By Ian Lopez, Bloomberg
The Trump administration is stripping some federal education funding from California for refusing to remove what the government calls “radical gender ideology” from sex education materials.
California is poised to lose $12.3 million in the cuts, an HHS spokesperson told Bloomberg Law, which come in the form of the termination of a grant for a program focused on sexual education to adolescents.
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All told, California’s public schools receive nearly $8 billion of aid from Washington each year to support programs for low-income students, pupils with disabilities and special-education services. in June, the US Education Department said the state is violating rules protecting female athletes from unfair competition and also threatened to pull funding.
“California’s refusal to comply with federal law and remove egregious gender ideology from federally funded sex-ed materials is unacceptable,” US Department of Health and Human Services’ Andrew Gradison said in a statement Thursday on the sexual education grant cut. Gradison is the acting assistant secretary of the department’s Administration for Children and Families, which handles the grant funding at issue.
“The Trump Administration will not allow taxpayer dollars to be used to indoctrinate children. Accountability is coming for every state that uses federal funds to teach children delusional gender ideology,” Gradison said.
The California Department of Public Health didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The announcement comes as the Trump administration continues cracking down on gender affirming care services and education in the US.
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The US Department of Justice is also ramping up efforts, with recently unsealed court findings showing the administration subpoenaed the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for 15 categories of information on gender-related care, including names, addresses, and Social Security numbers of patients that received treatment.
The Federal Trade Commission is similarly looking into whether gender-affirming care for minors could count as deceptive trade practices.
The HHS said in its Thursday announcement that California was teaching “curricula that could encourage kids to contemplate mutilating their genitals” and instructed educators to tell students that men are at times born with female anatomy.
“Despite clear direction, California responded to ACF stating they will not be making the required modifications, leading ACF to take decisive action to terminate their PREP grant,” the HHS spokesperson said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has pushed back on an HHS report earlier this year that claimed the department found little benefit for medical intervention for minors with gender dysphoria. The AAP’s president, Susan Kressly, said in a May statement that the HHS report “misrepresents the current medical consensus and fails to reflect the realities of pediatric care.”
The HHS told California Department of Public Health officials in a letter that they can appeal the findings within thirty days.
–With assistance from Felipe Marques.
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