Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont wants Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to mind her own business.
The Democratic leader had strong words for DeVos in a Monday press briefing regarding the Trump administration’s threat to revoke funding from Connecticut schools over their support for trans athletes. Earlier this month, the Department of Education issued a warning to districts in Groton, Hartford, and New Haven that they could lose over $18 million in federal funding if they continue to allow transgender students to compete in accordance with their gender identity.
“I just wish the federal government would just butt out on this subject,” Lamont told reporters on Monday. “Leave our kids alone.”
The schools at the center of the Department of Education’s action belong to the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, the state’s governing body for student athletics. It has maintained the policies are designed to comply with a statewide trans-inclusive nondiscrimination law passed in 2011.
The Department of Education, however, believes the CIAC policies violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a civil rights law which was designed to ensure women have equal access to education. The DOE’s Office of Civil Rights filed a 45-page complaint in May stating that allowing trans students to compete has “denied female student-athletes athletic benefits and opportunities.”
Following the issuance of that letter, DeVos has threatened to pull funds from Connecticut schools which were initially earmarked for segregation efforts, one of many anti-trans actions taken by the Department of Education under Trump.
Lamont initially signaled a reticence to take on the Trump administration over trans student inclusion, telling the Hartford Courant newspaper in June that he didn’t “want to lose any federal funds, that’s for sure.” But after weeks of silence on the issue, he vowed that Connecticut would “stand up and fight against discrimination.”
“The idea that they’re going to come in, the federal government, and politicize a tough, versatile situation six weeks before an election?” Lamont said, suggesting that the attacks on trans students are politically motivated. “I just find that shocking.”
The governor added that Connecticut is “going to work through this as a state.”
Other authorities in the Constitution State have already pledged to resist the White House’s attempt to force trans students out of school sports. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said in June that its team intends to “vigorously oppose” the effort, and the New Haven Unified School District is mulling taking legal action against the Department of Education to defend its CIAC membership.
The subject of trans inclusion in school athletics is the subject of several federal lawsuits across the country, both for and against their participation. The American Civil Liberties Union and Legal Voice have filed a lawsuit to overturn an Idaho law passed in March banning trans female students from competing in accordance with their gender identity.
A judge blocked the Idaho law in August as the case makes its way through the courts.
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