The Ministry of Education said on Friday that it was moving to stop all federal funding for Maine’s public schools, because the state ignored President Trump’s executive mandate from banning transsexual athletes from girls’ athletic teams.
The Agency also said that it had asked the Ministry of Justice to follow a “enforcement action” against Maine, which the Trump administration has been aiming for since the president took a fight with the Democratic Governor, Janet Mills, over the transsexual athletes.
The administration had set Friday as a deadline for Maine to comply. Last month, after a brief research, he said the state’s education system violated the title IX, the federal law that prevents sex discrimination.
Mrs Mills argued that the state’s human rights law – which prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity as well as religion, race and other protected characteristics – can only be changed by the legislative body, not by executive. She did not express her own views on transsexual athletes involved in the publication of girls and women’s sports, though she has said it was a “worthy discussion” issue.
The Department of Education said in a statement that it would “launch an administrative procedure in ending the trial” of the state’s K-12 funding, which amounted to $ 249 million in the budgetary year of 2024.
“The department has given Maine every opportunity to comply with the title IX, but state leaders have refused to do so stubbornly, choosing instead to prioritize an extremist ideological agenda on the safety, privacy and dignity of students”
In a letter to the Department of Education on Friday, Sarah A. Forster, an assistant Attorney General, said Maine would not agree to change his law and admitted that the two sides had reached a dead end.
“Nothing in title IX or application regulations does not prohibit schools from allowing girls and women to participate in sports and women sports groups,” he wrote. “Your letters to date do not mention a single case that is in force. On the contrary, various federal courts have kept that the title IX and/or the equal protection clause require schools to allow this participation.”
The Association of Managers of Maine, which oversees Interscholastic Athletics, said that there are two transgender girls who compete in groups of girls today among the 151 public and private high schools.
Since February, Trump administration has forged the state with overlapping surveys on its education system. Last week, the Georgian Department frozen the funding that Maine said that he could threaten his school programs. In response, the state sued the department.
Shortly after the announcement of the Department of Education on Friday, a federal judge at Maine issued a preliminary decision for the benefit of the state, ordering the USDA funding to be restored and issuing a warning to Trump’s administration. “Federal defendants are prohibited from freezing, termination or otherwise intervening in the future federal funding of the state for alleged violations of Title IX without complying with the legal demanding process,” the decision said.
It was not immediately clear on Friday, where the administrative procedure would take place in the finance of state education or when – or whether it would meet the specifications of the court’s order. The Ministry of Justice is expected to sue the state to try to force its compliance.
The Communication underlined some fundamental legal issues that are considering many of Mr Trump’s recent moves in K-12 education, such as: Will the courts support the wide interpretation of the Civil Rights Act? And how much latitude should the flow of federal funds allocated by Congress be stopped?
Next week, a Federal Regional Court in New Humsire is scheduled to hear whether the administration can follow its threat from cutting off title I into schools with some diversity, justice and interaction programs.
Democratic states, teachers’ unions and progressive interest groups, such as ACLU, have said that it could not, submitting several federal lawsuits in response. Some training experts have predicted that the question could reach the Supreme Court.
