Maine officials announced Friday that they will not enforce a ban against transgender students participating in high school sports, following a Trump Administration finding that Maine violated anti-discrimination law by allowing them to compete.
In March, the U.S. Education Department announced that it had concluded after an investigation that the Maine Department of Education had violated federal Title IX laws by allowing transgender students to play on girls’ teams. The investigation was launched after a public dispute with the Democratic Maine Governor. Janet Mills met President Donald Trump during a meeting of governors in February.
The Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Education Department issued a final notice on March 31, telling the state that it must comply with the law within 10 working days, or the U.S. Justice Department will enforce the law. The deadline was Friday.
Maine and the federal governments are in an impasse. The state won’t sign a proposed resolution by the Trump administration that would resolve the disagreement through the banning of transgender athletes.
In Forster’s email, he stated that “Nothing in Title IX and its implementing regulations prevents schools from allowing girls and women of transgender identity to participate in girls’ and woman’s sports teams.” “Your letters up to this point have not cited a single instance that supports your position.”
Trump said that the state could lose federal funding if they do not comply.
The Maine Department of Education has shown a shocking indifference towards its female athletes, past, present, and future. MDOE’s refusal to comply with Title IX allows — and even encourages — male athletes to endanger the safety of women athletes, steal girls’ hard-earned awards, and deny them equal opportunities in educational activities that they are entitled to under Title IX.
Maine’s schools need federal funding. According to Census data, Maine received $358 million from the federal government for K -12 education in 2021-22. This is 10% of Maine’s budget. A little over 13% of the money was allocated to Title I. 14% went to special education, and 20% went to school lunches. Title I is a financial aid program that provides additional funding to school districts in order to help children from low-income households.
Nearly half of the federal funds were marked “other,” which is likely to be a reference to the significant COVID-19 aid funds that schools received in 2018. Maine received 6% of its funding from federal sources before the pandemic. That’s almost $185,000,000 in 2018-19.
During the White House meeting in February, Mills and Trump argued about the issue of funding for schools and transgender athletes in Maine. Trump threatened to withdraw federal funding from Maine if the state didn’t comply with his executive orders barring transgender athletes.
Mills replied: “We’ll be seeing you in court.”
The Education Department and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began investigations into the state shortly after.
Health and Human Services officials stated in March that the Maine Department of Education, the Maine Principals’ Association, and a high school were all in violation of Title IX due to the participation of transgender sportsmen. The Health Department has already sent the matter to the Justice Department, which will enforce it in court.
Both the principals’ associations and school districts said that they would not adhere to a proposed agreement banning the athletes.
Maine Republicans, who are the minority in both chambers of the Legislature, have pressured state Democrats to end the investigations. Billy Bob Faulkingham of the House Republican Leadership, during a press conference, stated that Mills created a hostage situation that jeopardized federal funding.
Faulkingham stated, “The governor and her administration are holding Maine schools and Maine educational funding hostage. This standoff will not end well for Maine’s education funding.”
LGBTQ+ groups in Maine defended Maine’s policy. EqualityMaine posted on social media that “we’re still not giving up, and we aren’t giving in to our trans community.”
The federal authorities are also investigating Maine concerning allegations that school districts there violate federal law when they withhold information from parents about a student’s gender transition.
