The three largest districts of the country’s public schools lose $ 24 million when Trump’s administration’s term has been missed to agree to change a policy to support transgender students, officials said Wednesday.
Until Tuesday, the US Department of Education Department provided New York City Schools, Chicago State Schools and Fairfax District State Schools in Virginia to agree to stop students from entering cabinet rooms and toilets that meet their sexual identity or risk losing funding for special magnet schools.
In letters to the districts on September 16. Assistant to the Secretary of the Education Department, Craig Trainor, said this practice violates the Title IX prohibiting discrimination on sex in education. Since the districts refused to take corrective actions before Tuesday, the department said Trainor would not approve that they comply with the federal civil rights laws and therefore cannot receive grants.
Millions of scholarships
Fairfax County School in the next fiscal year will lose $ 3.4 million. The USD Magnet School Assistance Program, which will begin on October 1, about $ 5.8 million. USD will be detained from Chicago schools and New York community school districts, the Department of Education reports.
“The department in New York, Chicago and Fairfax will not comply with rubber stamps for civil rights, and they clearly discriminate against students based on race and sexual,” said Department spokeswoman Julie Hartman. as “engaging” politics. “
An additional policy supervised
The department also demanded that the New York and Chicago school issued public statements that they would not allow men to compete with women’s athletics programs.
Chicago schools were ordered to abolish the program, which provides corrective academic resources to black students where Trainor noted “textbooks racial discrimination”. School officials estimate that a total of about $ 8 million will be lost. USD for initiatives that have expanded the possibilities of staff, technology and enrichment such as traveling and after -school programming.
Chicago’s education officers accused the department of failing to provide evidence that her students had been harmed and said she was not operating in accordance with her complaints procedures.
“Our mission, programs and policies not only satisfy our commitment to students, but also obviously comply with the law,” said the head of the general adviser Elizabeth Barton in the District Response to Trainor.
The Department of Education denied requests from New York and Chicago to answer more time. It is unclear whether the Fairfax County schools have made such a request. The district did not respond to information requests.
In his letter to New York City Schools, Trainor mentioned several district policy sites, including one saying that transgender students cannot require an alternative institution such as a disposable bathroom, rather than a regular toilet. This means that Trans students are given unskilled access to women’s intimate spaces, “he wrote.
Each of the districts was told that they would lose funding unless they agree to abolish the policy of the Title IX part and accept the “biology -based definitions of a man and a woman” in the practice of the title IX.
“By reducing this funding that invest in specialized training programs, school education and summer learning, not only about 8,500 students, which this program is useful at the moment, but all our students from underdeveloped communities,” the New York City Schools said in a statement. “If the Federal Government is choosing this funding, it means that it has canceled the courses and shrinking enrichment. This is a consequence our city cannot afford and our students do not deserve.”
New York candidates’ attention
The topic has appeared in the campaign trail in New York’s controversial mayor’s election in recent days.
The current mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, raised his eyebrows when he said at a unrelated press conference that he would like to inquire policy if she “allows boys and girls to use the same device at the same time.” The comments came from a few days after Trump’s administration letter, although he claimed that they were not related.
Adams’ comments were quickly condemned by Race Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, who called them “completely opposed to the values of our city.”
Adams said this week that he would like to change the city’s policy, but he also had no power. The State Human Rights Act also allows students to use bathrooms and wardrobes that meet their sexual identity.
On Wednesday, the Adams Office said the administration is reviewing the possibilities, including the possibilities of litigation.
“The Federal Government threatens to eliminate the education of our children as a tool to change a policy that it does not like,” said Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokeswoman for the City Hall. “Although the mayor Adams may disagree with every rule or politics, we always try to protect the critical resources of our city 1 million.”
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The Associated Press Reporter, Anthony Izaguirre Albani, New York and the AP education writer Collin Binkley Washington, contributed to this report.