2025 Annual Report

Since our founding in 2021, the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies has stood on the front lines against federal overreach, teacher union power, and civil rights radicalism in education. 

As the only conservative nonprofit led by former senior U.S. Department of Education officials, DFI uniquely unites public interest litigation, regulatory engagement, policy expertise, and communications power under one roof—with a singular focus on the federal role in education.

In our early years, DFI successfully fought to block the prior administration’s unlawful student loan cancellations and radical interpretations of civil rights laws in education. 

In 2025, when a new administration turned the page on a tattered Biden education agenda, DFI entered a new era—one defined not by reversing harmful regulations and policies, but by advancing long-needed reforms to shape the future of education. After years of litigation and advocacy, the opportunity before us was clear: expand education freedom, restore civil and constitutional rights for students, faculty, and parents, and strengthen accountability across K-12 and higher education. 

As our Annual Report highlights, we are pleased to report that DFI made great strides toward these goals in 2025.

For example, DFI:

• Filed major federal civil rights complaints against multiple states and school districts, leading to enforcement actions by the U.S. Department of Justice.
  
• Released a model Title IX law that protects women’s sports and intimate spaces, due process and free speech on campus, and parental rights.
  
• Advanced reforms to a broken higher education accreditation system that strengthen accountability, transparency, and innovation and that purge discriminatory DEI and gender theory from colleges and universities.
  
• Helped shape and advance the landmark Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, which will expand education freedom to millions of families across the country. 
  
• Earned national attention for our investigative reports exposing the damage to public education caused by the teacher unions. 

Last year’s progress reflects more than momentum. It demonstrates a turning point. Reforms once debated are now being implemented, strengthened, and expanded.

Thank you for standing with us as we fight to expand freedom and opportunity and preserve civil and constitutional rights for all students, faculty, and parents.