In an open letter to school districts by Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, American Federation of Teachers union affiliate Texas AFT joined a coalition of student activists and more than 30 organizations urging superintendents to support the Biden administration’s radical changes to Title IX.
According to the letter released on Wednesday, the groups claim Texas has “wasted taxpayer dollars on frivolous federal lawsuits.”
The groups also expressed their disappointment in “the state administration’s active refusal to accept Title IX protections as interpreted by the federal government” and its “relentless audacity to challenge the law in court at the expense of the people of Texas.”
Additionally, the letter states that the new Title IX rules safeguard “transgender and gender expansive individuals” from discrimination that schools in Texas have “pushed with increasing frequency and scope in recent years.”
Title IX’s original role was to prevent sex discrimination in federally funded school programs. The Biden administration altered the definition of “sex” in Title IX to include “gender identity” and “sexual orientation.”
In response to the new Title IX guidelines, Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter in May directing public universities and community colleges to disregard the rule’s revisions.
“As I have already made clear, Texas will not comply with President Joe Biden’s rewrite of Title IX that contradicts the original purpose and spirit of the law to support the advancement of women,” he said.
Abbott added, “Last week, I instructed the Texas Education Agency to ignore President Biden’s illegal dictate of Title IX. Today, I am instructing every public college and university in the State of Texas to do the same.”
The rewrite of the rule is seen as having a profound impact on female athletes because it allows biological males to participate in women’s sports, a move which Keller ISD unanimously rejected in a recent school board meeting, vowing to protect “the safety” the district’s “biologically female athletes” and preserve the “integrity of women’s sports.”
In June, Texas Scorecard reported that Attorney General Ken Paxton “secured a permanent injunction” against the Title IX enforcement scheduled to go into effect on August 1.
Previously, America First Legal (AFL) joined Attorney General Paxton as outside counsel to fight against changes to Title IX. Calling the new rules “an abomination,” AFL president Stephen Miller said AFL would “battle this regulation in court with all the legal fight we can bring. It must be defeated for the sake of American women and for the sake of our daughters.”
A federal court has since struck down the Biden administration’s 1,500-page revision.
