The Department of Education is following through on a threat to withhold millions of dollars in funding from Fairfax County Public Schools because the school district allows students to use the restroom associated with their gender identity.
The Department of Education said it’s cutting more than $3 million in grant money Fairfax County would have received for magnet schools.
Fairfax County schools will lose $3.4 million in Magnet School Assistance Program funding in the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.
Money from the grant program goes to the county’s specialty magnet schools such as Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which is regularly named one of the top high schools in the country.
Fairfax County is among five districts in Northern Virginia that the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights ordered to end policies allowing transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity.
The government argued those policies violate Title IX. But officials for the school districts have said reversing course on the policies would actually violate Title IX.
In August, the DOE put the school districts on “high-risk” status for rejecting its order, meaning the counties will have to pay for certain expenses up front before requesting reimbursements from the federal government.
Fairfax County and Arlington Public Schools filed suit against the DOE for freezing the funds.
“The DOE’s demands would force FCPS to either break that law and discriminate against our students or face the loss of up to $167 million in federal funding,” Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid said in a recent statement.
The judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying the case belonged in a different court.
from Local – NBC4 Washington https://ift.tt/4AEUiw3
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