The first four weeks of the Trump administration have seemed much longer, in all the best ways. The flurry of executive orders signed by President Donald Trump soon after his inauguration is being enforced by the teams entering departments even before Cabinet secretaries earn Senate confirmation. And while America eagerly awaits the order to close down the Department of Education entirely, political appointees with “acting” titles are enforcing Trump’s education agenda and executive orders with gusto.
Before we review the work by the acting appointees at the Department of Education, it’s important to acknowledge what a huge change this effort represents. In years gone by, a Republican administration often struggled to simply stop the enforcement of bad regulations foisted on the country by Democratic administrations complicit in the left-wing culture war. Sometimes, a partial revision would be made to realign the department. The president’s bold beginning is being magnified by willing and capable “acting” officials who are taking full advantage of the moment.
Ending the Left’s ‘book ban’ hoax
Almost immediately, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights rescinded the ridiculous Biden enforcement against Forsyth County, Georgia, for allegedly “banning books.” For parents and others who believe school library books should encourage children to love reading while featuring wholesome, uplifting, historically accurate, and family-friendly content, this reversal was a great first move.
The backstory of this case is worth unpacking. Many would love to forget the aftermath of COVID-19 school shutdowns that former President Joe Biden recklessly extended. Recall that Black Lives Matter protests spawned concerning diversity statements by school boards across the country that created racial tensions and even modern-day segregation-style policies. Gender gurus in the form of school counselors and LGBT clubs helped indoctrinate children in sexual and gender identities at younger and younger ages.
With children’s mental health hanging in the balance, reform-minded parents across the country became increasingly concerned that books with pornographic or racist content were available to children in school libraries. In Forsyth County, parent outrage over sexually explicit and racist library holdings got the attention of the school system’s administration. When reasonable review of those materials by staff resulted in the removal or restriction of obviously unreasonable holdings, LGBT activists and left-leaning librarians filed a complaint to the Biden Department of Education’s office for civil rights. Initially, the career civil servant attorneys in the office correctly determined that removing age-inappropriate books from the school library was not a “civil rights violation.” But when word of the complaint reached the D.C. office of civil rights’ political employees, things quickly changed for the worse.
Biden’s activist cronies decided to make an example out of Forsyth County. The ensuing investigation and resolution were aggressive and extreme. Not only were the books forced back into circulation, but the school system was also required to post an apology to everyone “impacted by the environment surrounding the removal of books,” with information on how to file further complaints to the district’s Title IX coordinator. Meanwhile, a Biden political appointee at the department appointed himself “Book Ban Czar” and traveled the country to meet with activist and student groups to explain how to prevent or rectify “book bans” in school libraries.
But sexually explicit content for children is not a civil right. For the Trump team to rectify the book ban hoax so early in the term is a huge win for those interested in preserving childhood innocence and familial bonds while instilling patriotism and love of neighbor in America’s schoolchildren.
Dumping DEI to focus on learning
Quickly ending the book ban hoax was only the first step for the new administration. During Trump’s first week in office, over 200 webpages of diversity, equity, and inclusion “resources” were removed, employees with DEI-related job duties were put on paid administrative leave, and millions of dollars of DEI training contracts were canceled. The Obama-era Diversity & Inclusion Councils that had been run by the department for employees to “foster inclusion” were dissolved.
A few weeks later, nearly $350 million in contracts and grants to “Regional Educational Laboratories and Equity Assistance Centers” were canceled. The effort to root out DEI initiatives will build on this foundation so that students will be free to learn rather than be encouraged to focus on stereotypes and grievance-based politics. The department also issued a letter on Feb. 14 to inform institutions that the Trump administration would be operating on the legal precedent set by the Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Racial discrimination will not be tolerated in any form.
“If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law,” the letter said.
The philosophical roots of DEI and the belief in it shared by so many in the educational industrial complex will not be so easy to remove. But this is a no-nonsense start.
Ending gender insanity
It’s no secret that at nearly every 2024 campaign rally, to raucous applause, Trump promised to “end gender insanity in our schools.” Gender ideology has been one of the most contentious and destructive problems in the left-wing-waged culture war of the 2000s. Gender insanity in our schools peaked with the enforcement of Biden’s Title IX rule, interpreting the word “sex” so broadly that it lost all meaning.
On Jan. 9, Trump got an assist from a federal judge, who ordered the Biden Title IX rule to be vacated. This meant that the Biden rule interpreting the word “sex” to include “gender identity” could no longer be enforced or used to justify school policies on the inclusion of boys in girls’ spaces or sports.
Once he took office, Trump took a step further and issued an executive order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” This order requires all departments and agencies to “enforce all sex-protective laws to promote reality” that “two sexes, male and female … are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
And the acting officials at the department wasted no time implementing it. When schools in liberal strongholds continued endangering women and girls by doubling down on gender ideology, the Department of Education wasted no time in opening directed investigations. This means the Office of Civil Rights can investigate a school district’s practices and policies without a complaint being lodged. The conversion of a girls’ bathroom at Denver’s East High School into an “all-gender” bathroom left girls on the second floor without a bathroom of their own and earned a prompt directed investigation by the department.
On Feb. 4, another letter was issued to remind schools of these sex-based reality facts and restored enforcement of the Title IX rule from Trump’s first term. This means that any investigations opened under the Biden rule will have to be reevaluated to ensure they are compliant with the 2020 Title IX rule.
On Feb. 5, Trump signed another executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” This was another promise kept in only a few weeks. The NCAA quickly released a statement promising “to align NCAA policy in the coming days” to the executive order but also promised to “continue to help foster welcoming environments on campuses for all student-athletes.” Hardly reassuring, but a first step. Other sports governing organizations were more explicit in their refusal to protect women and girls in sports. Minnesota, California, and other states all seem determined to prioritize gender insanity.
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By any measure, the department’s work so far is transformational and could easily have taken an entire four-year term to accomplish.
Despite its stated goal of eliminating the agency, the Trump administration is making good use of the Department of Education’s widespread authority before it’s gone. The stunning number of actions has heartened even those most skeptical that change in Washington is really possible at this relatively small agency that plays such an outsize role in America’s left-wing culture wars. And with the likely confirmation of Linda McMahon as secretary, the best is surely yet to come.
Meg Kilgannon is senior fellow for education studies at the Family Research Council and served President Trump at the Department of Education in his first term.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
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