New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education (ED) this week for stopping $47 million in federal grants after the district refused to change its transgender policies.
The Trump administration has warned repeatedly that it would pull financing if local schools do not follow the education department’s directives to have students use bathrooms and locker rooms in keeping with their biological sex.
“The immediate effect of the Department’s actions is the complete disruption of the Schools’ ability to carry out their specialized programming during the school year,” the lawsuit reads, according to the Hill, adding the federal funds provide needed support for a variety of subjects.
The Hill continued with the direct language of the lawsuit:
Moreover, the (Education) Department actions are a clear attempted end run around the Congressional directive that school funding not be pulled on a whim: the Department’s purported discontinuation of NYCPS’ MSAP A (Magnet Schools Assistance Program) grants is being carried out unlawfully, without observance of procedures required both by Title IX itself, and by the federal regulations governing the operation of MSAP grants,” the lawsuit said.
A spokesperson for the federal agency told the Hill, “The department sees no merit in this lawsuit.”
“The MSAP program requires certification of civil rights compliance, which we could obviously not do in the face of NYC’s continued determination to violate the rights of female students under Title IX,” the spokesperson added.
Federal education officials gave New York public schools, along with those in Chicago and Fairfax County, Va., until Sept. 16 to change its policies or face cuts.
“The Department will not rubber-stamp civil rights compliance for New York, Chicago, and Fairfax while they blatantly discriminate against students based on race and sex,” Julie Hartman, a spokesperson for the department, told the Hill in a statement in late September.
She added that parents “have every right to expect an excellent education” and called so-called “inclusive” policies a ruse for “ideological education.”
“If these entities are willing to risk federal funding to continue their illegal activity, that decision falls squarely on them,” she added.
As Breitbart News reported in August, public schools in Arlington and Fairfax Counties, Virginia, also sued the ED over the Trump administration transgender policy, which in September resulted in those suburban Washington, DC, districts also losing grant money for refusing to end their transgender policies.
“It’s disturbing that these Virginia school division leaders are fighting harder to keep boys in girls’ sports and bathrooms than they are to improve outcomes for students,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon stated at the time, adding that her department was “proudly” standing up for “common sense” and protecting girls.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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