Month: July 2023

68 Groups Endorse Appropriations Plan to Trim Controversial Title IX Provisions from Department of Education

Post author By Edward Bartlett
Post date July 25, 2023

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Hain: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

68 Groups Endorse Appropriations Plan to Trim Controversial Title IX Provisions from Department of Education

WASHINGTON / July 25, 2023 – A coalition of 68 organizations is sending a letter today to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy that endorses important provisions related to the federal Department of Education, as enumerated in the FY2024 Appropriations Bill for Labor-HHS-Education.

The 68 organizations are all members of the Title IX Network, which was formed in July 2022 in opposition to the Biden administration’s proposed Title IX regulations (1).

The Department of Education’s proposed Title IX regulations, which are scheduled to be released in October, would change the definition of “sex” to include “gender Identity.” The proposed regulations also would harm women’s sports, promote gender transitioning among young children without parental consent, infringe on free speech, and remove due process protections for men who have been falsely accused.

As explained in the letter, the 68 organizations support key provisions that were approved by the House Appropriations sub-committee in its FY2024 Appropriations bill (2):

Section 244: Prohibits the implementation of Biden’s Executive Order on “Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.”
Section 311: Prohibits the Department of Education from implementing the proposed Title IX regulations that were issued in July of 2022 and in April of 2023.
Section 312: Protects religious liberty in schools.
Section 534: Prohibits the use of federal funds for hormone therapy or surgical treatment for “gender affirming care.”
Section 535: Prohibits the implementation of any other “diversity, equity, inclusion office, program, or training.”

We urge the House of Representatives to retain all five of these Sections, keep the strong language used in these Sections, and bring the FY2024 Appropriations Bill for Labor-HHS-Education for a prompt floor vote.

The entire coalition letter can be viewed online (3).

Links:

Department of Education

Plan to Abolish or Overhaul the U.S. Department of Education

Post author By Edward Bartlett
Post date July 24, 2023

Plan to Abolish or Overhaul the U.S. Department of Education

Lindsey Burke, Heritage Foundation

https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-11.pdf

Block-grant the program to the states
- Funding to institutions should be block-granted and narrowed to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and tribally controlled colleges. (Historically Black Colleges and Universities)
- To the extent that federal taxpayer dollars are used to fund education programs, those funds should be block granted to states without strings, eliminating the need for many federal and state bureaucrats. Eventually, policymaking and funding should take place at the state and local level, closest to the affected families
- Transfer Title I, Part A, which provides federal funding for lower-income school districts, to the Department of Health and Human Services, specifically the Administration for Children and Families. It should be administered as a no-strings-attached formula block grant.
- All other programs at OESE (Office of Elementary and Secondary Education) should be block-granted or eliminated.

Most IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) funding should be converted into a no-strings formula block grant targeted at students with disabilities and distributed directly to local education agencies by Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living.

2. Transfer the program to another agency

To the extent that OSERS (Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services) supports federal efforts to enforce our laws against discrimination of individuals with disabilities, those assets should be moved to the Department of Justice (DOJ) along with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
Move programs deemed important to our national security interests to the Department of State.
Move ED’s statistical office, the National Commission for Education Statistics (NCES), to the Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau. If Congress believes the federal government can play a valuable research role, those research centers can be moved to the National Science Foundation. If Congress decides to maintain IES as an independent agency, it needs to address major governance and management issues that keep it from being a productive contributor to the knowledge base related to teaching and learning.
The next Administration should completely reverse the student loan federalization of 2010 and work with Congress to spin o” FSA (Federal Student Aid) and its student loan obligations to a new government corporation with professional governance and management. With a statutory charge that preserves the federal student loan portfolio for the benefit of the taxpayers and students, this new entity would be (1) professionally governed by an agency head and board of trustees appointed by the President.
OCR (Office for Civil Rights) should move to the Department of Justice. The federal government has an essential responsibility to enforce civil rights protections, but Washington should do so through the Department of Justice and federal courts. The OCR at DOJ (Department of Justice) should be able to enforce only through litigation.
Attorneys, accountants, experts, and specialists in the department’s remaining offices subject to closure, and whose positions are indispensable to serving the mission, should have the opportunity to join other agencies
Attorneys, accountants, experts, and specialists in the department’s remaining offices subject to closure and whose positions are indispensable to serving the mission should have the opportunity to join other agencies.

3. Phase out and eliminate the program

Phase out earmarks for a variety of special institutions, as originally envisioned.
The next Administration should abandon this change redefining “sex” to mean “sexual orientation and gender identity” in Title IX immediately across all departments.
All ongoing investigations should be dropped, and all school districts affected should be given notice that they are free to drop any policy changes pursued under pressure from the Biden Administration.
On its first day in office, the next Administration should signal its intent to enter the rulemaking process to restore the Trump Administration’s Title IX regulation, with the additional insistence that “sex” is properly understood as a fixed biological fact. Official notice-and-comment should be posted immediately.
As part of this effort, the new Administration should also direct the department and DOJ jointly to issue enforcement guidance stating that the agencies will no longer investigate Title VI cases that exclusively rest on allegations of disparate impact.
Phase Out Existing Income-Driven Repayment Plans While income-driven repayment (IDR) of student loans is a superior approach relative to fixed payment plans, the number of IDR plans has proliferated beyond reason. And recent IDR plans are so generous that they require no or only token repayment from many students. l The Secretary should phase out all existing IDR plans by making new loans (including consolidation loans) ineligible and should implement: a new IDR plan.

4. Transfer or Eliminate Program

Reduce the number of programs managed by OESE (Office of Elementary and Secondary Education), and transfer some remaining programs to other federal agencies.
Transfer Title I, Part A, which provides federal funding for lower-income school districts, to the Department of Health and Human Services, specifically the Administration for Children and Families. It should be administered as a no-strings-attached formula block grant.
Transfer the Vocational Rehabilitation Grants for Native American students to the Bureau of Indian Education.
The next Administration should work with Congress to eliminate or move OPE (Office for Postsecondary Education) programs to ETA at the Department of Labor.
The Department of Education should work with Congress to amend the HEA to eliminate the negotiated rulemaking requirement. At a minimum, Congress should allow the department to use public hearings rather than negotiated rulemaking sessions.
Eliminate Grad PLUS loans (for graduate students) and Parent PLUS loans (for parents of undergraduates).
Eliminate the “list of shame.” Educational institutions can claim a religious exemption with the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education from the strictures of Title IX. In 2016, the Obama Administration published on the Department of Education’s website a list of colleges that had applied for the exemption. This “list of shame” of faith-based colleges, as it came to be known, has since been archived on ED’s website, still publicly available. The President should issue an executive order removing the archived list and preventing such a list from being published in the future.
Eliminate competitive grant programs and reduce spending on formula grant programs. Competitive grant programs operated by the Department of Education should be eliminated, and federal spending should be reduced to reflect remaining formula grant programs authorized under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the handful of other programs that do not fall under the competitive/ project grant category.
Eliminate the PLUS loan program. As mentioned above, the PLUS (Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success) loan program, which provides graduate student loans and loans to the parents of undergraduate students, should be eliminated. This would generate an estimated $2.3 billion in savings.
Eliminate GEAR-UP. It is not the responsibility of the federal government to provide taxpayer dollars to create a pipeline from high school to college. GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) should be eliminated, and its functions should instead be handled privately or at the state and local levels, where policymakers are better equipped to increase college preparedness within their school districts.
MISSION Federal education policy should be limited, and ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated. When power is exercised, it should empower students and families, not the government. In our pluralistic society, families and students should be free to choose from a diverse set of school options and learning environments that best fit their needs.
The future of education freedom and reform in the states is bright and will shine brighter when regulations and red tape from Washington are eliminated.
The next Administration will need a plan to redistribute the various congressionally approved federal education programs across the government, eliminate those that are ineffective or duplicative, and then eliminate the unproductive red tape and rules by entrusting states and districts with flexible, formula-driven block grants.

California Civil Rights Department of Education Due Process False Allegations Feminism Office for Civil Rights Press Release Title IX Training

Broken on Campus: High-Profile Failures Reveal Title IX Offices are in Desperate Need of Reform

Post author By Edward Bartlett
Post date July 22, 2023

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Hain: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

Broken on Campus: High-Profile Failures Reveal Title IX Offices are in Desperate Need of Reform

WASHINGTON / July 24, 2023 – Three recent reports reveal widespread oversights and failures at university offices that were established to assure compliance with Title IX, the federal law enacted to stop sex discrimination in schools. The problems with Title IX are being seen throughout the country at institutions large and small, private and public, in three areas:

Discrimination against Male Students: A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education reveals the existence of a broad array of scholarships, leadership development programs, awards, and summer camps that illegally exclude male students. The article notes that economist Mark Perry has filed hundreds of anti-discrimination complaints with the federal Office for Civil Rights, alleging more than 2,000 violations of federal antidiscrimination law by more than 750 colleges in virtually every state around the country (1).
Due Process: To date, 265 judicial decisions have been handed down (2) against colleges for sex discrimination (3), lack of due process, and other similar violations. One of the most notable decisions was rendered on June 27 when the Connecticut Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of student Saif Khan, who had been falsely accused of sexual assault. The Court singled out numerous due process deficiencies in the school’s Title IX procedures, including the fact that Yale “failed to establish an adequate record of the proceedings.” (4)
Handling of Sexual Harassment Complaints: A new report reveals a constellation of failures at California State University, the nation’s largest four-year public university. The report documents the lack of a coordinated approach across the 23-campus system, resulting in sexual misconduct complaints being ignored, mishandled, or falling through the cracks. The report deplores the lack of a “consistent formal process for reporting, resolving, documenting, or tracking” of complaints, and makes numerous recommendations for improvement (5).

Part of the problem can be traced to a lack of legal expertise among Title IX coordinators. According to the Association of Title IX Administrators, the leading trade organization for Title IX coordinators, fewer than one in four coordinators have a Juris Doctor degree (6). Another analysis revealed a pro-feminist, anti-male bias among many Title IX coordinators (7).

In addition, the Association of Title IX Administrators has a well-documented history of seeking to roll back on Fourteenth Amendment-based due process protections for the accused (8). Last year, a lawsuit was filed against ATIXA president Brett Sokolow for allegedly using company funds for personal purposes and defrauding clients (9).

All of these facts point to a pervasive lack of impartiality, professionalism, and legal expertise in the Title IX field. One might reasonably conclude that these problems need to be addressed before any efforts are make to widen the scope of the Title IX law or increase the duties of Title IX coordinators.

And that’s exactly what the Department of Education’s proposed Title IX regulation seeks to do (10).

Citations:

Campus Civil Rights Department of Education Due Process Free Speech Gender Agenda Gender Identity Office for Civil Rights Press Release Sexual Harassment Title IX

Five Presidential Contenders Have Called for Abolition of the U.S. Department of Education

Post author By Edward Bartlett
Post date July 18, 2023

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Hain: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

Five Presidential Contenders Have Called for Abolition of the U.S. Department of Education

WASHINGTON / July 18, 2023 – The U.S. Department of Education has introduced two proposed Title IX regulations in the past year (1,2) that would expand the definition of sex to include “gender identity,” a change that would have far-reaching effects on students, families, and women’s sports. The proposals also would serve to revamp the meaning of the Constitution, especially its provisions regarding free speech (First Amendment) and due process (Fourteenth Amendment).

In response, five current or previous Republican presidential contenders, listed below in alphabetical order, have called for the abolition of the Department of Education (3):

Ron DeSantis: In response to the question, Are you in favor of eliminating any agencies: “We would do education, commerce, energy, and the IRS….With the Department of Education, we reverse all the transgender sports stuff. Women’s sports should be protected.”
Mike Pence: “Eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and convert some of its current budget to grants to states and localities, providing maximum flexibility in how to deploy federal dollars.”
Mike Pompeo: Asked by commentator John Stossel, “Should America abolish the Department of Education?” Pompeo replied, “Yes, you should get rid of it.” (Pompeo subsequently announced his decision to not run as a presidential candidate).
Vivek Ramaswamy: “I would shut down the U.S. Department of Education…Do I favor 6-year-olds being educated on sexuality and gender ideology? No, I don’t.”
Tim Scott: “The federal government has absolutely no role in our education system whatsoever. So let’s get them out and let’s abolish the Department of Education.”

Four other persons, discussed in media accounts as possible presidential candidates, have called for major changes to Title IX-related education policies (3):

Nikki Haley: “When I was in school you didn’t have sex ed until seventh grade. And even then, your parents had to sign whether you could take the class. That’s a decision for parents to make.”
Kristi Noem: “The [South Dakota] Board of Regents should remove all references to preferred pronouns in all school materials…Students should have the ability to exercise their right to free speech.” “Our universities should not be hosting and/or promoting drag shows…Just as other dangerous theories have been allowed to thrive on college campuses, gender theory has been rebranded and accepted as truth across the nation.” (Noem subsequently announced her decision to not run as a presidential candidate).
Donald Trump: “On Day One, I will revoke Joe Biden’s cruel policies on so-called ‘gender-affirming care,’…we will promote positive education about the nuclear family…I will ask Congress to pass a bill establishing that the only genders recognized by the U.S. government are male and female…the bill will also make clear that Title IX prohibits men from participating in women’s sports.”
Glenn Youngkin: “Political indoctrination has no place in our classrooms….Inherently divisive concepts, like Critical Race Theory and its progeny, instruct students to only view life through the lens of race and presumes that some students are consciously or unconsciously racist, sexist, or oppressive, and that other students are victims.” (Youngkin subsequently announced his decision to not run as a presidential candidate).

State lawmakers in Alabama, Delaware, Idaho, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Tennessee also have gone on record to abolish the federal Department of Education (3).

In addition, former Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has stated, “I personally think the Department of Education should not exist.” (4)

All persons are invited to sign the petition, “Tell the Dept. of Education to Stop Its Radical Title IX Plan:” https://www.change.org/p/tell-the-dept-of-education-to-stop-its-radical-title-ix-plan

Note: This press release was updated to clarify that Mike Pompeo, Kristi Noem, and Glenn Youngkin later announced their decision to not run for president.

Citations:

Feminism

In Their Own Words: Feminists Claim the Family is ‘Oppressive’ to Women

Post author By Edward Bartlett
Post date July 11, 2023

In Their Own Words: Feminists Claim the Family is ‘Oppressive’ to Women

SAVE

July 11, 2023

“No woman should be authorized to stay at home to raise her children. Society should be totally different. Women should not have that choice, precisely because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one.” — Simone de Beauvoir, quoted in the Saturday Review, June 14, 1974, p. 18.
“Romance itself serves a larger political purpose by offering at least a temporary reward for gender roles and threatening rebels with loneliness and rejection.” — Gloria Steinem, Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem, 1992, p. 260.
“You become a semi-nonperson when you get married.” — Gloria Steinem
“Heterosexual intercourse is the pure, formalized expression of contempt for women’s bodies.” — Andrea Dworkin
“The simple fact is that every woman must be willing to be identified as a lesbian to be fully feminist.” — National NOW Times, January 1988
“Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women’s movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage. ” — Sheila Cronan, Page 219.
“Being a housewife is an illegitimate profession…The choice to serve and be protected and plan towards being a family-maker is a choice that shouldn’t be. The heart of radical feminism is to change that.” — Vivian Gornick, University of Illinois, “The Daily Illini,” April 25, 1981.
“In order to raise children with equality, we must take them away from families and communally raise them.” — Mary Jo Bane, associate director of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women
“Marriage has existed for the benefit of men; and has been a legally sanctioned method of control over women… We must work to destroy it. The end of the institution of marriage is a necessary condition for the liberation of women. Therefore, it is important for us to encourage women to leave their husbands and not to live individually with men” — The Declaration of Feminism, 1971.

Civil Rights Feminism

All Must Work to End the ‘War on Men on Campus’

Post author By Edward Bartlett
Post date July 10, 2023

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Hain: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

All Must Work to End the ‘War on Men on Campus’

WASHINGTON / July 10, 2023 – A new commentary probes the reasons for the declining presence of male students on college campuses – only 8 million men, compared to 11.4 million women in 2020-21.

Authored by Jennifer Kabbany, the War on Men Continues on Campus recounts that “Nowhere has the feminist goal of domination been more clearly realized than on the college campus.” (1) The analysis goes on to reveal a series of stereotypes, programs, humiliation, and smear tactics that refute any lingering notion of fundamental fairness or “gender equality:”

Stereotypes: The denigration of males begins at freshmen orientation, and permeates the entire college experience. “The nebulous term maleness is often used as a curricula cudgel when teaching subjects such as colonialism, capitalism, and systemic and institutional racism,” Kabbany explains.

Programs: Kabbany highlights the “high volume of female-only university scholarships, fellowships, internships, academic aid, and STEM programs.” College administrators apparently have never heard of the federal Title IX law that bans discrimination of students on the basis of sex.

Public Humiliation: Recalling the “struggle” sessions conducted during the Mao Zedong era, “Many colleges also host so-called privilege walks in which male students are told to step forward to acknowledge their advantages in life,” Kabbany reveals.

Smears: Campus feminists do not hesitate to resort to non-democratic methods: “The cancel culture mob is also quick to protest any frat that steps out of line, most notably over sexual assault allegations. Rather than hold to the adage ‘innocent until proven guilty,’ student activists hold marches, launch petitions, and engage in public smear campaigns to try allegations in the court of public opinion.”

Economist Mark Perry sums up the “future is female” ethos thusly: “Female privilege. It’s power, privilege, and payback, exploiting the victimhood narrative.”

Former University of Ottawa professor Janice Fiamengo takes the argument a step farther, calling out the prevalence of “feminist injustice” and “bigotry.” (2)

Emphasizing that men are “truly the backbone of our society,” Kabbany warns that these Marxist-inspired tactics threaten the very fabric of society: “Feminism’s goal to neuter men has weakened families, derailed lives, and advanced unhealthy policies, and, ultimately, it is destroying our nation.”

The politicization of higher education. The open disregard for the law. Revolutionary rhetoric. Struggle sessions. Mob justice. It happened during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. And history is repeating itself here in the United States.

Links:

Civil Rights Department of Education Free Speech Gender Agenda Gender Identity Office for Civil Rights Press Release Title IX

U.S. Department of Education: The New ‘Evil Empire’?

Post author By Edward Bartlett
Post date July 5, 2023

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Hain: 513-479-3335

Email: info@saveservices.org

U.S. Department of Education: The New ‘Evil Empire’?

WASHINGTON / July 5, 2023 – The Constitution defines the authorities and roles of the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of government as having co-equal powers (1). But in the past two years, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has repeatedly ignored this bedrock principle:

In its proposed Title IX regulation, re-wrote the meaning of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, to the severe detriment of free speech and due process (2).
Proposed to expand the definition of sex to include “gender identity,” thereby usurping the responsibility of Congress to exercise “All legislative Powers.”
Overhauled the definition of sexual harassment:

- Supreme Court Davis v. Monroe: Actions that are “so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive, and that so undermines and detracts from the victims’ educational experience.” (3)
- New definition on the DOE website: “Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.” (4)

Now, the Department of Education has gone beyond trampling on the authority of the Constitution, Congress, and the Supreme Court. Following release of its controversial Title IX proposal in 2022, the DOE has aggressively promoted the transgender agenda, which has had the effect of:

Weakening the authority of parents: “Teachers know what is best for their kids because they are with them every day.” – DOE Secy. Miguel Cardona, May 19, 2023 (5).
Promoting harmful and irreversible “gender transitioning” among under-age children, often without parental knowledge or consent (6).
Enabling violent attacks and bomb threats by transgender activists (7), including the March 27 attack at Covenant School in Nashville that killed six children and staff members.

During the month of June, the DOE issued eight tweets in support of Pride Month (8). The June 1 tweet went far beyond DOE’s Congressionally mandated authority by offering this sweeping endorsement: “Our message to LGBTQI+ students, teachers, and staff as we begin #PrideMonth: ED has got your back.” (9)

Accordingly, at the annual Drag March in New York City, hundreds of drag performers chanted, “We’re here. We’re queer. We’re coming for your children.” (10) In response, pundits referred to the marchers as “demonic” and “evil.” (11) The liberal-leaning Gays Against Groomers reached a similar conclusion about persons who might say a child was born in the wrong body: “And telling them otherwise is EVIL.” (12)

Not surprisingly, five Republican presidential candidates are now calling for the abolition of the Department of Education (13):

Ron DeSantis: In response to the question, Are you in favor of eliminating any agencies: “We would do education, commerce, energy, and the IRS….With the Department of Education, we reverse all the transgender sports stuff. Women’s sports should be protected.”
Mike Pence: “Eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and convert some of its current budget to grants to states and localities, providing maximum flexibility in how to deploy federal dollars.”
Mike Pompeo: Asked by commentator John Stossel, “Should America abolish the Department of Education?” Pompeo replied, “Yes, you should get rid of it.”
Vivek Ramaswamy: “I would shut down the U.S. Department of Education…Do I favor 6-year-olds being educated on sexuality and gender ideology? No, I don’t.”
Tim Scott: “The federal government has absolutely no role in our education system whatsoever. So let’s get them out and let’s abolish the Department of Education.”

Lawmakers are urged to institute appropriate responses to curtail the illegal actions of the U.S. Department of Education.

Citations: