit. When identity balancing becomes central to each of those functions, performance risks becoming secondary.

New York’s latest budget shows that DEI did not disappear when federal policy changed. In Albany, it remains active through spending decisions, curriculum priorities, and institutional planning across education and government.

New York does not have a shortage of political messaging in education. New York has a shortage of results.

Students need stronger schools. Parents need more control over their children’s education. Taxpayers deserve measurable outcomes for the money being spent. Those priorities should come before another round of government-funded identity politics.