APS Board votes to return to 2020 version of sex nondiscrimination policy
The Austin Public School Boards on Monday night voted unanimously to revert its Title Ix Sex Nondiscrimination Policy, which will bring the district in line with a Federal court decision handed down in January.
The court decision came on Jan. 9 and vacates the federal 2024 Final Rule on Title IX, which in part shortened the process by which sexual discrimination cases are investigated. As part of the Final Rule on Title IX, the definition of sex-based harassment was also expanded to include sexual orientation, gender identity, sex stereotypes and pregnancy.
However, the Jan. 9 decision found that the rule was a violation of not only the First Amendment and the Spending Clause of the Constitution, but it also went beyond the reach of the United States Department of Education's authority in regard to Title IX.
In that regard it only prohibited discrimination based on sex as male or female and didn't include gender identity.
According to a Jan. 31 press release from the Department of Education, the ruling comes after Republican Attorneys General successfully challenged the Biden Administration's rewrite in 2024.
"The department will return to enforcing Title IX protections on the basis of biological sex in schools and on campuses," the release read and goes on to claim that: "Returning to the 2020 Title IX Rule also ends a serious threat to campus free speech and ensures much stronger due process protections for students during Title IX proceedings."
According to a memo presented by Austin Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Joey Page Monday night, the court's decision affected the Minnesota School Board Association's Model Policy 522. In order to be consistent required by the Federal court's ruling, the MSBA replaced the 2024 version of the policy by reverting back to the 2020 policy and recommended that school boards do the same thing if they adopted the 2024 policy in order to also comply with the court ruling.
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Politico
21 minutes ago
- Politico
Trump's college admissions changes could backfire
Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook: Remaking Government, your guide to Donald Trump's unprecedented overhaul of the federal government — the key decisions, the critical characters and the power dynamics that are upending Washington and beyond. Send tips | Subscribe | Email Sophia | Email Irie | Email Ben President DONALD TRUMP's efforts to tamp down on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in higher education are expected to reshape college admissions across the country. Their impacts could backfire on his base. The Department of Education will add a new mandatory survey for all four-year institutions called the 'Admissions and Consumer Transparency Supplement,' according to a notice published today in the Federal Register. For each person who applied, was admitted and enrolled in college, the federal government will require schools to turn over data on race, sex, test scores, grade point average, family income and Pell Grant eligibility. The information 'could indicate whether institutions of higher education are using race-based preferencing in their admissions processes,' the directive says. It's the latest move in the White House's broader effort to eliminate admission practices the administration says disadvantage white and Asian students, as spelled out in a presidential memorandum Trump signed last week. The Justice Department last month prohibited the use of proxies — such as geography or 'diversity statements' — as tools for improving racial diversity. Experts predict that the new survey — paired with a fear among universities that the administration will target them — will cause admissions offices to more heavily weigh test scores and GPAs in their admissions decisions, compared to other criteria such as personal essays or interviews. That change, they say, will disadvantage lower-income applicants. 'This administration is trying to emphasize test scores and GPAs, which normally favor students from wealthier backgrounds who can afford private tutoring, and undermines first-generation, low-income students whose potential isn't captured by a number,' said SEAN ROBINS, director of advocacy at the nonpartisan National Association for College Admission Counseling. Many of those first-generation, low-income students — or their families — belong to Trump's core voting bloc. Research has historically shown that students from higher-income, higher-educated families tend to earn higher high school grades and standardized test scores. Trump in 2024 lost voters with a college degree by 16 points — including white college graduates by 12 points — and upper-income voters by 5 points, according to Pew Research Center. 'Poor students, individuals who are first-gen students — those individuals may not have the resources to get a high score on a standardized test, the SAT or ACT, which the administration is pushing for,' Robins said. 'As we know, that disproportionately benefits wealthier students, regardless of race, and it creates barriers for low-income, first-generation students across the board.' Most of the country's private universities — gatekeepers of social mobility — exercise 'holistic admissions' that take into account the challenges an applicant may have faced when deciding who to accept. Conservatives have long argued that this practice unfairly disadvantages white and Asian applicants, who have been shown to need higher test scores to be admitted to top schools compared to students from other racial and ethnic groups. In a statement, White House spokesperson HARRISON FIELDS said Trump's actions 'will prioritize fairness, merit, and American values, and hold woke universities accountable for prioritizing DEI over data,' adding that the president 'is ending discriminatory race-based admissions that are illegal, strip opportunities and scholarships from hardworking students, and waste taxpayer dollars.' The expected greater emphasis on test scores will likely benefit white and Asian applicants, who tend to score higher than other racial and ethnic groups. Trump won white voters by 12 points but lost Asian voters by 17 points, according to Pew. He won white voters earning $100,000 or more by 1 point, but lost white college graduates earning $100,000 or more by 17 points, according to CNN exit polling. 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CBS News
21 minutes ago
- CBS News
Colorado governor responds to letter from Department of Justice urging end to "sanctuary policies"
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Transgender runner Evie Parts sues NCAA and Swarthmore College for removal from track team
Long-distance runner Evie Parts sued the NCAA and Swarthmore College as well as members of its athletic department on the grounds they illegally removed her from the track team because she is a transgender athlete. Parts' lawsuit said the NCAA's ban on transgender athletes in women's sports did not have legal grounds because it's not a governmental organization and therefore does not have jurisdiction over Pennsylvania state law or the Title IX federal statute. She was removed from the team on Feb. 6, the day the NCAA issued its new policy on transgender athletes. Swarthmore men's and women's track coach Peter Carroll, athletic director Brad Koch and athletics officials Christina Epps-Chiazor and Valerie Gomez also were named in the lawsuit. According to the complaint, they sent Parts into 'such a depressive state that she engaged in self-harm and in one moment told a friend that she wanted to kill herself.' 'We stand by the allegations in the complaint,' said Susie Cirilli, an attorney who, with the law firm Spector, Gadon, Rosen and Vinci, represent Parts. 'As stated in the complaint, the NCAA is a private organization that issued a bigoted policy. Swarthmore College chose to follow that policy and disregard federal and state law.' Swarthmore did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The NCAA chose not to comment. The NCAA changed its participation policy for transgender athletes to limit competition in women's sports to athletes assigned female at birth. That change came a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from girls' and women's sports. Pennsylvania's state Senate approved a bill by a 32-18 margin on May 6 to ban transgender athletes from competing in women's and girls' sports at the collegiate and K-12 levels. But the state's Democratic-controlled House of Representatives isn't expected to vote on the bill. Parts joined the Swarthmore track team in the fall 2020 before then taking off the following four winter and spring seasons. She went back to the Division III team in 2023 to compete in the indoor and outdoor track seasons and in cross country. When the NCAA issued its ban, the lawsuit states, Parts was told by Epps-Chiazor and Gomez that she could compete with the men's team or as an unattached athlete. She would only receive medical treatment, the complaint says, if she competed on the men's team. Also, according to the lawsuit, Carroll and his staff were not allowed to coach Parts, she could not travel with the team, was not allowed to receive per diem or food and had to pay her way into meets. Parts also couldn't wear a Swarthmore uniform. Swarthmore 'fully reinstated' Parts on April 11, the lawsuit says, and she competed on the women's team until graduating in May. Parts won the 10,000 meters in April at the Bill Butler Invitational. ___ AP sports:
