President Trump is right: improving higher education requires ending the monopoly enjoyed by certain “accreditors,” which have the power to determine which schools are “qualified” to receive federal student loans. But too many accreditors define “qualified” to advance the woke agenda that millions of Americans elected this administration to repeal, one that undermines merit and public trust. One major university accreditor defines student success as a “focus on <a href="https://nwccu.org/standards/">equity</a>.” With such a warped and dangerous framing of success, it’s no wonder half of recent graduates assess their college degrees as worthless — and more than half of college graduates take jobs that don’t require a college degree at all.
These schools, and these accreditors, are a problem. Armed with decades of bad federal policy that essentially guaranteed them free money, they created the $1.9 trillion student loan crisis. What’s worse, that money has disproportionately gone toward molding young American minds to hate their country and value victimhood and grievance culture above resiliency and academic success.
Fortunately, some programs receiving loans have not fallen into this trap: vocational schools have largely stuck to their actual mission. So why is the Trump administration being asked to penalize beauty schools and their accreditor? By October, the Trump administration must decide whether or not to eliminate the primary beauty school accreditor, imperiling loan access for nearly all women seeking to become beauty professionals.
This is what was recommended in a <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/governance/accreditation/2026/07/23/panel-recommends-denying-recognition-cosmetology">9–3 vote</a> by the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality (NACIQI), the administration’s advisory board that recommends which institutions receive recognition (and therefore which institutions’ students receive federal financial aid). However, while the NACIQI can make recommendations, it has no legal authority to decide which accreditors are approved; that ultimately lies with the Department of Education. The winners would be colleges and universities, who’ll get to pretend cosmetologists have contributed to the student loan crisis on anywhere near the same level as higher education bureaucrats. The losers will be low-income women and mothers seeking flexible career paths.
In other words, for the Trump administration to go after beauty schools would distract from the real issues facing higher education — certainly a convenient one for at least one NACIQI member, Zakiya Smith Ellis, an Obama education official. Smith Ellis has directly defended DEI on the NACIQI, as an <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-n2xjfWZ6IjWK0wH53b7bEIrTbzvBYx1/edit#heading=h.9tmhrrpkaec2">official policy statement</a> she made makes clear, having essentially claimed there is no such thing as “illegal DEI.” She seems to have no consistent position on which accreditors should be further regulated. Despite wanting to tighten controls over beauty school regulators, she <a href="https://zakiyaellis.substack.com/p/what-georgia-taught-us-about-independent">criticized</a> the Department of Education’s plans to ensure university accreditors make universities follow state law — because, among other concerns, this could mean a university is restricted in terms of “what can be taught about gender and sexuality.” In many ways, it’s a continuation of the Obama and Biden legacy of penalizing trade schools, instead funding and advocating for the expansion of so-called “non-profit” colleges that mire young people in debt and all too often leave them without fulfilling career prospects that actually require a degree.
The accreditation advisory board focused its concerns on “low earnings” for beauty professionals, even though the beauty school accreditor has not been authorized to evaluate earnings. The beauty school accreditor is authorized to evaluate student achievement based on graduation, job placement, and state licensure rates. The question is whether the accreditor appropriately policed that standard, not some invented new one. Earnings are not part of the student success metric today, though they may be in the future. Dinging the beauty school accreditor for an invented earnings metric is like putting a person in jail for something that isn’t currently a crime (but might be someday).
Not that earnings should be the relevant success metric for beauty school anyway. For one, the average cosmetology graduate only works 26 hours a week. Not exactly overtime. Women in beauty are very often working mothers seeking a job they love with the flexibility they need. Closing doors to this choice is protectionist, which would be more understandable if we needed to protect, say, the public fiscal interest. But cosmetology graduates own less than 1% of the student loan debt. This loan portfolio doesn’t move the needle, nor does it target the biggest offenders in the education marketplace.
The Trump administration has a better path available. The beauty school accreditor should be required to improve any areas of weakness during a year of federal scrutiny and oversight. During this year, the beauty school accreditor would have its share of paperwork improvements — for instance, the accreditor currently has a slightly different definition of what a “branch campus” means than the Department, and can align itself better with federal guidance. By choosing one-year of federal oversight with specific mandates, the administration can avoid throwing beauty schools — and the women who rely on them — into a tailspin to find a new accreditor immediately, which could take up to two years and tens of thousands of dollars (if not more) for schools that are often small and community-based. Better yet, the administration can spend the next year improving the accreditor’s oversight function and establishing more accountability for the schools themselves.
There is plenty of work to be done to remove the equity-obsessed accreditors from power who were creating the sorts of racially and ideologically biased outcomes that millions of Americans elected President Trump to address. Hard-working women seeking flexible careers in the trades, however, have little to do with these problems, and they should not have the rug pulled out from under them.
***
Neeraja Deshpande is a policy analyst at Independent Women.

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Why The War On Higher Ed Is Threatening Everyday Trade Professionals

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EXCLUSIVE: Trump’s Fraud Team Flips Switch On Biden Decisions Costing Taxpayers Hundreds Of Millions

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politics

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This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
***
The school year has started for <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/08/school-start-dates-span-two-months">nearly half</a> the country, and most teachers are nervously expecting misbehavior. “Students have become apathetic toward school rules,” one teacher <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/75-of-educators-expect-student-behavior-to-be-a-challenge-this-year-what-else/2026/08">told EdWeek Research Center</a> in a recent survey, “and feel emboldened to disrespect or clearly ignore their teachers.” If students feel emboldened, it’s because they’ve learned they’ll likely get away with it. Consequences depend on conditions other than their behavior.
The Trump administration just issued guidance suggesting they want to fix that. On August 18, the Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to states and school districts reminding them that discipline serves a purpose, and that school policies can’t intentionally “favor nor disfavor” students based on race. It’s the right message, but the administration is up against bureaucracy.
Discipline doesn’t exist solely to dole out punishment. Rules and procedures are necessary to maintain safe schools and orderly classrooms, which are prerequisites for learning. Discipline is also instructional. Children aren’t born with perfectly mastered patience, restraint, punctuality, and respect — skills and attitudes necessary for the adult world. Like any skill, those behaviors are learned by practice and shaped by consequences. School rules, or codes of conduct, make adults’ expectations for students predictable. Enforcement makes the consequences predictable when expectations aren’t met.
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Over the past decade, the upsides of predictable discipline have taken a backseat to the perceived harms of punishment. In 2014, <a href="https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/civil-rights-laws/race-color-and-national-origin-discrimination/dear-colleague-letter-nondiscriminatory-administration-of-school-discipline-rescinded">federal policy</a> made discipline partly conditional on aggregate racial statistics after black students were found suspended and expelled at higher rates than white students, prompting questions about whether schools applied discipline fairly. Different rates of exclusionary discipline alone don’t prove discrimination; differences result from many factors, including differences in misbehavior rates. But schools were nonetheless threatened with federal investigations if their race-neutral policies, not intended to discriminate, produced a “disparate impact.” Administrators were motivated to reduce reported incidents, but misbehavior still happened.
Federal guidance <a href="https://www.ecs.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Status-of-School-Discipline-in-State-Policy.pdf#page=4">accelerated and formalized</a> a state-level shift to limit discipline. Illinois, for example, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1045988X.2026.2613405">required</a> districts with the highest reported rates of exclusionary action among students of color to submit a corrective action plan for how they’d change their practices. A later state law restricted suspensions and expulsions and, in the name of equity, required schools to consider discipline case by case — meaning identical behavior could draw different responses. A school’s aggregate numbers and administrators’ discretion became part of every disciplinary decision, making it harder to respond directly and consistently to what students actually did.
Reforms did not reliably help the students they were designed to benefit. The new guidance highlights <a href="https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/research/academic-and-behavioral-consequences-discipline-policy-reform">research</a> from Philadelphia: in the most disadvantaged schools, students who’d previously been suspended but were spared under the new policy didn’t perform better academically; their never-suspended peers performed worse. Discipline imposes both costs and benefits on misbehaving students, but not responding to misbehavior imposes costs alone on students coming to class ready to learn. Those students have faced <a href="https://www.city-journal.org/article/trump-executive-order-school-discipline-race-equity-inclusion#:~:text=The%2520era%2520of,documented%2520years%2520before.">increasing</a> school violence and disorder.
Discipline was <a href="https://endseclusion.org/2025/11/18/punitive-school-discipline-and-its-public-health-implications-a-literature-review/">replaced</a> with a “wellness” bureaucracy that made codes of conduct unruly, which the administration’s guidance doesn’t explicitly address. Research in Education Administration Quarterly <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0013161X20925893">found</a> that between the 2013-14 and 2015-16 school years in Maryland, districts added more than five response options to the average student offense, often special education referrals. <a href="https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/breaking-cycle-bad-behavior">Identifying</a> the “root cause” behind behavior <a href="https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/2019/07-23-Beyond-Suspensions.pdf">was</a> <a href="https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/disruptive-behavior-classroom-identifying-cause-could-be-cure">sold</a> — often through commercially available curricula — as the way to make consequences irrelevant.
Fueled by <a href="https://www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/2020/09/Title-IV-A-Program-Profile.pdf">federal education dollars</a> and <a href="https://www.sellersdorsey.com/insights/blog/kids-mental-health-at-school-a-prevention-opportunity-for-medicaid-and-child-welfare/#:~:text=While%2520Medicaid%2520has,for%2520students%2520nationwide.">Medicaid</a>, districts continue to spend billions nationally on <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/the-cost-of-restorative-justice-in-new-york-city-schools">restorative justice</a>, <a href="https://blog.marketresearch.com/social-emotional-learning-sel-instructional-materials-market-worth-1.725-billion">social-emotional-learning</a>, <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/school-based-mental-health-initiatives-challenges-and-considerations-for-policymakers#:~:text=School%252Dbased%2520mental%2520health%2520initiatives%2520receive,1%253B%2520see%2520also%2520Appendix).">mental health initiatives</a>, and <a href="https://www.k12dive.com/news/states-using-esser-funds-to-boost-sel-well-being-for-students-staff/632238/">trauma-informed practices</a>, investing in these programs and elaborate faddish frameworks rather than enforcing straightforward rules schools already had.
“Identification” is not the same as correction. Naming a student’s distress or adversity may help a teacher understand why he misbehaved; it does not, itself, teach the student to act any differently. Often, “wellness” solutions replace consequence with reward for misbehavior, like escape from classwork and a counselor’s attention. A school leader quoted in the new guidance described how students not suspended “amp up their behavior in order to see how much they’ll get away with without consequence.”
Perceived racism, trauma, or distress all became reasons that schools were either required to excuse misbehavior or chose to do so. Schools began asking whether something outside the classroom explained the conduct, without first asking whether something inside did, such as whether the work was too hard or the instructions weren’t made clear. The default assumption became: consequences aren’t the response, and behavior expectations don’t need to be met.
Excuses do not advance equity. Lowering expectations based on a student’s circumstances — like their race or home hardship — is <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2006/07/20060720.html">soft bigotry</a>. Conversely, consistent discipline tells students that adults believe they’re capable of overcoming their challenges and meeting the standard. All kids deserve that.
The “Dear Colleague” letter suggests equity requires holding every student to the same expectation and following through when it isn’t met. It doesn’t require removing all punishment. Clear, consistently enforced rules <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/discipline-gaps-and-ways-to-close-them-get-researchers-attention/2018/04#:~:text=%25E2%2580%259CIt%25E2%2580%2599s%2520a%2520process,its%2520own%2520data.">reduce</a> ambiguity and discretion, which raise the risk of bias. While discretion can allow sympathy and judgment, excessive discretion leads to unpredictable outcomes. Predictability can productively constrain both students and teachers.
Student well-being, meanwhile, doesn’t hinge on ignoring misconduct but rather on responding to it. The mental health industry promotes the idea that “<a href="https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/mental-health-schools-kids-are-not-all-right">you can’t teach if you’re not addressing mental health</a>.” But safety and structure are <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11469585/">invaluable supports</a> to children’s well-being, which means orderly classrooms should come first. Support should help students meet the standard, not excuse them from it.
The administration is right to bar discipline from favoring or disfavoring students by race. Enforcement shouldn’t be based on aggregate statistics, as in the past decade; local discretion, even-handed, should generally be the preference. The administration should further reassess federal funding for school-based “wellness,” which works against fair and consistent discipline. The wellness bureaucracy confuses rules, undermines teacher authority, lowers accountability in the education system, and delivers services without parental consent. It often makes students feel worse. Discriminatory equity ideology is poorly hidden among these programs, particularly “<a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9162400/">trauma-informed</a>” <a href="https://www.chcs.org/resource/incorporating-racial-equity-into-trauma-informed-care/">practices</a>.
As for districts, a sound discipline policy should be short, public, and have predictable, proportionate consequences. Schools can acknowledge discrimination, adversity, and distress without telling a student that ordinary expectations don’t apply. Unfinished work is made up, not excused. A disruptive student is removed until he is ready to follow the rules, and he must finish the work missed during his time out of class. Students — and parents — should know the rule and the consequence, and teachers should know that administrators will support its enforcement. Schools cannot credibly assume students, parents, and teachers are fully aware of expectations with codes of conduct that sprawl over <a href="https://www.schools.nyc.gov/school-life/know-your-rights/discipline-code">dozens of pages</a>.
Rule enforcement works. Phone bans are a lesson. Policies are often proportionate and clear: the rule gets broken, the phone gets taken. The <a href="https://www.the74million.org/article/five-things-to-know-about-largest-cell-phone-ban-study/">largest study</a> of phone bans to date found that in-class use fell from 61% to 13% after restrictions took effect. Clear policies were adopted, schools implemented them, teachers enforced them, and students adjusted. Kids have not mysteriously become unable to follow school rules. They just need expectations consistently upheld.
***
Carolyn D. Gorman and Jennifer Weber are fellows at the Manhattan Institute.

Rear view of teenage female student with hand raised asking question to professor during Q and A session in classroom

How School Bureaucracy Traded Classroom Order For Endless Excuses

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The Trump administration announced Monday that it is taking enforcement action against two public school districts accused of concealing students&#8217; gender identity information from parents, warning the districts could face lawsuits and the loss of federal funding for violating federal privacy law.
The Department of Education said it has partnered with the Justice Department to pursue enforcement against Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland. It also gave Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan until August 10 to explain why similar action should not move forward. 
The investigations center on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which guarantees parents access to their children&#8217;s education records. The Trump administration argues that school policies directing staff to withhold information about a student&#8217;s gender identity or social transition from parents violate those protections.
&#8220;As a mother and a grandmother, it is unconscionable that any school district would hide the most sensitive information about children in their care from their own parents,&#8221; Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/trump-administration-cracks-down-school-districts-secretly-transitioning-students-and-hiding-it-parents">statement</a>. &#8220;This is not only an affront to basic moral principles, but also to parents&#8217; rights under federal law.&#8221;
&#8220;Today, ED and DOJ are putting districts on notice that we will use every tool available to hold them to account for this egregious behavior,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Under the Trump Administration, ED and DOJ are working together to vigorously uphold parents&#8217; federal protections, and we will work to ensure that no parent is ever kept in the dark about important matters relating to their children.&#8221;
According to the Education Department, its Student Privacy Policy Office received complaints from parents in Anne Arundel County who discovered their daughter was being referred to by male pronouns at school. The parents said they learned about the situation only after receiving an email from school staff.
When the parents sought information about what the school described as their child&#8217;s &#8220;gender transition,&#8221; the principal allegedly refused to provide details while an assistant principal declined to turn over relevant records, prompting the federal investigation. The Education Department said Anne Arundel County improperly classified information about a student&#8217;s so-called &#8220;gender identity&#8221; as confidential medical information that could not be shared with parents. The agency said those practices unlawfully prevented parents from exercising their rights under FERPA.
The action comes weeks after the same parents <a href="https://www.thebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/arundel-schools-transgender-children-policies-lawsuit-6BKCHH25O5HP7FLPPGNF7RQFWU/">filed a federal lawsuit</a> against the district with representation from America First Legal, the conservative organization founded by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. The lawsuit claims school officials socially transitioned their daughter by using a masculine name and pronouns without notifying or obtaining consent from her parents. The Education Department said it is working with the Justice Department&#8217;s Civil Rights Division to pursue enforcement against the Maryland district, including potential judicial proceedings and termination of federal funding.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the administration intends to aggressively enforce the law. &#8220;School districts that hide information from parents are violating federal law,&#8221; Dhillon said. &#8220;FERPA is not optional, and any districts that attempt to bypass or distort its requirements should expect immediate federal action.&#8221;
Additionally, the administration found Ann Arbor Public Schools&#8217; policy requiring employees to conceal a student&#8217;s &#8220;transgender status&#8221; from parents likely violates FERPA. Federal officials also questioned the district&#8217;s practice of maintaining records related to a student&#8217;s &#8220;gender identity&#8221; in a separate filing system. 
The Education Department said the cases build on a broader effort by the Trump administration to strengthen parental rights. Earlier this year, the department launched statewide investigations into policies that allegedly concealed students&#8217; &#8220;gender identity&#8221; from parents and issued a finding against the California Department of Education over the use of secret &#8220;gender support plans&#8221; and hidden student records.
In March 2025, the department sent a nationwide <a href="https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/sites/default/files/resource_document/file/Secretary_Comb_SPPO_DCL_Annual%20Notice_0.pdf">letter</a> reminding state education officials that concealing a child&#8217;s &#8220;gender identity&#8221; from parents was a priority enforcement issue under FERPA.
FERPA violations can ultimately result in the loss of federal education funding, though that penalty has historically been used sparingly.

Transgender Symbol and Pencils With The Color of Lgbt Flag

Trump Admin Takes Action Against School Districts Hiding ‘Transgender Status’ From Parents

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President Donald Trump’s Department of Education is imposing a new accountability test on colleges, with programs that fail risking access to federal student loans.
Institutions receiving federal student aid must prove their graduates earn more money than comparable workers, or students will lose access to federal loans for those programs. The programs will be evaluated over three consecutive years and must meet the earnings benchmark in at least two of those years. 
The Department of Education called the new rule “long-overdue.” Total student loan debt has ballooned to nearly $2 trillion, and defaults are hitting record highs, with <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/student-loan-defaults-surge-covid-tied-payments-pause-expiration/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one</a> in five borrowers in default. The alarming rate is despite efforts under the Biden administration, which paused federal student loan payments during the COVID pandemic through fall 2024. The average cost of college for a four-year degree in the United States is <a href="https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college">$153,080</a>. Private Universities take that total even higher with an average price tag of $234,512. 
Education Secretary Linda McMahon <a href="https://www.ed.gov/media/document/secretary-mcmahons-remarks-white-house-higher-education-roundtable-112477.pdf">argued</a> that too many colleges have prioritized enrollment and tuition over preparing students for successful careers. 
“We have constructed an educational theme park – flashy, fun, but not practical for those seeking opportunity and advancement,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Schools are boosting revenue by marketing the fun to students, even if they don’t complete their degrees. For too long, badly calibrated financial incentives have driven universities to squeeze tuition revenue from taxpayers and young, impressionable individuals instead of preparing them for rewarding and remunerative careers.” 
College enrollment has also declined in recent years. The share of high school graduates enrolling in college peaked at roughly <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/college-enrollment-demographic-cliff/686750/">70%</a> in 2016 before falling to 62% in recent years. Higher education has also experienced a wave of closures, with roughly 60 colleges shutting down annually out of approximately 4,000 degree-granting institutions nationwide.
More than half of Gen Z <a href="https://fortune.com/article/college-degree-waste-of-money-gen-z-millennial-indeed-study-ai-obsolete/">says</a> their college degree is a “waste of money” with <a href="https://fortune.com/article/college-degree-waste-of-money-gen-z-millennial-indeed-study-ai-obsolete/">41%</a> of Millennials expressing the same frustration and 20% of Baby Boomers. Many employers are dropping college degree requirements for jobs. 
The Department of Education said the new accountability measure was developed through a negotiated rulemaking process earlier this year and is intended to better protect both students and taxpayers.

Grad cap on cash

Trump Wants Colleges To Prove A Degree Is Worth It

Today, the Department of Education <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-announces-additional-partnerships-strengthen-coordination-individuals-disabilities-programs-bolster-civil-rights">announced</a> four additional interagency agreements as part of the Trump administration&#8217;s broader effort to return education to the states.
In typical fashion, the teachers’ unions and their political allies immediately attempted to spread fear, claiming that federal protections are being eliminated, a claim with no basis in reality. Instead, it’s yet another strategic step to reduce unnecessary federal bureaucracy, improve services, and move education decisions closer to the students, families, and communities they affect most.
The first agreement establishes a partnership between the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services. Some opponents immediately claimed that students with disabilities would lose protections under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Yet IDEA predates the Department of Education, and nothing in this agreement alters the rights and protections guaranteed under federal law.
Instead, the partnership allows agencies that already serve individuals with disabilities to work more effectively together. Families often navigate multiple programs across multiple agencies. Better coordination can improve services while reducing administrative barriers.
<a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-announces-additional-partnerships-strengthen-coordination-individuals-disabilities-programs-bolster-civil-rights">According to</a> Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, “Through our partnership with HHS, we will align federal services with the goal of strengthening academic outcomes and supporting individuals with disabilities so that they can achieve greater independence, key life skills, and meaningful employment.”
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-announces-additional-partnerships-strengthen-coordination-individuals-disabilities-programs-bolster-civil-rights">weighed in</a> on the agreement between agencies: “Together, we will improve education and employment outcomes, uphold the rights of individuals with disabilities, and help every child reach their full potential.”
The second agreement strengthens collaboration between the Department of Education&#8217;s Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice. Protecting students from discrimination remains an essential federal responsibility, but effective enforcement does not require maintaining duplicative bureaucratic structures. By leveraging the expertise of both agencies, the partnership aims to strengthen enforcement while improving efficiency.
The third agreement focuses on student privacy and parental rights. At a time when parents across the country are demanding greater transparency and accountability from educational institutions, strengthening the enforcement of federal privacy laws should be welcomed. Parents have a right to access information about their children&#8217;s education and must be informed about decisions affecting their children.
The fourth agreement establishes a Training and Advisory Services Partnership with the Department of Justice related to school desegregation efforts and civil rights compliance. Rather than duplicating functions across multiple agencies, the agreement assigns technical assistance responsibilities to the agency with the greatest expertise in the field. Taken together, these agreements ensure that essential federal protections remain firmly in place while allowing agencies to work together rather than in silos.
The Trump administration continues to demonstrate that returning education to the states is not about rhetoric. Rather, it requires rethinking how government operates, eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy, and ensuring that agencies are organized to better serve students.
Despite claims from the opposition, none of these agreements eliminate federal protections. Students with disabilities remain protected under IDEA. Civil rights laws remain fully enforceable. Student privacy protections remain intact. Parents retain their rights under federal law.
What changes is that the federal government becomes more focused on its core responsibilities while creating greater flexibility for states and local leaders to innovate and respond to the needs of their communities.
For decades, layers of education bureaucracy have accumulated while student outcomes have remained horrifically low. Despite massive federal spending and increasing administrative complexity, student learning results remain far below where they should be. On average, only three out of 10 public school children are learning to read or do math at grade level. Additionally, parents are dissatisfied and continue to demand greater transparency and responsiveness from schools, while employers report a lack of workforce readiness from graduates.
The problem is not a lack of federal involvement or funding. The problem is that the system has historically prioritized bureaucracy over real results. But the Trump administration is working overtime to change course by taking decisive steps to downsize the Department of Education and return it to the states where it rightfully belongs.
Contrary to naysayers, returning education to the states does not mean abandoning students or weakening essential protections. It means acknowledging a fundamental reality: states, local communities, educators, and parents are far better positioned than federal bureaucrats to make decisions about education. It also requires a serious reorientation of government — one that prioritizes students over systems, directs resources away from bureaucracy and toward classrooms, and ensures responsibilities are carried out by the agencies best equipped to deliver results.
The future of American education is moving away from Washington, D.C., and back to the states, and ultimately closer to communities, classrooms, and parents. These agreements represent real structural reforms that restore balance, reduce duplication and inefficiency, and strengthen the ability of those closest to students to focus on what actually matters — equipping every child to learn, achieve, and thrive.
***
<a href="https://www.discovery.org/p/ingraham/">Dr. Keri D. Ingraham</a> is a senior fellow at Discovery Institute, director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a senior fellow at Independent Women.

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The New Department Of Education Agreements That Just Gave More Power To The People

DW Opinion

Teachers Unions

This piece is part of MI x DW, a collaboration that brings Daily Wire readers exclusive commentary and research from the Manhattan Institute’s world-class team of scholars.
***
American 13-year-olds read no better than teenagers in 1971.
That is the conclusion of the latest <a href="https://www.nagb.gov/news-and-events/news-releases/2026/ltt-results-released-061026.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)</a> long-term trend exam, the only national test the federal government has administered in the same form for more than half a century. After decades of reform efforts, new technologies, and a more-than-doubling of inflation-adjusted spending per student, our students are no better off.
Many will blame COVID-19. That was the dominant explanation when the last round of long-term trend results was released in 2022 and 2023. NAEP even saw fit to put it in the title: <a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/ltt/2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;Reading and mathematics scores decline during the COVID-19 pandemic.&#8221;</a>
But that is the wrong takeaway. The decline didn&#8217;t begin with the pandemic. It began around 2012. Reading and math scores for 13-year-olds fell significantly between 2012 and 2020, and the 2020 test was finished before the pandemic shut down a single school. COVID accelerated the decline, but did not cause it.
The most important finding is not that average scores fell, but who fell.
For years, national averages hid a widening divide. The strongest students held their ground, while the weakest fell further behind. Among 13-year-olds, the gap between the highest and lowest quarter of students exceeds 50 points across both reading and math. That gap had been widening well before the pandemic.
The lowest-income 13-year-olds, the ones for whom reading is the best way out of poverty, still read below their 2012 level, 24 points behind their wealthier peers. Math is no better: they&#8217;ve fallen 16 points since 2012 and sit 31 points behind their peers. Neither subject improved between 2023 and 2025.
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This began back in 2012, when the <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/02/09/everything-you-need-know-waivers-flexibility-and-reforming-no-child-left-behind/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Obama administration began allowing states</a> to opt out of <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">No Child Left Behind.</a> The law was unpopular and not perfect, but it forced schools to report results separately for poor, black, and Hispanic students. And it made schools face consequences — including replacing staff, removing the principal, or having the state take over the school — when any group fell behind. The waivers ultimately removed those consequences for 40 states, though the reporting remained. <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1177" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Congress then made</a> the retreat from accountability permanent in 2015, with broad support from both parties.
No national assessment can prove that No Child Left Behind caused the gains of the 2000s or that its rollback caused the declines that followed. But the timing is hard to ignore. The largest gains came when schools were required to report results for their poorest students and be held accountable for them. The decline set in after that requirement was lifted, and the students it was meant to protect are the ones still furthest from recovery.
Washington&#8217;s answer wasn&#8217;t to restore accountability. It was just to spend.
Congress spent <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-106913" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$190 billion</a> to help schools recover from the pandemic, more than the federal government has ever spent on K-12 schools at once. The deadline to spend it <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/naep-scores-2024-education-covid-lockdowns-tests-schools-67dfbcac" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed in 2024</a>. For 9-year-olds, the money did bring progress, but those students are only back to where they were before the pandemic. For 13-year-olds, the money bought nothing. Their scores are exactly where they were two years ago.
Lately, the blame game has shifted to screens. American Federation of Teachers President <a href="https://www.aft.org/press-release/devices-down-eyes-hands-weingarten-calls-screen-bans-ai-limits-active-learning-major" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Randi Weingarten</a> recently pointed to devices as a major reason students are behind academically. She has a point. The share of 13-year-olds who read for fun almost every day has fallen by half since 2012, from 27% to 14%, and has remained at that level since 2023.
But screens cannot fully explain these results. Every state faces the same digital culture. Students everywhere carry the same distractions in their pockets. Yet some states keep outperforming the rest.
Smartphones and Chromebooks made teaching harder, but they didn&#8217;t make it impossible.
The more persuasive explanation is that schools became less focused on ensuring that their weakest students learned to read and do math. For one decade, Washington <a href="https://manhattan.institute/article/the-nations-report-card-is-out-heres-what-the-results-tell-us-about-americas-schools" target="_blank" rel="noopener">required schools to answer for their weakest students.</a> That decade coincided with some of the largest achievement gains ever recorded, especially among disadvantaged students. As <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/improving-education-outcomes-by-empowering-parents-states-and-communities/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">education moves to the states</a>, the few exceptions to national declines are the states that measure every student, publish the results, and ensure accountability.
Washington didn&#8217;t lose track of its lowest performers. It just signed more than 40 waivers excusing itself from looking. This week, we learned what over a decade of not looking costs.
***
Jennifer Weber is a fellow for K-12 Education Policy at the Manhattan Institute.

Woman lifting large book cover

Teenage Literacy Is As Bad As It Was In The 1970s. What’s Going On?

COVID

literacy

Smartphones

Testing

A North Carolina school district faces a Trump administration investigation after high school girls accused school officials of doing nothing after they complained about a transgender-identifying male invading their personal spaces. 
The Department of Education told Cabarrus County Schools on Monday that it had opened a Title IX investigation over complaints that biological male students had been allowed to access girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. Students in the district for months have lambasted school officials for not keeping the spaces separated by sex. 
“The Complainants alleged that the District permits male students to access sex-segregated restrooms and locker rooms for female students and has failed to respond as required to reports of female students being sexually harassed by male students in school restrooms or locker rooms,” the Education Department wrote in a letter obtained by The Daily Wire. 
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Trista Ruck, a student at Cox Mill High School, said that school officials dismissed her concerns about feeling uncomfortable with a male using the women’s bathroom. She said the principal told students the issue was &#8220;too political to address.&#8221;
“Our school is supposed to make every student safe, but we get ostracized when we discuss this with adults who are supposed to ensure the safety and comfortability at school,” she said in April. “Personally, I try to avoid the restrooms at all costs, but I do use these facilities at times when I really have to.”
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights will probe whether the district’s policies discriminate based on sex by denying female students access to private intimate spaces. 
To comply with the investigation, the department asked the district to provide documents on its policies related to “gender identity” and any complaints it received from girls about males in their spaces. 
School officials downplayed concerns from parents and students and previously <a href="https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/verify/viral-claim-that-boy-tried-to-watch-young-girl-in-school-restroom-is-false-cabarrus-county-school-district-says/275-e53d0323-7532-4438-901b-79ca4c0ceaec">said</a> it is constrained by laws, stating that “schools may not discriminate against students by denying them access to the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity.”
The Education Department investigation comes after Rep. Addison McDowell (R-NC) wrote a letter on May 7 <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/congressman-urges-trump-admin-to-intervene-after-high-school-girls-say-spaces-invaded-by-boy">urging action</a> against the district. 
“If my daughters were speaking up, I would want leaders in the community to act. It took a lot of courage for these girls to stand up and speak out,&#8221; McDowell told The Daily Wire. &#8220;There appears to have been confusion at the local level about how Title IX protections apply to girls in our schools. I look forward to the Department providing clarity and restoring common sense.&#8221;
The Trump administration said the investigation was part of its efforts to recognize June as “Title IX Month.” 
“Today’s investigation demonstrates that the Trump Administration will not stop pursuing Districts that reportedly subject our women and girls to egregious violations of their privacy and safety,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey. “Under the Trump Administration, no woman or girl will have to fight alone to secure her basic protections, and we will not relent until Title IX is restored to the fullest extent of the law.”

Public shower room with shower cabins. A large, empty public shower room with bright walls. Toilet and locker room of a swimming pool, sports club and fitness center, school, college, dorm or hostel. The concept of hygiene and healthy lifestyle.

Trump Admin Steps In After Female Students Raise Alarm Over School’s Trans Policy

Female Students Raised Alarm Over School's Trans Policy. Trump Admin Now Taking Action.

north carolina

title ix

transgender

A Republican congressman is pushing the Trump administration to investigate a North Carolina high school after female students complained that a biological male has been using the women&#8217;s locker room, according to a letter first obtained by The Daily Wire. 
Rep. Addison McDowell wrote a <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/1036268220/Title-IX-Letter-to-OCR">letter</a> on Thursday calling on the Education Department to investigate Cox Mill High School in Cabarrus County for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/principal-tells-girls-to-go-somewhere-else-if-theyre-uncomfortable-with-boys-in-their-bathrooms">reportedly allowing</a> a boy to access intimate female spaces. He urged Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey to review a parental complaint filed on April 17 claiming the school violated a female student&#8217;s Title IX privacy rights. 
“I was profoundly concerned to learn of reports that the school is allowing biologically male students to enter women’s restrooms and locker room facilities on school property,” McDowell wrote. “As a father of three girls and one on the way, and the Representative for the Sixth Congressional District of North Carolina, I remain committed to working to protect women and girls and preserving their civil rights for generations to come.”
The Trump administration has interpreted Title IX as protecting the right of girls to access private, single-sex spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms. 
In recent months, students and parents have asked the Cabarrus County School Board to adopt policies ensuring female-only spaces at the high school. School officials have downplayed concerns from parents, saying some claims about incidents involving the transgender student are false. 
The district previously <a href="https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/verify/viral-claim-that-boy-tried-to-watch-young-girl-in-school-restroom-is-false-cabarrus-county-school-district-says">said</a> it was constrained by a law that mandates “schools may not discriminate against students by denying them access to the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity.”
McDowell said the district must step up to ensure students&#8217; privacy. 
“It is the bare minimum for schools to ensure a safe learning environment, and schools owe students’ parents a guarantee that the school is taking every available measure to protect the health and safety of kids,” he said. “The policy that the school district has adopted is in direct opposition to these principles.”
On Tuesday, the organization NC Values <a href="https://x.com/NCValues/status/2051752454035824984" target="_blank" rel="noopener">released</a> a video featuring Trista Ruck, a junior at Cox Mill High School, who said she had seen a male in the girls&#8217; bathroom. 
&#8220;I encountered a male in the female restroom. I walked straight to the restroom, did my business, and then whenever I went to go wash my hands, he walked in,&#8221; she said. &#8220;He then just looked at me, and then went about his business, but honestly, I felt uncomfortable. Why would I want someone who has different parts than me in the same bathroom as me?&#8221;

Rep.-elect Addison McDowell

Congressman Urges Trump Admin To Intervene After High School Girls Say Spaces Invaded By Boy

The Trump administration opened an investigation on Monday into a historic all-women’s college that admits gender-confused men.
The Department of Education confirmed in a <a href="https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Office-for-Civil-Rights-Case-Number-01-25-2398-Smith-College-Parshall-Perry-5-4-26.pdf">letter</a> that it had launched a probe into whether Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, was violating Title IX. The investigation comes almost one year <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/all-womens-college-breaking-the-law-by-admitting-trans-identifying-men-complaint">after</a> watchdog organization Defending Education filed a civil rights complaint over its transgender policies. 
“The complaint alleges that the College, one of the largest women’s colleges in the United States, discriminates against women on the basis of sex by admitting males who identify as women (‘self-identified transgender women’) and by permitting male students to use intimate facilities designated for women,” the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights wrote in a letter on Monday to Defending Education. “[The Office of Civil Rights] is opening the complaint for investigation.”
The office will determine whether there are any merits to Defending Education’s complaint, which was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/all-womens-college-breaking-the-law-by-admitting-trans-identifying-men-complaint">first reported</a> on by The Daily Wire in June 2025. 
The complaint said that the school violates federal policy by allowing males who identify as females to take the place of females in admissions. Smith College only admitted about 22% of applicants for the 2024-2025 school year. 
The stated policies make it clear that the historically all-women’s college allows men to enter so long as they identify as transgender. The decision to admit males was first made in 2015 after Smith <a href="https://www.smith.edu/president-kathleen-mccartney/letters/2014-15/admission-policy-announcement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conducted</a> a year-long study group on the topic. 
“People who identify as women — cis, trans, and nonbinary women — are eligible to apply to Smith,” the college <a href="https://www.smith.edu/your-campus/offices-services/equity-inclusion/gender-identity-expression">explains</a>. “Smith’s policy is one of self-identification. The applicant’s affirmation of identity is sufficient.”
Smith also says that it has an “all-gender locker room in the athletic facilities” and is working on making more multi-stall “all-gender” bathrooms. 
Defending Education Vice President Sarah Parshall Perry said she looked forward to the department&#8217;s investigation. 
&#8220;Smith College has a longstanding reputation as a women&#8217;s college of exclusive excellence. But that hasn&#8217;t prevented it from falling victim to the fiction of &#8216;transgender&#8217; womanhood,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Admitting men who feel like women means that the institution — formerly one of the nation&#8217;s prestigious &#8216;Seven Sisters&#8217; all-women&#8217;s colleges — is no longer for women only.&#8221;

A brick wall sign with SMITH COLLEGE.

Top Women’s College Admitted Gender-Confused Men. Now The Feds Are Involved.

massachusetts

Guidelines at the University of Washington allowing gender-confused men to use women’s bathrooms violate federal law, according to a civil rights complaint obtained by The Daily Wire.  
A <a href="https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/UWashDEComplaint043026.pdf">complaint</a>, filed Thursday by Defending Education, accused the university of violating Title IX regulations that protect single-sex spaces such as bathrooms and changing areas. 
It points to university <a href="https://hr.uw.edu/diversity/transgender-resources/transgender-resources-for-uw-employees/">policies</a> stating that individuals are allowed to use facilities in line with their “gender identity” rather than their biological sex. 
“The University of Washington eschews these longstanding and unequivocal principles through its administration of dedicated LGBTQ scholarships, its bathroom facility policies that open private spaces to anyone on the basis of self-professed gender identity, and its pronoun policies that punish students for recognizing biological reality,” said the <a href="https://defendinged.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/UWashDEComplaint043026.pdf">complaint</a>, which was first obtained by The Daily Wire.
Defending Education called for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to investigate the university.
The complaint cites a university document called “Transgender Resources for UW Employees,” which <a href="https://hr.uw.edu/diversity/transgender-resources/transgender-resources-for-uw-employees/">states</a> individuals are “welcome to use the restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms aligned with your gender or whichever choice you are most comfortable with.” It also references a university webpage that <a href="https://hss.washington.edu/building-management/all-gender-restrooms/">lists</a> “all-gender restrooms.” 
“This presumably forces female UW students who attend class in the building to share bathrooms with male students, employees, and even guests,” the complaint said. 
&#8220;The UW is committed to following federal law and will respond through appropriate channels if we are contacted by the DOE,&#8221; the University of Washington told The Daily Wire. 
Defending Education Vice President Sarah Parshall Perry told The Daily Wire that the policies directly conflict with guidance from the Trump administration, interpreting Title IX as requiring sex-separated private spaces. 
“The University of Washington — like too many other institutions of higher education in blue states — is engaged in what can only be described as a standoff with the Administration over the meaning of civil rights law,” she said. “Despite unambiguous federal language in Title IX, its implementing regulations, and related executive guidance, UW believes that ‘sex’ and ‘gender identity’ are the same. They most assuredly are not, and the Supreme Court has never held otherwise.”
The complaint also highlights the university’s overall promotion of transgender activism, including <a href="https://depts.washington.edu/safcom/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/FY-26-Award-Q-Center.pdf">funding</a> a center that <a href="https://qcenter.washington.edu/services/engender/">provides</a> free “tucking underwear” and “stand to pee” devices.
Defending Education filed the complaint the same day it launched its new Center for Litigation and Legal Policy, which will focus on filing administrative complaints, submitting legal briefs, and tracking developments in education-related law and policy. 
Perry told The Daily Wire the center would be “dedicated to identifying civil rights and civil liberties violations wherever we find them on campuses across the country.”

Major University Slapped With Civil Rights Complaint In Trans Bathroom Showdown

University of Washington

WASHINGTON—The Department of Education has found the California Department of Education guilty of violating the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act for its policies pressuring school officials to conceal information about student gender identity.
The news marks the latest instance of Gavin Newsom&#8217;s California defying federal guidance from the White House on the issue of transgenderism. Posied for the next presidential election, Newsom has attempted to present himself as a moderate on the issue, but his state continues to be a radical outlier.
An investigation conducted by the Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office (SPPO) found that California&#8217;s polices, laws, and practices created &#8220;powerful state directed pressure&#8221; for schools to adopt policies that led to FERPA noncompliance, effectively forcing schools to withhold information from parents, violating FERPA, which gives parents the right to access their children&#8217;s educational records.
For example, one California law explicitly bans schools from requiring parents to be informed of their child&#8217;s &#8220;gender transition.&#8221;
“Our investigation found that the California Department of Education egregiously abused its authority by pressuring school officials to withhold information about students’ so-called ‘gender transitions’ from their parents,&#8221; explained Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.
McMahon blames California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and his &#8220;failed leadership&#8221; for the matter, saying that under his watch, school personnel have even bragged about facilitating ‘gender transitions,’ and shared strategies to target minors and conceal information about children from their own families.&#8221;
<div id="attachment_1035013" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/news/california-violated-federal-law-by-hiding-childrens-gender-transitions-education-department-finds/president-elect-trumps-nominees-for-upcoming-administration-meet-with-lawmakers-on-capitol-hill-7" rel="attachment wp-att-1035013"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1035013" class="wp-image-1035013 size-large" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2189084812-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2189084812-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2189084812-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2189084812-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2189084812.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>U.S. President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s nominee to be Secretary of Education Linda McMahon arrives in the Russell Senate Office Building on December 09, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)</div>
&#8220;While the Biden Administration turned a blind eye to this deprivation of parental rights and endorsed the irreversible harms done to children in the name of radical transgender ideology, the Trump Administration will fight relentlessly to end it,” she promised. “Children do not belong to the state — they belong to families. We will use every available mechanism to hold California accountable for these practices and restore parental rights.”
During a press call with reporters, a senior Education Department official shared that the investigation found a systemic problem of schools maintaining secret records of child gender support plans. That official told The Daily Wire that the investigation also uncovered that a number of administrators were soliciting AERIES, a student information software system, to find ways to hide gender information from parents via the parent portal used to register children for classes.
California has been offered the opportunity to &#8220;voluntarily resolve its FERPA violations&#8221; by sending a notice to all school administrators and superintendents. That notice should, among several items, let school officials know that &#8220;gender support plans&#8221; and similar documentation are education records under FERPA and subject to parental inspection, that there is no &#8220;unofficial records&#8221; exception to FERPA and none of the state&#8217;s laws should be interpreted to undermine federal law — and that violations of FERPA may cause the California education system to risk loss of federal financial assistance.
Emails dating back to 2022 show staff in California discussing changing students&#8217; names without their parents&#8217; knowledge, using different names for children in front of their parents, and even overriding the &#8220;Parent Portal&#8221; to choose what parents could or could not see, according to the Education Department.
<div id="attachment_1035017" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/news/california-violated-federal-law-by-hiding-childrens-gender-transitions-education-department-finds/day-three-of-world-economic-forum-wef-2026-4" rel="attachment wp-att-1035017"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1035017" class="wp-image-1035017 size-large" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/GettyImages-2256933619-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2256933619-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2256933619-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2256933619-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/GettyImages-2256933619.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>Gavin Newsom during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images</div>
At least 300 students in the state were put on &#8220;Gender Support Plans&#8221; in 2025, <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2025/04/15/exclusive-blue-state-schools-facing-trump-admin-investigation-helped-hundreds-of-kids-change-their-gender-last-year/">The Daily Caller News Foundation reported,</a> and many of those children were put on these plans without parental knowledge or consent.
In one particularly alarming case that the Education Department shared, a mother sued her daughter&#8217;s school after she found out that school officials had convinced her young daughter to identify as a transgender boy. School officials told the girl not to tell her mother and helped the girl to learn how to make chest binders, restricting her chest so that she would look flat-chested.
School administrators told the mother that they could not tell her about all of these goings-on due to their &#8220;parental secrecy policy,&#8221; the Education Department said.
Schools that followed FERPA and refused to hide gender issues from parents were &#8220;aggressively targeted&#8221; by California, the Education Department investigation found. When Chino Valley Unified School District’s school board adopted a parental notification policy in July 2023, state officials acted quickly to put an end to the policy, saying that children have a constitutional right to &#8220;privacy from their parents&#8221; — and that telling parents about their child&#8217;s gender identity issues might cause the child to suffer.
The Education Department has repeatedly asked the California Department of Education to issue guidance clarifying that parents have a right to see “gender support plans” under FERPA, but the California Department of Education has repeatedly refused these requests, though it says in grant agreements that it will follow federal law.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨 BREAKING: Ben Shapiro grills California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) over whether he believes that girls cannot become boys and boys cannot become girls
Newsom refuses to answer the question
Newsom says: &#8220;Yeah, I just, well, uh, I think, uh, I&#8217;m for the grace of God. Yeah.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/w0Gc7cKvec">pic.twitter.com/w0Gc7cKvec</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RyanSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RyanSaavedra/status/2011956634466099656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 16, 2026</a></blockquote>
The move comes only two weeks after Newsom sat down for an interview with The Daily Wire&#8217;s Ben Shapiro, one in which Shapiro grilled the governor about whether he believes that girls can actually become boys, or boys can actually become girls.
Newsom refused to directly answer the question, ultimately telling Shapiro: &#8220;Yeah, I just, well, uh, I think, uh, I&#8217;m for the grace of God. Yeah.&#8221;

Day Three Of World Economic Forum (WEF) 2026

California Violated Federal Law By Hiding Children’s Gender Transitions, Education Department Finds

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