President Trump rescinded critical federal guidelines issued by the Obama administration that instructed schools to allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms according to their gender identities, insisting that the issue was best left to states to decide. A Texas court ruling last year had already placed a partial stay on this rule.

Senate Joint Resolution 25 was introduced in the Senate on Tuesday. The bill, which has already been approved by the House of Representatives, would end regulations finalized late last year that govern state plans concerning testing opt-outs, school turnarounds, and other accountability measures to ensure they meet appropriate standards.

On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order that moved a federally funded initiative focused on Historically Black Colleges and Universities from the Department of Education to the White House. Trump has promised to increase funding to the HBCUs.

In his address the same evening to a joint session of Congress, Trump called education "the civil rights issue of our time," and advocated for an education bill that would allow low-income families to "choose the public, private, charter, magnet, religious, or home school that is right for them."

Relatedly, H.R. 610 "Choices in Education Act of 2017" is making its way through the House. This bill would repeal the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and establish a rule that the Department of Education is only authorized to distribute block grants to states that establish education voucher programs. It also repeals a rule that established critical nutrition standards for the national school lunch and breakfast programs.

Senate Joint Resolution 26 was introduced in the Senate on Thursday, which would repeal regulations that govern how teacher preparation programs measure student success.

What You Can Do

  • Read some of the recent research about the impact of vouchers in schools, including a summary of the research and a few powerful briefs from research studies. Recent research has found that voucher programs have negative results for students in both reading and math achievement.
  • Read the newly published report from the Center for American Progress which details how due to size, 85 percent of the regular school districts in the United States are either entirely or more than likely to be unworkable when it comes to vouchers.
  • Call your Congressional representatives and ask them to vote no on H.R. 610. Explain that protecting and strengthening our nation's public school system is critical to expanding civil rights.
  • Call your local school board and demand that they create or strengthen their guidelines protecting the civil rights of transgender students.

Questions to Ask Your Member of Congress

  • Access to a free, appropriate public education is one of the cornerstones of democracy. Will you vote no on H.R. 610, which transfers critical federal aid from public schools to private schools?
  • What actions are you taking to ensure transgender students have access to bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity?

- Education Policy Working Group, RISE Stronger

Have comments or something to add? Contact the RISE Education Policy Working Group at [email protected]