Trump threat to pull funding from K-12 schools over DEI and gender policies creates uncertainty for Pa. educators and students

Even as his district’s school board banned Pride flags and required that students use bathrooms aligned with their sex assigned at birth, Charlie Weinlein has generally found staff members are open to using his preferred name and pronouns since he came out as transgender at Pennridge High School.

But Weinlein, an 18-year-old senior, worries even that measure of acceptance may now be in jeopardy, following an order by President Donald Trump that aims to ban “gender ideology” in kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools, including the social transition of transgender students.

Being forced to go by the name on his birth certificate or not be called by his pronouns “would feel like … being erased,” Weinlein said.

How schools treat transgender students is just one of the issues targeted by the latest executive order from Trump seeking to strip “radical indoctrination” from public schools, which the president accused of “imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our nation’s children.”

The order directs federal agencies to produce a plan for eliminating federal funding “for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology” — which it defines, in part, as individuals receiving “adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion.”

It also calls on the U.S. attorney general to coordinate with state attorneys general to file actions against K-12 teachers and school officials, including for “unlawfully facilitating the social transition of a minor student.”

The order — which also reinstates the 1776 Commission of Trump’s first term and calls for the promotion of “patriotic education” — is not immediately effective because the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies will have to create new rules.

But it sent a new wave of uncertainty through area school districts — some of which have already been grappling with issues around equity and gender identity — as budget season gets underway. On average, federal funding accounted for 6.5% of Pennsylvania district budgets in 2022-23; the amount varies widely among communities, with wealthier districts often receiving less.

“Districts are going to begin to assess the amount of federal funding and grants they have, and the implications of deciding whether they choose to comply with these regulations,” said Jeffrey Sultanik, a solicitor for numerous Pennsylvania school districts. “I think there’s going to be an immediate … examination of the dependency on these monies.”

Even without a concrete plan to strip federal funding, some teachers and students fear a chilling effect as schools come under intensified scrutiny.

The order, Sultanik said, targets diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, whether districts “offer DEI programs, or have a DEI individual employed by the organization, or have arguably DEI comments on their website.”

In Downingtown, officials said they had already made changes that should protect the district. “Last year, we shifted our diversity, equity, and inclusion departmental efforts to a broader focus, establishing the student life and school climate department,” said district spokesperson Jennifer Shealy. The department “focuses on student voice, student engagement, and developing a positive school environment.”

Shealy added that Downingtown “has never taught nor promoted radical, anti-American, or gender ideologies.”

In Lower Merion, which promotes diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging efforts, spokesperson Amy Buckman said the district’s legal counsel “is advising that LMSD’s current policies are not inconsistent with the recent executive order.” The district will monitor relevant developments, she said.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Education did not address whether districts could lose federal funding but said that Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration “supports Pennsylvania’s local school districts … to ensure that every child who walks through the door of a public school in Pennsylvania has an opportunity to succeed.”

The department is reviewing the latest order “and stands ready to support our school districts and charter schools,” said the spokesperson, Erin James.

Kristina Moon, a senior attorney with the Education Law Center, noted that Pennsylvania schools are still required to prevent discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, including under Pennsylvania law.

“This order has not changed any laws or schools’ obligations,” Moon said. An executive order cannot erase court decisions interpreting Title IX as recognizing that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity, Moon said.

She also noted that the U.S. Department of Education does not have legal authority to dictate curricula or instructional materials to state governments or local school boards.

But the order — one of a series of executive actions by Trump targeting the K-12 education system, including another promoting private school choice — has heightened questions for local school officials and educators.

The Upper Darby School District gets about $10 million annually in federal funding, key to the district’s $250 million budget. “If I’m worried about rumors that we could lose federal dollars — the answer is yes,” said the district’s superintendent, Dan McGarry.

But McGarry didn’t anticipate making changes to Upper Darby’s policies or practices as a result of the order. “We are going to continue to be very inclusive,” and committed to diversity in hiring, McGarry said. He said he has heard from students and community members in recent days, questioning whether there will be changes in clubs where “kids identify with political views, gender identity views.”

“No, I’m not shutting these things down for kids,” McGarry said, describing clubs as critical for students to feel a sense of belonging and protected under the First Amendment. But were Trump’s order to jeopardize those offerings, he added, that would be “unbelievably sad.”

In the Council Rock School District, veteran social studies teacher Ben Lebofsky does not foresee the order changing his approach to teaching, in which he has developed confidence over the years. But he fears it will have a damaging effect on his profession “by continuing to hammer away at education in a negative manner” — potentially dissuading people from becoming teachers at a time of ongoing shortages, and intimidating younger teachers, who may feel less equipped to respond to accusations of bias.

“We’re falling under more stringent microscopes that aren’t motivated necessarily to ensure good education, but only a particular point of view,” said Lebofsky, who has taught for 20 years. The order, he said, “definitely limits the creative impulse. It limits the potential for deep and meaningful critical conversations about society in general.”

Weinlein, the Pennridge senior, has also felt pressure when navigating “the political minefield” in his school district. It hasn’t been easy for leaders of the high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance to get approval to display safe-space posters, for instance, he said.

He fears the environment will be worse if Trump’s order — which accuses schools of steering students to become transgender — were to result in schools cutting back on representation of LGBTQ people in classrooms, and forcing transgender students to come out to families that might not be accepting.

Even though “there is no amount of legislation that can erase my community,” Weinlein said, “it would make being transgender even more isolating.”