The Trump administration has issued a directive to 40 states, giving them 60 days to eliminate references to gender ideology from their sex education curricula or face the potential loss of federal funding.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families sent letters to these 40 states and six U.S. territories, demanding the removal of all mentions of gender ideology from their federally funded Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) materials within the specified timeframe.
"Accountability is coming," stated Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison on Tuesday. "Federal funds will not be used to poison the minds of the next generation or advance dangerous ideological agendas. The Trump Administration will ensure that PREP reflects the intent of Congress, not the priorities of the left."
Recently, the Trump administration terminated California’s PREP grant after the state failed to remove gender ideology from its educational content.
The letters clarify that the purpose of the PREP grant is for states to "carry out personal responsibility education programs consistent with this subsection," emphasizing that these programs should focus on "both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS."
"[T]he statute includes no mention of gender ideology, which is both irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception and unrelated to any of the adult preparation subjects described in section 713(b)(2)(C)," the letters state.
They further assert, "The statute neither requires, supports nor authorizes teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex or that boys can identify as girls and vice versa; thus, gender ideology is outside the scope of the authorizing statute and any expenditures associated with gender ideology are not allowable, reasonable, or allocable to the PREP grant."
The letters specifically addressed curriculum encouraging children to use gender pronouns, targeting states including Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Guam, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New York, the Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Statistics provided by the Trump administration indicate that over $81 million in federal funding is at risk in these states and territories due to their inclusion of gender ideology in PREP materials.
This threat to withdraw federal funds follows a recent decision where the Administration for Children and Families pulled $12 million from California’s education program, citing curriculum that discusses "altering" the body "through hormone therapy" and "adding or removing breast tissue," as well as instructing teachers to "remind students that some men are born with female anatomy."
The administration’s campaign to withhold funding from schools promoting gender ideology traces back to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on January 29, which vowed to cut funding for any public school supporting "indoctrination" including "gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology."
