{"id":248829,"date":"2025-09-23T11:43:33","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T11:43:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/248829\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T11:43:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T11:43:33","slug":"nyc-schools-want-trump-to-show-why-gender-bathroom-policies-should-affect-federal-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/248829\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC schools want Trump to show why gender bathroom policies should affect federal funding"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local education officials are weighing a challenge to President Trump\u2019s administration for saying it will revoke New York City\u2019s magnet school grants over its gender policies for bathroom use<\/a>, as Mayor Adams and his chancellor appear to be at odds over the wedge issue.<\/p>\n

In a letter, obtained by the Daily News, city Public Schools General Counsel Liz Vladeck asked the U.S. Education Department\u2019s civil rights office on Friday to \u201cexplain the nexus\u201d between their interpretation of federal sex-based discrimination law<\/a> and the Magnet Schools Assistance Program, or \u201cMSAP.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe policies that you cite are not specific to the MSAP and your letter does not provide a basis for targeting MSAP grants,\u201d wrote Vladeck, the top attorney to Melissa Aviles-Ramos, Adams\u2019 schools chancellor. \u201cNor is it clear how OCR\u2019s [Office for Civil Rights] interpretation of Title IX impacts the goals of the MSAP to expand access and educational opportunities for underserved communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The $35 million grants<\/a> support five local magnet schools, which were approved and are currently operating. Vladeck requested a 30-day extension to \u201cconsider the impact of the denial of grant funds on the individual schools and students attending those schools\u201d and suggested the city Department of Education may then formally \u201crequest reconsideration of this decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration on Sept. 16 threatened to withhold the funding if city schools did not agree by the end of last week to its demands, including to separate bathrooms on the basis of sex and issue a public statement to families saying as much. The memo also took aim at school locker rooms, sports teams and overnight field trip accommodations.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Trump\u2019s Education Department said it had, in response to Vladeck\u2019s letter, granted the city public school system a \u201cone-day extension\u201d to act on its demands. It wasn\u2019t immediately clear if that meant the Trump administration has since moved to start revoking the funds from the city.<\/p>\n

\"MayorMayor Eric Adams speaks at a press conference at police headquarters in Manhattan, New York City on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025. (Gardiner Anderson \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The letter from Vladeck came before the mayor in a series of TV hits Monday morning doubled down on his call from last week to examine changing the city\u2019s school bathroom gender policy, which allows students to use the facilities aligned with their identity<\/a>. But Adams \u2014 who has faced intense criticism for aligning himself with Trump on a number of issues since the controversial dismissal of the mayor\u2019s corruption indictment \u2014 conceded he doesn\u2019t have much authority to change the policy, which must follow state law.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have the authority to change it. If I did, I [would] change it,\u201d Adams told PIX11 News<\/a>. \u201cI don\u2019t know what parent of a little girl would be comfortable with a boy walking into the shower where their baby is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak didn\u2019t elaborate on what sort of situation the mayor was referring to in speaking about boys sharing showers with girls. Many schools in the city system do not have showers.<\/p>\n

Asked about Vladeck\u2019s letter, Mamelak said the mayor\u2019s administration prides itself on being able to hear out a variety of different views on various topics. Still, Mamelak insisted the mayor and Aviles-Ramos are \u201cfully aligned\u201d on the bathroom issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithholding funding that benefits all students \u2014 simply because of a specific policy we have no power to change \u2014 is unwarranted and wrong,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile Mayor Adams may not agree with every rule or policy, we will always stand up to protect critical resources for our city\u2019s 1 million students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Adams indicated in his PIX11 appearance he would use his bully pulpit to advocate for changes to state law to be able to peel back current bathroom policies.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that I know what laws need to be changed, I\u2019m going to speak to working-class people and parents and say it\u2019s time for us to go to Albany, look at these laws and see how they are impacting and confusing our young people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York City Public Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos speaks during a press conference announcing baselining funding annually for critical education programs Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at the DOE headquarters in Manhattan, New York. (Barry Williams\/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

Last week, Aviles-Ramos \u2014 taking a different approach \u2014 said it was state law as well as city school \u201cvalues\u201d that prompted her to reaffirm local gender guidelines following Trump\u2019s funding threat.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, those policies remain in place, and we\u2019re going to continue to uphold them as part of our values here in New York City public schools,\u201d Aviles-Ramos told New York politics podcaster Ben Max<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of how you see yourself, regardless of the way in which you identify, it is not OK for you to walk into a building and feel that you have a target on your back. That\u2019s not acceptable. And so as the adults, it is our charge to be compassionate and understanding and create the spaces for young people to be safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams and others in his orbit<\/a> have denied that his commentary on gender and school bathrooms was related to Trump\u2019s demands, though he started railing against the city\u2019s policies a day after a citywide education panel received the first memo from the feds. The directive from the feds came as sources say Adams \u2014 who faces long odds to reelection this year amid continued fallout from his indictment \u2014 has been considering taking a job in Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdams\u2019 repeated off-the-cuff statements on this are sending a terrible message to our students,\u201d said Naveed Hasan, head of the Government Affairs Committee of the city\u2019s Panel for Educational Policy, the letter\u2019s recipient. \u201cIt amounts to bullying little children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally Published: September 22, 2025 at 4:46 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Local education officials are weighing a challenge to President Trump\u2019s administration for saying it will revoke New York…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":248830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,407,1370,728,405,403,5294,50,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-248829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-city","14":"tag-new-york-county","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115253438772203857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}