President Trump fires a Biden-appointed Federal Reserve governor over an investigation into alleged mortgage fraud, setting up a historic legal showdown. In a surprising policy shift, President Trump calls for allowing hundreds of thousands of Chinese students into U.S. universities. The Department of Transportation cracks down on states that issue commercial driver&#8217;s licenses to truckers who are not proficient in English.
It’s Wednesday, August 27, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
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<h2>Trump Fires Fed Governor, Setting Up Legal Battle</h2>
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Topline: President Trump has fired Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee, citing a Department of Justice investigation into alleged mortgage fraud, a move that Cook is refusing to accept, setting up a historic legal showdown.
On Monday night, President Trump fired Cook &#8220;for cause,&#8221; citing a DOJ investigation into whether she committed mortgage fraud by allegedly claiming primary residence in two separate states to secure more favorable loan terms. &#8220;We need people that are 100% above board — and it doesn&#8217;t seem like she was,&#8221; Trump said.
Cook responded with a statement saying the president &#8220;has no authority to do so&#8221; and that she will not resign, announcing her intention to file a lawsuit. The move marks the first time in the Fed’s history that a president has removed a member of the board of governors and could set up a legal battle that goes to the Supreme Court.
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The shakeup at the Fed comes as the Trump administration made another major economic move, with the U.S. government acquiring a 10% stake in tech giant Intel for nearly $9 billion. The White House framed the move as a matter of national security, aimed at reviving the U.S. semiconductor industry and breaking America&#8217;s reliance on China.
<h2>Trump Calls for More Chinese Students in U.S. Universities</h2>
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Topline: In a surprising policy shift that has drawn criticism from some allies, President Trump has called for raising the quota for Chinese nationals allowed to study in the United States to 600,000.
The president defended the move in a cabinet meeting, arguing that many less prestigious U.S. universities would not survive financially without the revenue from Chinese students. The proposal has drawn criticism from some conservatives who worry about the national security risks, including the theft of technology and research by students with ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The move also appears to contrast with the administration&#8217;s previously announced hardline stance. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration would &#8220;aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students&#8221; who are connected to the CCP or are studying in &#8220;critical fields.&#8221;
<h2>DOT Cracks Down on Non-English-Speaking Truckers</h2>
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Topline: Following a fatal crash in Florida caused by an illegal immigrant, the Department of Transportation is cracking down on states that issue commercial driver&#8217;s licenses to truckers who are not proficient in English.
The move comes after Harjinder Singh, an illegal immigrant from India, killed three people in a crash caused by an illegal U-turn in a semi-truck. Singh had a Commercial Driver&#8217;s License (CDL) from a sanctuary state and was later found to be unable to properly identify most highway traffic signs.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that states currently in violation of an executive order requiring English proficiency, such as Washington, California, and New Mexico, have 30 days to come into compliance or risk losing federal funding. &#8220;We just want to keep drivers safe,&#8221; Duffy said. &#8220;Not in just red states, Americans drive in all states &#8230; and they deserve to be safe.&#8221;
In a related move, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last week that the State Department has paused the issuance of work visas for foreign truck drivers. Rubio said the move was necessary because &#8220;the increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.”

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Morning Brief: Fed Governor Defies Trump, Chinese Student Deal & WH Clamps Down On Foreign Truckers

Communist China

Department of Transportation

Donald Trump

Economy

Education

Federal Reserve

Jerome Powell

Politics

Sean Duffy

Truckers

In March, the Trump Administration issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/restoring-truth-and-sanity-to-american-history/">Executive Order</a> (EO) calling for a restoration of “Truth and Sanity to American History” which included a review of the Smithsonian Institute Museums. Now, the Administration is making good on that EO.
Naturally, politicians, Left-wing media, and the far-Left are pouncing with charges of &#8220;Stalinist tactics,” “fascism,” and “Trump’s historical vision.”
Yet, the most glaring example to justify the Administration’s action is the now <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/smithsonian-race-guidelines-rational-thinking-hard-work-are-white-values-1518333">infamous</a> Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture’s &#8220;Aspects and Assumptions of Whiteness in the United States.&#8221;
But it is not just the one museum, the American Art Museum also features a <a href="https://americanart.si.edu/furthering-conversation-about-whiteness">page</a> titled “Furthering the Conversation About Whiteness.”
While the auditing of these institutions is probably overdue and necessary, there also needs to be a spotlight put on the teaching of culture and history in our educational institutions, especially K-12 schools.
The defensive position from the Left is that they just want to teach “<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/27/opinions/teachers-union-critical-race-theory-schools-weingarten">honest history</a>.” Meant to sound noble, this is nothing more than wordplay. It is misdirection in an attempt to hide their heavily curated and far-Left [re]vision of history.
“Honest history,” as they will have the public believe, is just teaching the history of “underrepresented groups” to highlight their contributions to the United States. However, peel back the feel-good façade and it is clear there is a political agenda to advance anti-American, anti-Western ideologies – i.e. anti-“whiteness.”
In the context of K-12 education, there is no clearer example of this than [liberated/critical] ethnic studies.
Sold to school districts, parents, students, and the public writ large as the teaching of history and culture of minority groups, it is a far-Left radical political programming.
It is agitprop being deployed on children into K-12 schools. Amping up their emotions, preying on their empathy, and then feeding them politically biased content.
It’s general framework begins with a heavy focus on a student’s various racial and ethnic “identities,” or intersectionality. The intention is to create a strong tribal attachment to the student’s collective identities.
It then introduces “<a href="https://www.newsmax.com/politics/critical-competency-consciousness/2023/12/07/id/1145144/">critical consciousness</a>,” which trains students to find racism and oppression everywhere in their lives. Driving them into a constant state of anxiety and fear.
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For example, a recent Castro Valley Unified School District ethnic studies <a href="https://cvk12ca.community.highbond.com/document/cf8c0982-2db8-464f-83da-7932fab50636/">presentation</a> to the district board demonstrates this via student art which states “As an Asian American, racism is prevalent all around me.”
Ethnic studies activate deep feelings of anger and resentment in students towards the United States, and even towards their white teachers and peers.
A <a href="https://cla.umn.edu/ridgs/ethnic-studies-initiative/ethnic-studies-evaluation-projects">review</a> of Saint Paul Publics Schools’ ethnic studies program by the University of Minnesota highlights several students’ reflections on the course. One anonymous student stated &#8220;Why would a course about being critical have white teachers? My school has one [B]lack teacher teaching it. How can we be critical if we don’t listen to the voices who are firstly impacted? Also, white teachers even if they mean well will implement their own biases that students will have to deal with.”
The political programming continues by creating heroes, legends, and mythology through the intentional curation of historical events and peoples that have modeled “resistance” against whiteness. Examples include <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/ethnic-studies-course-features-poster-of-che-guevara-on-wall-includes-content-focused-on-white-supremacy-and-privilege/">Che Guevara</a>, the <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/scotts-valley-unified-school-district-ethnic-studies-course-teaches-students-that-capitalism-heterosexism-and-ableism-are-systems-of-oppression-and-forms-of-oppression-requires-students-to-part/">Black Panther Party, Angela Davis</a>, and even a defense of <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/san-francisco-unified-school-district-provides-resource-to-social-studies-and-ethnic-studies-teachers-that-claims-israeli-terrorism-has-been-significantly-worse-than-that-of-the-palestinians-reso/">anti-Israel</a> activism and terrorism.
Finally, students are taught and required to engage in far-Left social justice activism. Under the guise of “Youth Participatory Action Research,” students are trained to become street <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2023/11/20/staley-k-12-student-demonstrations-equity-double-standard/">activists</a> for the flavor-of-the-day far-Left cause.
Eventually, the goal is to embed it into every single subject area and <a href="https://defendinged.org/incidents/santa-rosa-city-schools-ethnic-studies-courses-feature-critical-race-theory-whiteness-and-social-justice-activism-paid-ethnic-studies-consultant-530000-over-four-years/">curriculum</a>. They admit this outright.
In California, San Rafael City Schools <a href="https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/SB_Meetings/ViewMeeting.aspx?S=36030430&amp;MID=24501&amp;enIID=fBHmEqAHmyvMJ3CrfpluszzjQ%3D%3D&amp;srch=ethnic+studies&amp;ktype=Exact&amp;Tab=Agenda">contracted</a> with the University of California Berkeley’s <a href="https://ucbhssp.berkeley.edu/ethnic-studies">History-Social Science Project</a> to integrate ethnic studies “concepts and pedagogies” into the district’s World and U.S. history courses.
The university’s site states that it is assisting teachers and districts in integrating the “<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/13h6vVmJEeVyk1XdBAGZDuxMiZjLhhoYD4loNz7NSlck/copy">CA Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum</a>” into courses, which includes helping teachers “familiarize themselves with&#8230;critical race theory, intersectionality, which are key theoretical frameworks and pedagogies.”
This issue is not about the actual teaching of culture and history; it is about how far-Left actors are advancing their cultural revolution via the long march through American institutions.
While the Administration and public focus their attention on the national museums, heavy scrutiny must simultaneously be placed on the teaching of “honest history” and ethnic studies in K-12.
The advancement of anti-American and anti-Western ideologies need to be removed from classrooms.
* * *
Rhyen Staley is a researcher for Defending Education. He holds a master&#8217;s degree in elementary education and has over a decade of classroom experience in both public and private schools. He has over 25 years of volleyball coaching experience from Women’s Division I down to junior high.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Empty Black Board in Classroom

‘Furthering The Conversation About Whiteness’: Anti-American Rhetoric On The Rise In The Classroom

'Furthering The Conversation About Whiteness': Anti-American Rhetoric On The Rise In The Classroom

American History

California

Critical Race Theory

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Ethnic Studies

Leftists

Opinion

Public Schools

Students

Whiteness

WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump’s administration enforces his executive order protecting women’s sports and spaces, several school districts and universities across the nation may soon come under fire for allowing males to compete as women or use female locker rooms. 
Now, a new <a href="https://americanparentscoalition.org/map/">tracking map</a> first obtained by The Daily Wire might offer the administration even more fodder for investigations. 
The interactive map provided by the American Parents Coalition documents instances across the United States where males have been granted access to female spaces, including sports teams, bathrooms, and locker rooms. The incidents tracked range from transgender-identifying males competing on women’s sports teams to young girls being forced to change in front of males at local gyms. 
At least 24 states have failed to maintain female-only spaces, the American Parents Coalition found. Incidents have not only taken place in deep blue states like California and New York, but also GOP-dominated states like Georgia, Missouri, Florida, and Texas. 
&#8220;Gender activists have attempted to normalize radical gender ideology at the expense of biological reality, fairness, and privacy. American parents have dealt with the fallout, seeing boys in their daughters’ sports, locker rooms, and private spaces at schools and also organizations like the YMCA,” Alleigh Marré told The Daily Wire. 
<div id="attachment_964829" style="width: 1761px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-964829" class="size-full wp-image-964829" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-at-10.00.42-AM.png" alt="" width="1751" height="1370" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-at-10.00.42-AM.png 1751w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-at-10.00.42-AM-300x235.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-at-10.00.42-AM-736x576.png 736w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-at-10.00.42-AM-768x601.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/08/Screenshot-2025-08-25-at-10.00.42-AM-1536x1202.png 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1751px) 100vw, 1751px" />American Parents Coalition.</div>
The incidents cited by the American Parents Coalition range from college athletics to parents taking their children to the local YMCA. 
One of the incidents in March 2022 from <a href="https://americanparentscoalition.org/state/georgia/">Georgia</a> helped launch a conservative push to keep transgender-identifying males out of women’s sports. The incident in question involved male swimmer Lia Thomas tying for fifth place with Riley Gaines at the 200-meter NCAA Division 1 women’s swimming championships in Atlanta. Thomas was awarded a fifth-place trophy while Gaines was told she would receive one later. 
In another incident included on the interactive map, a parent <a href="https://fox4kc.com/news/nkc-police-investigating-after-report-of-indecent-exposure-at-ymca/">reported</a> that her 7-year-old daughter was exposed to a naked man while at their local YMCA in Kansas City, Missouri. The mother said that the man claimed to be a woman after being questioned about what he was doing in the women’s changing area. 
Other incidents took place in school districts across the country — from California’s Riverside County to Minnesota&#8217;s Hennepin County to Florida’s Broward County — as male athletes identifying as transgender competed against females. 
More incidents will be added to the map, and parents are encouraged to submit tips to the American Parents Coalition if their daughters have been denied privacy or athletic opportunities. 
“Parents&#8217; concerns about the safety and fairness of girls competing against biological males in sports, or forcing girls to shower, change or even share overnight cabins with biological males, are legitimate and must be taken seriously by policymakers,” Marré said. 
Marré added that she hoped that policymakers would use the map as a resource for where to direct their action. 
“Our goal with creating this map is to highlight that this issue is not isolated and is happening nationwide,” she said. “We also hope that this map can be used as a resource for concerned parents and policymakers as we work towards ensuring safety and fairness through the proper protection of girls&#8217; sports and spaces.”
In February, Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports/">issued an executive order</a> stating that the United States would “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities,” saying that allowing men in women’s spaces results “in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”
“It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth,” that executive order stated. 
Trump’s order was the fulfillment of his campaign promise to get males out of women’s spaces — a promise that the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-trump-learned-to-embrace-the-transgender-culture-wars">president quickly gauged</a> the American people were very supportive of.  

Last week, Trump threatened to strip federal funding from California if the state continues to refuse to get on board with his administration&#8217;s transgender policies. That came after the Justice Department <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-president-means-business-trump-admin-sues-california-over-transgender-athlete-policy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> California last month for continuing to allow transgender-identifying males to compete in female sports.

Trump Announces Kennedy Center To Host 2026 World Cup Draw

Trump May Target These Schools Next For Allowing Boys in Girls’ Spaces

These Schools Allowing Boys In Girls’ Spaces Could Be Trump’s Next Targets

female sports

gender ideology

Parents rights

Transgender Athletes

Parents, your child&#8217;s school might be gearing up to push transgender ideology this fall.
As the first day of school approaches, the pressing cultural issue that continues to rile parents and helped catapult Trump to the White House in November remains alive and well in hundreds of school districts across the country despite the president&#8217;s efforts to stamp it out.
During his first weeks in office, Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-radical-indoctrination-in-k-12-schooling/">signed</a> a pair of executive orders threatening public schools with existential federal funding cuts if they refuse to root out &#8220;gender ideology,&#8221; including erasing it from the curriculum, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports/">banning</a> males from girls&#8217; sports teams and locker rooms, and no longer encouraging children&#8217;s &#8220;social transitions,&#8221; which can include using new pronouns, allowing students to use the bathrooms of the opposite sex, and hiding their transgender identities from parents.
&#8220;There&#8217;s a sort of coast-to-coast misconception about the fact that the cavalry&#8217;s arrived and all of these bad policies are suddenly being rescinded,&#8221; said Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president at Defending Education, which fights gender indoctrination in public schools.
&#8220;Unfortunately, factually the reality remains something completely different,&#8221; Perry told The Daily Wire. &#8220;We&#8217;ve seen kind of a mixed bag. There are some [districts] that are holdouts. There are some that are going along to get along, and then there are others who are simply hiding what they&#8217;ve done by pulling off their particular policies from that educational outlet&#8217;s website and essentially passing the buck back to the state.&#8221;
In the wake of Trump&#8217;s orders, some school districts scrambled to comply and scrapped their transgender policies, which they had adopted a few years ago at the peak of the ideology&#8217;s influence.
In deep red Nebraska, Bellevue Public Schools reversed its 2015 policy. The district now allows teachers to disclose a child&#8217;s transgender identity to parents and says students must use the bathroom of their biological sex.
The district cannot afford to lose its $10 million in federal funding, and parents were very concerned, according to Superintendent Jeff Rippe.
“We’ve had concerned students, concerned parents, about this policy,” Rippe <a href="https://www.wowt.com/2025/04/15/bellevue-public-schools-changes-regulation-transgender-students/">said</a>. &#8220;$10 million is what we get in federal funding. And that means a lot to this school district. Speaking personally, we cannot afford to lose $10 million.”
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On the other side of the political aisle, entire blue states have openly bucked Trump&#8217;s orders. The administration is locked in lawsuits with California, Maine, and Minnesota.
Minnesota made the first move in its fight — it <a href="https://www.ag.state.mn.us/Office/Communications/2025/04/22_EO_TitleIX.asp">sued</a> the Trump administration in April over the transgender sports order. Meanwhile, the Education Department is <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/06/12/us-news/education-department-tags-in-doj-to-probe-minnesota-after-trans-athlete-helps-girls-softball-team-win-title/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">investigating</a> Minnesota after a trans-identifying male softball player&#8217;s shutout pitching helped <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/boy-pitches-complete-game-shutout-to-win-girls-softball-championship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launch</a> his girls&#8217; team to its first state championship.
California, the biggest player throwing its weight around, <a href="https://edsource.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Update-Regarding-Compliance-with-Equal-Protection-Clause-of-U.S.-Constitution.pdf">said</a> it would follow the liberal state&#8217;s laws on males in girls&#8217; sports over Trump&#8217;s orders. The Education Department found California in violation of Title IX. When California missed the deadline to comply, the Justice Department sued the Golden State, the next step in terminating its federal education funding.
Governor Gavin Newsom has &#8220;not only not read the room right, he&#8217;s actually not following what both the Constitution&#8217;s Supremacy Clause and Title IX&#8217;s actual direct text indicate he needs to do,&#8221; Perry said.
The Constitution states that federal law — in this case, Title IX — overrides state law.
A similar situation is playing out in Maine.
Governor Janet Mills infamously <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YAQhP_Qtek">snapped</a>, &#8220;We&#8217;ll see you in court,&#8221; to Trump when he called her out in person at a February dinner over Maine allowing males in girls&#8217; sports.
&#8220;Good, I&#8217;ll see you in court,&#8221; Trump told her. &#8220;That should be a real easy one.&#8221;
The Education Department later <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-announces-consequences-maines-title-ix-noncompliance">found</a> Maine in violation of Title IX over its sports policy, and the Justice Department has sued the state, seeking to end its funding.
The Education Department is <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-investigate-title-ix-violations-athletics">also</a> <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-transgender-athlete-ban-oregon-d9a84e255bbf797687efadbc5a6a38a2">investigating</a> Massachusetts and Oregon over transgender sports policies, as well as the odd school district here and there — Chicago Public Schools, the Jefferson County district in the Denver area, several Connecticut school districts, and Saratoga Springs, New York, which made a <a href="https://go.boarddocs.com/ny/saratogaschools/Board.nsf/files/DF3LRZ57E1E0/$file/DRAFT%20Statement%20by%20the%20SSCSD%20BOE%203-27-25.pdf">show</a> of <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/05/06/us-news/trump-admin-probes-saratoga-springs-school-for-defying-federal-order-banning-transgender-athletes-in-girls-sports/">defying</a> Trump&#8217;s executive order disallowing boys to participate in girls&#8217; sports, reaffirming &#8220;its unwavering commitment to providing a safe, inclusive, and high-quality education for every student.&#8221;
Red states are not immune to such defiance either.
The Education Department is <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-launches-investigations-four-kansas-school-districts-alleged-title-ix-ferpa-violations?utm_source=chatgpt.com">investigating</a> four Kansas school districts for allowing male students in girls&#8217; sports and bathrooms, and hiding students&#8217; transgender identities from parents.
A slew of other blue states have pushed back directly as well, some explicitly telling their schools to ignore Trump&#8217;s orders, including <a href="https://www.nysed.gov/sites/default/files/nysed-oag-joint-statement-regarding-transgender-students.pdf">New York</a>, <a href="https://www.njspotlightnews.org/video/nj-athletic-association-to-keep-open-policy-on-transgender-students/">New Jersey</a>, <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/chicago/2025/02/25/illinois-schools-transgender-history-curriculum?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Illinois</a>, <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/detroit/2025/02/14/michigan-superintendent-says-trump-executive-order-wont-change-state-policy/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Michigan</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxJVErkc6b0">Maryland</a>, <a href="https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/01/15/massachusetts-transgender-student-protections-title-ix-newsletter?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Massachusetts</a>, <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2025/02/07/pacific-northwest-education-leaders-resist-trump-transgender/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Oregon</a>, <a href="https://riag.ri.gov/press-releases/attorney-general-neronha-and-commissioner-infante-green-issue-guidance-schools-lgbtq?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Rhode Island</a>, and Washington state.
“What I would say is, follow state law, follow state law, and then, if you’re not sure, follow state law,” state Superintendent Chris Reykdal <a href="https://mynorthwest.com/mynorthwest-politics/mead-follow-state-law/4062872">told</a> a Spokane area district school board that expressed concern over Trump&#8217;s executive order.
Other states, including Colorado, Delaware, Connecticut, Vermont, Hawaii, and Washington, D.C., still have transgender education policies in place.
All of those states and more <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-transgender-athlete-ban-oregon-d9a84e255bbf797687efadbc5a6a38a2">signed</a> onto a lawsuit opposing Trump&#8217;s executive order banning diversity, equity, and inclusion ideologies in schools, which includes transgender ideology.
&#8220;Unfortunately, it seems to me that a lot of these blue state governors don&#8217;t have very good attorneys,&#8221; Perry said.
She predicted that the California and Maine lawsuits will eventually end up at the Supreme Court.
&#8220;They&#8217;re more inclined to take up state lawsuits like this because there are two different interpretations of long-standing federal law,&#8221; she said.
Perry noted that last summer, the Supreme Court agreed to block the Biden administration&#8217;s radical new interpretation of Title IX, which included gender identity, in 26 states. All nine justices agreed the plaintiffs were entitled to preliminary injunctions.
&#8220;I think it was a pretty good indication that once they get the case on the merits, people like Gavin Newsom and Governor Janet Mills are going to be roundly disappointed by exactly how it ends up,&#8221; Perry said.
This month, a saga unfolded when five northern Virginia school districts stubbornly clung to their transgender policies, which allow boys in girls&#8217; bathrooms.
The school districts for Loudoun County, Fairfax County, Arlington County, Prince William County, and Alexandria City all announced last week that they would not be changing their policies after the Education Department found them in violation of Title IX.
Loudoun County Public Schools, which became an early flashpoint in the transgender debate after a sexual assault in the girls&#8217; bathroom by a boy in a dress, took the lead in defying the Trump administration. A few days before the deadline, the board <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/08/13/loudoun-county-transgender-policy-education-department/">voted</a> 6-3 to keep its policy. The other four Virginia districts followed suit with similar announcements.
The Education Department has said it will begin the process of pulling federal education funding from the five Virginia school districts, which receive over $50 million and serve nearly 400,000 students.
&#8220;The Virginia districts will have to defend their embrace of radical gender ideology over ensuring the safety of their students,&#8221; an Education Department spokesperson <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-administration-threatens-pull-federal-funds-from-virginia-school-districts-gender-policy-dispute">said</a>.
While all this was going on, two Loudoun County high school boys were also <a href="https://www.fox5dc.com/news/loudoun-county-students-suspended-amid-boys-locker-room-title-ix-probe">suspended</a> and found guilty of sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination for questioning why a girl was changing in the boys&#8217; locker room. Their parents are fighting the decision.
Parents did get a win in Loudoun County last month when the district <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-loudoun-county-teachers-dont-have-to-use-trans-pronouns-court-rules?author=Mairead+Elordi&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=19&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=EXCLUSIVE%3A+Loudoun+County+Teachers+Don’t+Have+To+Use+Trans+Pronouns%2C+Court+Rules">backed down</a> on its pronoun policy after several teachers sued. Loudoun was also previously forced to give a physical education teacher his job back after he was suspended for speaking out against the pronoun policy.
Not every school district flouting the Trump administration is doing it so loudly.
More than 21,000 schools at one point followed a policy to hide children&#8217;s transgender identities from parents, according to Defending Education&#8217;s <a href="https://defendinged.org/investigations/list-of-school-district-transgender-gender-nonconforming-student-policies/">database</a>.
Many never changed those transgender policies and are hoping to fly under the radar.
Corey DeAngelis, a prominent school choice advocate, explained that enforcing Trump&#8217;s executive orders on thousands of individual local districts has proved to be an unwieldy task.
&#8220;Top-down orders aimed at rooting out gender ideology from our schools are welcome developments. They&#8217;re a step in the right direction,&#8221; DeAngelis told The Daily Wire. &#8220;But they are not efficient, because rogue public school employees will continue to skirt the law behind closed doors, and enforcement can prove to be very difficult.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;ve seen the same problem with states banning concepts like Critical Race Theory,&#8221; DeAngelis said, noting that public school administrators in red states have been <a href="https://aim.org/2025/07/07/yet-another-news-outlet-tallies-dei-staffer-departures/">caught</a> on video admitting that they ignored diversity, equity, and inclusion bans.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. That&#8217;s exactly why we also need school choice,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If families get a whiff of something wrong happening in their child&#8217;s school &#8230; they should be able to vote with their feet to schools that align with their values.&#8221;
Parents who wish to keep their children in their public school districts should remain vigilant, Perry said. Thankfully, there is &#8220;intense interest&#8221; among Defending Education&#8217;s 375 parent groups across the country in getting transgender school policies rescinded, she said.
&#8220;I would recommend to parents that they need not sit on their laurels and say this is a mission-accomplished administration, but to actually ask hard questions of their local school board,&#8221; Perry said. &#8220;Will trans-identified males be allowed in their daughter&#8217;s bathrooms or on their daughter&#8217;s sports teams? Will locker rooms be opened up under gender neutrality?&#8221;
&#8220;They need to be diligent in enforcing their rights,&#8221; she concluded.

Donald Trump Campaigns For President In Georgia Ahead Of November Election

Your Child’s School Might Still Be Pushing Transgender Ideology Despite Trump’s Orders

Your Child's School Might Still Be Pushing Transgender Ideology Despite Trump's Orders

Transgender

The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will be pulling more than $12 million from California over &#8220;gender ideology&#8221; in its sexual education programs.
The Health and Human Services&#8217; (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) put out a <a href="https://acf.gov/media/press/2025/hhs-defunds-californias-attempt-indoctrinate-children-gender-ideology">press release</a> announcing this move to stop California&#8217;s Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) from receiving a massive amount of federal funding over the next few years.
Acting Assistant Secretary of the ACF Andrew Gradison wrote in the press release, &#8220;California&#8217;s refusal to comply with federal law and remove egregious gender ideology from federally funded sex-ed materials is unacceptable.&#8221;
&#8220;Accountability is coming for every state that uses federal funds to teach children delusional gender ideology,&#8221; Gradison said.
According to the <a href="https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CFH/DMCAH/CA-PREP/Pages/default.aspx">California Department of Public Health</a> (CDPH), the program aims at changing behavior, including delaying sexual activity, increasing condom or contraceptive use for sexually active youth, and reducing the number of sexual partners for youth ages 10-19.
The program receives all of its funding from the Health and Human Services&#8217; ACF and Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB).
Gradison appeared on <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6377188148112">&#8220;America&#8217;s Newsroom&#8221;</a> on Thursday to explain the process that went into this decision.
Gradison pointed to materials that promoted the belief that &#8220;boys could be girls and girls could be boys and that the solution, oftentimes, was mutilating their genitals.&#8221;
&#8220;The American people elected President Trump to restore sanity and common sense in this country,&#8221; Gradison said. &#8220;Part of that is removing gender ideology from state sex-ed curriculum.&#8221;
President Trump also threatened federal funding from any state that chooses to disobey the guidance from HHS in a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-issues-ultimatum-california-schools-must-follow-transgender-policies-or-face-consequences">post</a> to Truth Social on Thursday.
&#8220;Any California school district that doesn&#8217;t adhere to our Transgender policies, will not be funded,&#8221; Trump wrote on Truth Social. &#8220;Thank you for your attention to this matter!&#8221;
This decision to pull all federal funding from California&#8217;s PREP is the product of months of back and forth between the Trump administration and California health officials. The ACF originally requested PREP documents from California in March. In June, it demanded that the state revise its program within 60 days.
California state health officials failed to respond until one day before the deadline, when they denied any medical inaccuracies on the part of the program and said it would not take the recommended corrective measures.
&#8220;In a disturbing and egregious abuse of federal funds, California has been using taxpayer money to teach curricula that could encourage kids to contemplate mutilating their genitals, &#8216;altering their body … through hormone therapy,&#8217; &#8216;adding or removing breast tissue,&#8217; and &#8216;changing their name.&#8217; It instructed teachers to &#8216;remind students that some men are born with female anatomy,'&#8221; HHS said in a Thursday press release of the teachings, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kennedys-hhs-terminates-california-sex-ed-grant-after-refuses-drop-radical-gender-lessons">according</a> to Fox News.
Previous grant <a href="https://acf.gov/fysb/grant-funding/state-personal-responsibility-education-program-prep-grantees">funding</a> shows California&#8217;s PREP program received just under $6 million from the federal government in fiscal year 2022.
This is the most recent step that the Trump administration is taking against what the president has called woke programs that affect students and young people. The president recently signed an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-olympic-committee-bans-men-in-womens-sports">executive order</a> to keep men out of women&#8217;s sports.
Trump is also currently in a litigation battle against California for continuing to allow transgender-identifying males to compete in female sports. The suit <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-president-means-business-trump-admin-sues-california-over-transgender-athlete-policy">argued</a> that California was depriving young girls of athletic opportunities.

Diverse people holding transgender flags

HHS Pulls Funding From California Over Failure To Remove ‘Gender Ideology’ In Sex-Ed Program

Department of Health and Human Services

Social Issues

President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to strip federal funding from California school districts that defy his administration’s transgender policies.
The Trump administration interprets Title IX as requiring schools to maintain separate bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports teams for males and females, a stance that directly conflicts with California state law allowing students to use facilities and join teams based on gender identity.
“Any California school district that doesn’t adhere to our Transgender policies, will not be funded,” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/115066339632774609">wrote</a> on Truth Social early Thursday morning. “Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Trump’s ultimatum comes after the Justice Department <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-president-means-business-trump-admin-sues-california-over-transgender-athlete-policy">sued</a> California last month for continuing to allow transgender-identifying males to compete in female sports. The suit argued that California was depriving young girls of athletic opportunities. 
“Title IX was enacted over half a century ago to protect women and girls from discrimination. The Justice Department will not stand for policies that deprive girls of their hard-earned athletic trophies and ignore their safety on the field and in private spaces,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. “Young women should not have to sacrifice their rights to compete for scholarships, opportunities, and awards on the altar of woke gender ideology.”
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The California Department of Education was allocated around $44 billion in federal funding for fiscal year 2025.
Aside from California, other school districts across the country could also lose funding over transgender policies, including multiple districts in Northern Virginia. The Education Department <a href="https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/us-department-of-education-places-five-northern-virginia-school-districts-high-risk-status-and-reimbursement-payment-status-violating-title-ix">said</a> this week that the Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County, and Prince William County school districts are all in danger of losing federal funding for violating Title IX. 
“States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional scrutiny,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said. “The Northern Virginia School Divisions that are choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law must now prove they are using every single federal dollar for a legal purpose.”
In February, Trump signed an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/keeping-men-out-of-womens-sports/">executive order</a> saying that “it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-vows-large-scale-fines-on-california-after-boy-wins-girls-track-events">Trump Vows &#8216;Large Scale Fines&#8217; On California After Boy Wins Girls&#8217; Track Events</a>

Sir Keir Starmer visit to Washington DC

Trump Issues Ultimatum: California Schools Must Follow Transgender Policies Or Face Consequences

Department of Education

Executive

Sports

Title IX

Students across the country are getting ready to head back to school, and this year they’ll have the chance to take on a different kind of assignment: the first-ever Presidential AI Challenge. An outgrowth of an executive order signed by President Trump in April, the Challenge aims to inspire students, educators and community leaders to work together to ensure the next generation is ready to take on the unprecedented technological change we can expect in the near future. This goes beyond politics, and asks students to find ways to use artificial intelligence to respond to challenges in students’ local communities.
This initiative has arrived not a moment too soon. New developments in AI are announced almost daily – some promising, some disconcerting. The headlines show us every day that this world-changing technology will need governance and guardrails left firmly in qualified human hands. The Trump White House understands this, and is right to engage America’s youth. Who better to challenge our thinking on emerging tech than those who will be impacted the most?
If educators prioritize safe and ethical engagement with AI in the classroom, this could be one of the most consequential school years in decades. Generation Z is coming close to the end of their school years. Generation Alpha, in school behind them, may well be renamed by history as “Generation AI,” because they will be the first to come of age in a world with all the power of artificial intelligence at their fingertips. The sooner they start working through what that means, the better.
Different schools and communities will inspire students to meet the Presidential AI Challenge in different ways, but there are a few consistent elements that educators, community leaders, and the tech community should strive to instill in American youth so that they learn to engage with AI in responsible, ethical ways.
The first is to reconceptualize the idea of digital citizenship. It’s not just about being nice on social media anymore (although that remains important). But we must make sure students understand that AI is a tool to be used responsibly, and that being a good citizen extends to online communities. Understanding ethical standards is key, as is the constant reminder that technology should serve humanity, and not the other way around. As powerful as the technology will be, the students using it will have to remember that their human mind is still in charge.
If the human minds are to remain in charge, we will need to sharpen critical thinking skills at all educational levels. Switzerland and Sweden, for instance, have integrated these skills into all levels of their curriculum – even into continuing education in their workforce. Critical thinking will be the bedrock of ethical AI use. By fostering skills to question, analyze, and evaluate AI outputs, we empower learners to challenge assumptions and create AI systems that foster trust and respect. The use of AI as a crutch – like writing your term papers for you – is the exact opposite of this. It’s more than just lazy – it sets us back on doing the important work to keep this technology in check.
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To stop AI from replacing critical thinking, we should train students to use AI as a tool for exploration and curiosity: start with an idea in your own brain, then explore further with AI-generated insight that you never fully trust and always verify. Once outputs are created, there must always be a &#8220;human in the loop&#8221; by design, evaluating AI outputs and coming up with an original solution based on human judgment. Students can study, design, and ensure solutions reflect steps that allow humans to interject moral reasoning and human creativity.
The next generation will need to understand more than just how to interact with a chatbot in a safe, ethical, and helpful way. AI’s ripple effects will go beyond our screens, as the need for more physical data centers to power AI innovation increases. We must set an example by wrestling with policy questions, like energy access issues, in an empathetic, human-centered way. We don’t want power grids diverting power to data centers while hospitals can’t keep their machines on. AI must be used to uplift communities, as outlined in the Presidential AI Challenge.
We are poised to mark the 250th anniversary of America’s founding in a world abounding with technology that our founders could only dream of. But the same values that inspired them, a “decent respect” for freedom, human dignity, and individual rights, should guide us as we explore this uncharted technological territory. The upcoming school year, educators and students alike have a fascinating opportunity to engage with this technology in ways that align with our values.
* * *
Theresa Payton is the founder and CEO of Fortalice Solutions. She served as the White House Chief Information Officer under President George W. Bush, and co-founded the Major-Payton School of Business at Immaculata University.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

School boy in a computer lab.

AI Heads Back To School: Students Face A Challenge That Will Shape The Future

Artificial Intelligence

Computer

President Trump

Schools

Technology

Oklahoma will require teachers relocating from California and New York to take a 50-question test aimed at assessing whether they hold leftist political views that might influence their teaching.
Developed by Prager University, the Oklahoma test, according to  Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters, will have to be approved by the education board before it is administered. Walters <a href="https://www.cnn.com/politics/prageru-oklahoma-woke-teacher-test">said</a> if applicants do not pass the test, they will not receive a teaching certificate.
“Every teacher that teaches in the state of Oklahoma will have to have a certificate that goes through my office. It has my signature on it. So that those will not move forward until this is done,” he declared.
“One proposed question deals with gender – asking teachers to select from a series of multiple-choice answers which chromosome pairs determine biological sex,” KCCI reported.
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“We will not allow these leftists’ plans and schemes to take place here in Oklahoma,” Walters said, according to <a href="https://www.kcci.com/article/oklahoma-prageru-teacher-test-controversy/65789726?utm_source=chatgpt.com">KCCI</a>. “They are trying to warp the minds of our kids to turn them into social justice warriors, instead of kids that are getting the most of their God-given talents to go get a good job, to go live a fulfilling life.”
“We’re not bringing in woke indoctrinators into the classroom,” Walters told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/08/19/oklahoma-teachers-california-new-york-test/">The Washington Post</a>. “It’s a very America-first approach.”
“You’re gonna teach that there’s biological differences between males and females, period,” Walters told CNN. “You’re going to teach American history and use primary source documents, not pushing a left-wing agenda on to our kids.” He added that California and New York have required teachers to “do things that are antithetical to our standards and values as a state.”
“Oklahoma already requires new teachers to <a href="https://archive.is/o/wWfjk/https:/oklahoma.gov/education/services/teacher-certification.html">take a U.S. citizenship test</a>, which covers civics topics, to complete their certification,” the Post added.
Some other sample questions include:
<blockquote>
What are the first three words of the Constitution?
Why is freedom of religion important to America’s identity?
What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress?
How many U.S. Senators are there?
Why do some states have more Representatives than others?
</blockquote>

Holland, Goirle, woman weeding

Oklahoma To Require Ideology Test For Incoming Teachers From California And NY To Weed Out Wokeness

New York

Oklahoma

U.S.

Wokeness

Late last month, President Donald Trump signed <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/07/presidents-council-on-sports-fitness-and-nutrition-and-the-reesetablishment-of-the-presidential-fitness-test/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an executive order</a> re-establishing a program that some people remember fondly, others not so fondly: the Presidential Fitness Test.
According to the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/07/fact-sheet-presidents-council-on-sports-fitness-and-nutrition-and-the-reestablishment-of-the-presidential-fitness-test/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">White House</a>, the order directs the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition “to create school-based programs that reward excellence in physical education and develop criteria for a Presidential Fitness Award,” and further “reestablishes the Presidential Fitness Test, which shall be administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.”
The order caused some minor controversy, particularly among those for whom, as the New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/01/well/trump-presidential-fitness-test.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a>, the test’s resurrection “revives painful memories.” But the order also occasions reflection on the role of physical fitness in the education of an American citizen.
Those who most openly speak of fitness and politics today are often part of the New Right’s “vitalist” movement, engaging with the works of Bronze Age Pervert and other internet “anons” with statue profile pictures.
But there is no reason these <a href="http://americanmind.org/salvo/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-pajama-boy-nietzscheans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“pajama-boy Nietzscheans”</a> need to monopolize the conversation. Amid an ongoing national conversation around civic education for citizenship in the American republic, there are plentiful resources from the classical and American traditions to help us recover the place of fitness in education.
Those who read the history of political and philosophical thought on education today are likely to be struck by the strong and repeated emphasis on physical education. Plato’s Republic famously outlines a program of education in both “gymnastic” and “music,” that is, both physical and intellectual arts. Aristotle praises the Greek city-states for providing for the physical education of their young men in state-sponsored gymnasiums.
Another example of this emphasis on physical education comes from Xenophon, in a section often <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/quotes/comments/3i4xkg/it_is_a_shame_for_a_man_to_grow_old_without/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quoted loosely</a> among fitness influencers. In his Memorabilia, Xenophon portrays Socrates going about his life in Athens, questioning his fellow citizens in short dialogues.
In one memorable portion, Socrates confronts his friend Epigenes, accusing him of being an “amateur” in physical matters — that is, Epigenes has grown pudgy. Epigenes defends himself by saying that he is an amateur; that is, he is not an athlete preparing to compete in the Olympics or any other competition, so he has no calling to physical excellence.
Socrates’ rebuttal to Epigenes takes two distinct approaches. The first is one that we might call civic or republican: Socrates asks Epigenes if he will be physically ready to fight, should Athens be invaded. Here, Epigenes is asked to feel shame at the possibility that he could not protect his homeland and his fellow citizens because of his physical condition.
But the second part of Socrates’ argument is more democratic. Instead of appealing to the duties of a citizen, Socrates argues that being physically fit is just good for an individual. Whether someone is pursuing hobbies or work, intellectual or physical activity, having a body in good shape rather than poor shape is an aid.
This argument is not just a historical curiosity, relevant only for those under threat of invasion in premodern city-states. Being physically fit is both good for those who might need to do the physical duties of citizenship, including military service, and good for those who engage in quite literally any other activity.
In American history, we can see similar threads of the civic and the individualistic concerns around physical fitness. Thomas Jefferson, for example, regularly praised and engaged in moderate physical activity, <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-08-02-0319" target="_blank" rel="noopener">encouraging</a> his nephew Peter Carr to devote two hours each day to exercise, “for health must not be sacrificed to learning.”
Benjamin Franklin <a href="https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-03-02-0166" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offered his own endorsement</a> in his “Proposals Relating to the Education of the Youth in Pennsylvania,” suggesting “That to keep [the young] in Health, and to strengthen and render active their Bodies, they be frequently exercis’d in Running, Leaping, Wrestling, and Swimming, &amp;c.”
It may be that the hardy, challenging life in the early American republic encouraged a level of general fitness. But as time marched on and economic circumstances changed, Americans grew more sedentary and less fit as a baseline. President Theodore Roosevelt confronted this in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Strenuous-President-Theodore-Roosevelt-American/dp/1635766125" target="_blank" rel="noopener">very intentional efforts</a> to publicly encourage physical fitness.
In the wake of the Korean War, military officials raised concerns about the poor fitness of those drafted into service. Scientific studies published around that time reflected poorly on the physical state of young people in America and around the world.
In response to these concerns, President Dwight D. Eisenhower <a href="https://odphp.health.gov/pcsfn/history-council" target="_blank" rel="noopener">established</a> the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, &amp; Nutrition in 1956, the body that later administered the famed Presidential Fitness Test. This test was used as both a measuring tool and an aspiration, later introducing an award for the highest performers in certain physical feats.
Over time, the fitness test itself was democratized, with marketing under the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations aimed at encouraging students to engage in at least some level of physical activity every day and providing awards for consistency rather than excellence. Eventually, the award for excellence was completely excised, and the leveling of the program was complete.
The efforts to democratize fitness among the young have at the very least been unable to keep up with a rising tide of obesity. In other words, while the lowered standards of the fitness test may not be causally to blame for decreasing fitness and increasing fatness, the efforts to get more children more engaged in physical activity at some bare minimum level have not been effective at encouraging or maintaining fitness.
But the concern of those who have historically championed physical education as a crucial component of a complete curriculum is not with bare fitness itself, but rather with the virtues inculcated in those who participate in physical activities, especially competitive and cooperative sporting events.
As an example, take a 1941 <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30186807" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> in The Clearing House, “Physical Education: Opportunity for Teaching Citizenship,” wherein a school principal reports on an observation of a gym class and a conversation between a gym teacher, history teacher, and their supervisor.
In the gym class, the young boys were given a ball and left to their own devices. In time, they formed teams, developed rules, and began playing a quite successful game, even refereeing their own violations of the rules. This, the gym teacher explains, is designed to teach civic virtues of leadership, cooperation, rule-following negotiation, and more. The history teacher and the gym teacher come to agree that truthfully, they aim at the same thing in their respective classrooms: forming good citizens with virtues that will fit them for that citizenship.
Things have changed. The author of a <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/42744102" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2006 study</a> of contemporary physical education proudly announces that older, competitive games have been replaced with more cooperative games that teach virtues including “honesty, kindness, generosity, freedom, equality, and respect.” Lost in this list are those virtues distinctly physical, martial, or civic.
Similarly, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee recently reported on a “listening session” with physical education “experts,” noting that “throughout the session, there was an overarching focus on equity.” Calls for excellence seem to have been replaced with calls for equity without clearly discernable benefits to physical fitness.
This is not to naively glorify all forms of older, more “traditional” physical education. Undoubtedly the gym classes of the mid-20th century left much to be desired. It is, however, to say that there is room to consider how we can call democratic citizens to physical excellence, and the past gives us ample examples for study.
In engaging in “discourse” around the topic of fitness, one risks falling into step with a host of loud public voices making quite different sorts of arguments. But those engaged in the education of the young need not abandon the topic of physical excellence to the vitalists and “Perverts” who have claimed it.
The tradition that gave rise to the American republic, the tradition within which students will be educated should they be given what can properly be called a “civic education,” gives grounds to call young people to physical excellence as a democratic virtue. Such a project would require reform at both the intellectual and curricular level, first in thinking anew of the purpose and place of physical education within a broader educational project, then in restructuring what sort of physical education is offered in service of those aims.
Philip D. Bunn is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, where he teaches political theory and American politics.
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The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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Jumping Jacks

Reviving The Presidential Fitness Test Will Help Shape Better Citizens

America

Elementary Schools

Founding Fathers

Gymnastics

Anxious Teenage Student Sitting Examination In School Hall

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Big Pharma

Health Care

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Matt Walsh

Mental Health

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Woke ideas, by definition, are fundamentally flawed. These include policies that can either be written off as unworkable — think high taxes, free health care, and open borders — or ridiculous impulses like gender confusion, environmental extremism, defunding the police, and critical race theory.
Over the past two years, the woke left has increasingly taken up a particularly alarming cause — antisemitism. Disturbingly, one of the most vocal proponents of this toxic ideology is perhaps the one best positioned to disseminate it where it does the most damage — in our children’s ears.
With astonishing regularity, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, the National Education Association (NEA), finds itself embroiled in <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/antisemitism-and-the-teachers-union-education-students-k-12-44cd1fa7?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAio3c5Mt0_L59ZPcvOPJickL051h1PbFLp_tScFw0mRoqrmcVgMIOsA6nnyibM%3D&amp;gaa_ts=688aa84c&amp;gaa_sig=LzMqnMYY5GorvJeQbZTzYtBBy9PjR6F0UEtTrKy5NvNssT-_RRcxOWjxtSm_an-HMy0mXn6s6GiAbh0Hv5M_hQ%3D%3D">controversy</a> around its attitude towards Jews and the conflict in Israel.
In late July, the leaders of the 3-million-member union were forced to walk back a <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/07/08/gaza-war-adl-teachers-union-nea-vote">decision</a> made earlier in the month when its 7,000-member Representative Assembly voted to cut all ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization that has fought antisemitism and other forms of intolerance for over a century.
The body approved a measure stating that the NEA “will not use, endorse, or publicize materials from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), such as its curricular materials or statistics.”
It reasoned: “Despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be.”
The hypocrisy is palpable.
A week after its July 6th gathering in Portland, Oregon, members of the union’s Jewish Affairs Caucus penned a <a href="https://www.neajacaucus.org/post/letter-to-nea-leadership">letter</a> to NEA President Becky Pringle, noting that individual Jewish delegates to the event were “vocally mocked, harassed, and threatened in ways that dishonor our union.”
The letter continued, “Most unfortunate of all was how the NEA’s official statement framed the situation, as if U.S. classrooms were an extension of the battleground in Gaza … Presenting human dignity as a zero-sum game is perilous for all minorities. History teaches us that when one minority is deprived of its humanity without comment, others will be, too.”
“Allowing the ADL to determine what constitutes antisemitism would be like allowing the fossil fuel industry to determine what constitutes climate change,” countered NEA delegate <a href="https://labornotes.org/blogs/2025/07/educators-union-rejects-anti-defamation-league-cuts-ties">Stephen Siegel</a> from the assembly floor.
Publicly, Pringle acknowledged the Representative Assembly’s action went too far, <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-education/2025/07/21/nea-halts-bid-to-cut-ties-with-jewish-organization-00465130">stating</a>, “After consideration, it was determined that this proposal would not further NEA’s commitment to academic freedom, our membership, or our goals.”
Within days, however, the union’s true feelings came to light again when it announced plans to promote a version of Holocaust remembrance that does not even mention Jews, instead referencing, “…victims of the Holocaust from different faiths” and teaching that Israel was founded through “forced, violent displacement and dispossession.”
This wording comes directly from the priorities outlined in NEA’s <a href="https://www.nea.org/">2025 handbook</a>, which the union publishes each year as a guide on the group&#8217;s priorities and strategic goals for its national and state leaders, staff, and members. It includes the NEA&#8217;s bylaws and is updated with any new resolutions and policy positions the union has endorsed.
These aren’t isolated incidents. As ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/antisemitism-and-the-teachers-union-education-students-k-12-44cd1fa7?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAjStdmE5Sn12J-E4JPH8q2Os8fljrQpHJrtRWhjqSbFGcFj3jvZuqRKWEX9bFM%3D&amp;gaa_ts=6890e11f&amp;gaa_sig=U7kbLb2MFLOViXFevR2KtAoLAxq3KPM9ZMb_XqIVIbO7hNpInieKcl1KH8QJS1WpqwlpKvfhq2REB_oFm2qzbQ%3D%3D">wrote</a> in the Wall Street Journal:
<blockquote>Local teachers’ unions in California have provided teachers with an anti-Israel script; in Minneapolis, they’ve labeled Israel as “apartheid.” In Chicago, the teachers’ union voted on anti-Israel resolutions and posted on social media that, “Zionists are not welcome.” In New York, the union representing City University of New York professors voted to divest from Israel. Others have gone so far as to prevent teachers from participating in mandatory antisemitism training. When the San Francisco Unified School District scheduled four such trainings for high school teachers, their union said they would support any educator who decided to skip the sessions.</blockquote>
Against this backdrop, Los Angeles District Court Judge Stephen Wilson, on July 21st, <a href="https://www.dailynews.com/2025/07/30/forced-representation-allows-haters-to-speak-on-behalf-of-their-victims/">dismissed a lawsuit</a> filed by seven Jewish teachers represented by United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) — an affiliate of NEA — alleging the union had engaged in a pattern of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist activity for years.
The Freedom Foundation, which is representing the teachers, plans to appeal Wilson’s ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and, if necessary, the U.S. Supreme Court.
Sadly, it isn’t likely to be the last time the teachers&#8217; union’s politics of hatred are on display for a public that’s already had a bellyful of it.
* * *
Aaron Withe is the CEO of the Freedom Foundation.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

UTLA protest in Los Angeles, CA

When Unions Teach Hate: Inside The NEA’s Descent Into Antisemitism

When Unions Teach Hate: Inside NEA’s Antisemitism Problem

Anti-Semitism

Jewish

National Education Association

Teachers Unions

Woke Culture

The University of Maryland has agreed to pay Palestine Legal and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) $100,000 after the university first defended, but then briefly tried to reschedule, a rally on the anniversary of Hamas&#8217;s October 7, 2023 attacks by a campus group that advocates &#8220;the right of Palestinians to carry out armed struggle.&#8221;
The public university&#8217;s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter “will spend every dollar we receive from the $100,000 penalty for banning our vigil on organizing and supporting the movement for a free Palestine,” group member Daniela Colombi said in a <a href="https://www.cair.com/press_releases/palestine-legal-cair-announce-historic-100k-settlement-from-u-of-maryland-for-unlawfully-suppressing-pro-palestinian-student-speech/">statement</a>.
&#8220;Capitulating to bad faith, anti-Palestinian pressure will cost you,&#8221; Ahmad Kaki, a CAIR attorney, added, calling it a &#8220;transparent censorship attempt&#8221;—although even as CAIR fought for the right of students to demonstrate on October 7 on free speech grounds, it tried to force the university&#8217;s medical school to <a href="https://jewishinsider.com/2025/01/umd-medical-school-stands-by-israeli-surgeon-after-cair-played-role-canceling-his-talk/">cancel</a> a lecture by an Israeli surgeon.
CAIR noted that the Maryland public institution agreed to pay the anti-Israel group even as the Trump administration has extracted <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/columbia-university-retreats-as-trump-scores-historic-220m-settlement">massive</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ucla-will-pay-6-million-to-settle-antisemitic-discrimination-complaints">payments</a> from other universities for failing to protect Jews from antisemitism on campus. 
 University president Darryll Pines had in fact gone to great lengths to allow Students for Justice in Palestine to rally on the anniversary of the terror attack — an event advertised as &#8220;honor[ing] the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-will-let-anti-israel-group-hold-oct-7-rally">150,000+ martyrs</a> who have lost their lives within the past year&#8221; — including his personally echoing the false claim that Israel had killed 150,000 people, which not even Hamas contended.
But that freedom appeared to extend only to certain groups. In an email obtained by the Daily Wire, Pines threatened to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-of-maryland-prez-said-anti-israel-protesters-could-rally-on-10-7-then-threatened-to-call-police-on-jew-for-complaining">call the police on a Jewish woman</a> if she did not stop emailing faculty and staff with complaints about antisemitism.
When Jewish critics raised that double standard by wondering how Pines, who is black, would respond if it were a KKK rally instead of an anti-Israel rally, or confederate flags instead of Palestinian ones on the campus&#8217;s central quad, the rhetorical device seemed to go over Pines&#8217; head: he took it as a literal assertion that there was actually a KKK rally planned for October 7, and suddenly his prior First Amendment concerns no longer seemed to apply. 
Patricia Perillo, the University of Maryland’s Vice President of Student Affairs, later said in an affidavit that “on August 26, 2024, an individual emailed University President Darryll J. Pines, who is Black, advising that if the University was going to permit SJP’s event to go forward, ‘then my Klan Rally with sheets and a noose are also approved.’”
Pines cancelled all events on October 7, not because of his aversion to the anti-Israel event, but because of what he suggested was anti-black racism and threats by Jewish people, requiring the cancellation of events to protect the safety of the Palestine activists, according to prior Daily Wire reporting and CAIR&#8217;s summary of the lawsuit.
&#8220;The University <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/s/Defendants-Opposition-to-Plaintiffs-Motion-for-TRO-and-PI.pdf">responded to CAIR and Palestine Legal’s lawsuit</a> by claiming that it was forced to cancel all events due to racist threats from pro-Israel individuals, who had threatened to organize a KKK rally and come to campus armed if SJP’s vigil was allowed to proceed. At the hearing, University of Maryland Police Chief David Mitchell testified that pro-Israel individuals even threatened UMD President Darryl Pines’ family and used the N-word,&#8221; CAIR said in its statement heralding the settlement.
But the postponement of all October 7 gatherings on campus was short-lived. Despite Pines&#8217; general sympathy to the group, SJP sued his university in federal court, backed by lawyers from CAIR. On October 2, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte wrote that the Palestinian group would suffer &#8220;irreparable harm&#8221; if it could not congregate on that date to mark &#8220;what it calls Israel&#8217;s most recent &#8216;genocidal campaign,'&#8221; and ordered the event <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-judge-says-university-must-let-anti-israel-group-hold-oct-7-event">reinstated</a>.
In its statement on the settlement, CAIR cast the planned event as a &#8220;vigil&#8221; somberly mourning the deaths of people in the Israel-Hamas war, but that is not what contemporaneous documents indicate. SJP&#8217;s national headquarters had called for a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/this-student-group-is-calling-for-a-week-of-rage-beginning-october-7">&#8220;Week of Rage&#8221;</a> coinciding with the anniversary of the Palestinian terrorist group&#8217;s slaughter of 1,200 Israelis. 
An application for reserving campus space, filed August 1, contained only a nine-word description of the event (&#8220;One year since the genocidal bombing campaign in Gaza&#8221;), according to documents obtained under public records laws, and Jewish critics have raised questions about whether the group failed to properly comply with the university&#8217;s rules for getting events approved, which would have given Pines a mechanism for blocking the event. 
Pines dismissed complaints from Jews by claiming that the group had &#8220;condemned the horrific attack by Hamas,&#8221; but a Daily Wire review of SJP&#8217;s social media showed no such sentiment. SJP instead said on Instagram that it supports the “<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C_WntvnPe2D/?img_index=5">right of Palestinians to carry out armed struggle,</a>” and “unequivocally states that the Zionist state of Israel has <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C9yDEB3PJv6/?img_index=5">no right to exist</a>.” 
Pines was so invested in defending the anti-Israel group that he resorted to academic misconduct, sending a Jewish critic what he said was original &#8220;faculty research&#8221; from Middle East scholars on campus that proved that the Palestinian flag was not objectionable. The Daily Wire found that what he called the &#8220;consensus opinion from these faculty scholars,&#8221; whom he claimed he personally consulted with, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-plagiarized-from-chatgpt-to-justify-anti-israel-oct-7-rally">actually came from ChatGPT</a>.
That misrepresentation spurred The Daily Wire to check Pines&#8217; past academic work for plagiarism, and it found that nearly one-third of a 5,000-word paper was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/university-of-maryland-president-copied-rocket-science-paper-from-aussie-student">copied and pasted from an Australian student</a>, who was never referenced anywhere in the paper. There was evidence that Pines (or his co-author) had not accidentally mixed up someone else&#8217;s work with their own, because the British spellings in the Australian version had — with one exception that was missed — been changed to the American versions.
Pines acknowledged &#8220;recurrent language&#8221; but denied misconduct, and the state&#8217;s university system opened a review into his academic integrity. Ten months later, the review panel has <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;opi=89978449&amp;url=https://www.thebaltimorebanner.com/education/higher-education/university-of-maryland-darryll-pines-plagiarism-AHZESFHKN5HA5DLTEF32CER46E/">issued no findings</a>.
The University of Maryland did not answer The Daily Wire&#8217;s questions, but said in a statement that &#8220;the litigation in federal court has been mutually resolved through a settlement agreement with no admission of liability by the University.&#8221;
&#8220;UMD SJP is a registered University student organization in good standing which has had more than 100 events on campus since October 7, 2023, for which it consistently followed the University’s policies and procedures governing such events,&#8221; it added. &#8220;The University reiterates its support for the First Amendment and particularly making campus space available for individuals and groups of all viewpoints to share their opinions pursuant to its Guidelines for Expressive Activities and the First Amendment. The University takes very seriously its responsibilities for the safety and security of all University students and other members of its community.&#8221;
A top senator this week <a href="https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-long-investigate-cair-for-ties-to-terrorists">called</a> for CAIR&#8217;s tax-exempt status to be examined due to its &#8220;ties to terrorists.&#8221;

UMD Students for Justice in Palestine / Instagram

University of Maryland Will Pay Anti-Israel Group That Planned Campus Rally On October 7

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