The Trump administration said it will strip tens of millions in federal education funding from New York City and other cities across the country after those school districts failed to meet the president’s Sept. 23 deadline to scrap policies protecting transgender individuals.
In New York City alone, the administration is cancelling about $36 million in total funding for Magnet Schools Assistance Program funding, which covers specialized curricula, educator professional development, afterschool learning, and summer learning. The funding cuts include roughly $15 million for next year, according to the US Education Department. The administration is also pulling funding from Chicago, Illinois, and Fairfax, Virginia, for the same reason.
The funding cuts represent the latest example of the Trump administration’s full-court press against transgender rights since returning to the White House in January.
“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 US Department of Education spokesperson, told Gay City News in a written statement. “These are public schools, funded by hardworking American families, and parents have every right to expect an excellent education — not ideological indoctrination masquerading as ‘inclusive’ policy. If these entities are willing to risk federal funding to continue their illegal activity, that decision falls squarely on them.”
The administration’s announcement comes a week after Craig W. Trainor, who serves as the acting assistant secretary for civil rights in the US Education Department, delivered a letter to city officials claiming that New York City was out of compliance with the president’s interpretation of Title IX, the federal civil rights law implemented in 1972, and warning that funding would be slashed if trans-inclusive policies were not nixed — including policies protecting the right of student-athletes to play sports and use bathrooms and other facilities in accordance with their gender identity.
The Trump administration’s letter appeared to deliberately misgender students and advance false accusations about inclusive bathroom policies in New York, where both city and state laws protect individuals’ right to use bathrooms in accordance with their gender identity. The city’s inclusive bathroom policy, Trainor wrote in the letter, “means that male students who identify as female or transgender are given unqualified access to female intimate spaces,” according to the New York Times.
In the days following the Trump administration’s letter, Mayor Eric Adams drew widespread outrage when he criticized the city’s inclusive bathroom policies and stated that he would review his power to change the laws, though he conceded on Sept. 22 that he lacks the power to alter the policy on his own.
A spokesperson for New York City Schools said the city unsuccessfully sought to put off the funding cuts.
“New York City Public Schools is deeply disappointed that the US Department of Education denied our request for an extension of time to consider our position and demanded sweeping policy changes by 5:00 p.m. on September 23,” the spokesperson told Gay City News. “Cutting this funding — which invests in specialized curricula, afterschool education, and summer learning — harms not only the approximately 8,500 students this program currently benefits, but all of our students from underserved communities. If the federal government pulls this funding, that means canceled courses and shrinking enrichment. That’s a consequence our city can’t afford and our students don’t deserve.”
The Trump administration’s funding cuts also drew criticism from civil rights groups.
“Trump’s decision to rip millions of dollars from the nation’s largest public school system and bully New York City’s most vulnerable students is a sick move that will hurt thousands of young people across all five boroughs,” Johanna Miller, the director of the Education Policy Center at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a written statement. “The Trump regime’s transphobic agenda has no place in our city’s schools.”
Miller added: “Let’s be clear: New York City’s public schools welcome every student, local law and regulations protect public school students’ right to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity, and the Trump administration cannot rescind these funds to force its ideology on New Yorkers.”
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who is the Democratic nominee for city comptroller, wrote a letter to Mayor Eric Adams and others urging the city to remain defiant in the face of threats from Washington.
“As this fight continues, I call on the [Department of Education] and the Panel for Educational Policy to remain steadfast in their defense of trans and gender-expansive students,” Levine wrote. “Their right to participate fully and safely in school life is non-negotiable, and New York City must send a clear message that we will not sacrifice equality and inclusion in exchange for federal dollars.”
As for Adams’ recent criticism of inclusive bathroom policies, Levine said the “mayor must cease using rhetoric that undermines our city’s values of inclusion and identify prospective emergency funds for any school that has grant dollars illegally revoked.”
