Local education officials are weighing a challenge to the Trump administration for saying it will revoke New York City’s magnet school grants over its gender policies for bathroom-use, as Mayor Adams and his chancellor appear to be at odds over the wedge issue.
In a letter, obtained by the Daily News, New York City Public Schools General Counsel Liz Vladeck asked the U.S. Education Department’s civil rights office on Friday to “explain the nexus” between their interpretation of federal sex-based discrimination law and the Magnet Schools Assistance Program, or “MSAP.”
“The policies that you cite are not specific to the MSAP and your letter does not provide a basis for targeting MSAP grants,” Vladeck wrote. “Nor is it clear how OCR’s [Office for Civil Rights] interpretation of Title IX impacts the goals of the MSAP to expand access and educational opportunities for underserved communities.”
The $35-million grants support five local magnet schools, which were approved and are currently operating. Vladeck requested a 30-day extension to “consider the impact of the denial of grant funds on the individual schools and students attending those schools.”
The Trump administration on Sept. 16 threatened to withhold the funding if city schools did not agree by the end of last week to its demands, including to separate bathrooms on the basis of sex and issue a public statement to families saying as much. The memo also took aim at school locker rooms, sports teams, and overnight field trip accommodations.
It was not clear if the extension was granted. Reps for the city and federal education departments did not immediately return requests for comment.
The letter comes as Mayor Adams in a series of TV hits Monday doubled down on his call last week to examine changing the city’s school bathroom gender policy, which allows students to use the facilities aligned with their identity. But the mayor conceded he doesn’t have much authority to change the policy, which must follow state law.
“I don’t have the authority to change it. If I did, I [would] change it,” Adams told PIX11 News. “I don’t know what parent of a little girl would be comfortable with a boy walking into the shower where their baby is.”
The News has reached out to City Hall for clarity as to what the mayor was referring to.
Adams, however, indicated he would use his bully pulpit to advocate for changes to state law.
“Now that I know what laws need to be changed, I’m going to speak to working class people and parents and say it’s time for us to go to Albany, look at these laws and see how they are impacting and confusing our young people.”
Last week, Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos — taking a differtent approach — said it was the state law, but also city school “values” that prompted them to reaffirm their gender guidelines.
“To date, those policies remain in place, and we’re going to continue to uphold them as part of our values here in New York City Public Schools,” Aviles-Ramos told New York politics podcaster Ben Max.
“Regardless of how you see yourself, regardless of the way in which you identify, it is not okay for you to walk into a building and feel that you have a target on your back. That’s not acceptable. And so as the adults, it is our charge to be compassionate and understanding and create the spaces for young people to be safe.”
Adams and others in his orbit have denied that his commentary on gender and school bathrooms was related to President Trump’s demands, though his statements came a day after a citywide education panel received the first memo from the feds.
“Adams’ repeated off-the-cuff statements on this are sending a terrible message to our students,” said Naveed Hasan, chair of the Government Affairs Committee of the Panel for Educational Policy, the letter’s recipient. “It amounts to bullying little children.”
With Chris Sommerfeldt