Trump administration weighs withholding education funding to California over transgender athletes

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Tuesday the Trump administration was considering withholding education funding to California schools, alleging the state’s policies on transgender athletes violates federal law.

“I think that is part of what we found with the state of California just blatantly refusing to be in compliance with Title IX regulations,” McMahon said at an event hosted by Bloomberg News. “So that is one of the tools and the other options that we have with California and I think it’s right that we make them aware that that is a risk that they run.”

Politico first reported that the administration was weighing cutting the funding in response to the state allowing transgender athletes to compete on teams that align with their identified gender. The administration says such a position violates federal bans on sex discrimination.

California officials have defended their policy as consistent with state law.

McMahon said earlier that the administration was not directly targeting individual schools.

“We’re not putting a bullseye out there and trying to find targets for things,” she said. “We’re looking at violations and we want to make sure we’re addressing them.”

Long-standing tensions between California and the Trump administration have deepened in recent days. Trump bypassed the state’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom to activate the National Guard — and US Marines —- in response to protests over immigration raids.

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