NYC schools want Trump to show why gender bathroom policies should affect federal funding
Local education officials weigh on the Trump administration for having declared that he would revoke subsidies at the New York magnet school on his gender policies for the use of bathrooms, because mayor Adams and his chancellor seem to be in disagreement on the local problem.
In a letter, obtained by the Daily News, the lawyer general of the New York public schools, Liz Vladeck, asked Friday at the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of American Education “to explain the link” between their interpretation of the federal law on discrimination based on sex and the program of assistance to magnet schools, or “MSAP”.
“The policies you cite are not specific to the MSAP and your letter does not provide a basis to target MSAP subsidies,” wrote Vladeck. “Nor is it clear how the OCR [Office for Civil Rights] The interpretation of title IX has an impact on the objectives of the MSAP to extend access and educational opportunities for poorly served communities. »»
Subsidies of $ 35 million support five local magnetic schools, which have been approved and currently operate. Vladeck asked for an extension of 30 days to “take into account the impact of the refusal of grant funds on individual schools and students attending these schools”.
The Trump administration, on September 16, threatened to retain funding if the city’s schools did not agree by the end of last week to its requests, in particular to separate the bathrooms on the basis of sex and publish a public declaration to families saying so much. The service note also targeted school changing rooms, sports teams and night excursion accommodation.
It was not clear if the extension was granted. Representatives of the city and federal education services did not immediately make comments.
The letter comes as mayor Adams in a series of television tubes on Monday doubled on his call last week to examine the modification of the gender policy of the city’s bathrooms, which allows students to use the installations aligned on their identity. But the mayor admitted that he did not have much power to modify the policy, which must follow the law of the state.
“I don’t have the power to change it. If I did it, I [would] Change it, “Adams told Pix11 News.” I don’t know which parent of a little girl would be comfortable with a boy entering the shower where their baby is. “”
The news contacted the town hall for more clarity to what the mayor was referring to.
Adams, however, said he would use his intimidation chair to defend changes to the law of the state.
“Now that I know what laws must be changed, I will talk to people and parents of the working class and say that it is time for us to go to Albany, to look at these laws and to see how they have an impact and confuse our young people.”
Last week, the Chancellor of Schools Melissa Aviles -Ramos – adopting a different approach – said that it was the law of the state, but also the “values” of the city’s schools that encouraged them to reaffirm their gender guidelines.
“To date, these policies remain in place, and we will continue to maintain them as part of our values here in New York public schools,” said Aviles-Ramos in New York Politics Podcaster Ben Max.
“Whatever way you see yourself, whatever way you identify, it is not right for you to go to a building and feel that you have a target on your back. It is not acceptable. And therefore that adults is our charge of being compassionate and understanding and creating spaces so that young people are safe.”
Adams and others on his orbit denied that his comments on gender and school bathrooms were linked to President Trump’s requests, although his statements came one day after a city -scale education committee received the first memo of the federal authorities.
“Adams’ repeated statements on this subject send a terrible message to our students,” said Naveed Hasan, Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee of the Panel of Educational Policy, recipient of the letter. “This is equivalent to the intimidation of small children.”
With Chris Sommerfeldt
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