Betsy DeVos and funding schools that discriminate

By Devon Shanley

As a trans educator, I immediately thought of the devastating and life-threatening impact of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ words when she recently refused to rule out giving federal funds to private schools that openly discriminate against students.

Instead of speaking out against discriminatory policies targeting LGBTQ and Non-Binary youth and families, our secretary of education merely smiles.

In a House subcommittee hearing on the Trump-DeVos education budget on May 24, Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark asked DeVos if she could think of any circumstance where she would argue that the state “cannot discriminate whether it be on sexual orientation, race, special needs in our voucher programs?”

At the May 24 hearing, DeVos kept insisting that it’s up to the states. At a Senate budget hearing on June 6, her new talking point was that “schools that receive federal funds must follow federal law” (she repeated it 14 times!). But she refused to answer “no” when Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley asked her if private schools that take federal dollars should be allowed to turn away LGBTQ students.

The fact is no current federal law explicitly protects the rights of all LGBTQ students. So when is “state flexibility” a cover to allow further institutional harm against our most vulnerable students? And should federal dollars be flowing to schools that discriminate?

In December 2014, a young transgender teen named Leelah Alcorn took her own life. Leelah lived in Ohio, one of three remaining states (alongside Tennessee and Idaho) that do not allow trans people the legal right to change their gender marker on their birth certificate. Such a prohibition serves a purpose: namely, to assist in the systematic legal erasure of trans autonomy. The state of Ohio says you exist how they want you to, and that’s that, end of story. In her suicide letter, Leelah pleaded that we “fix society,” stating that “gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better.”

Whether we focus on a trans teen pleading for justice in Ohio or state-sanctioned bigotry in Indiana where LGBTQ students are excluded from attending voucher schools, the conversation remains the same: We must stand up for our LGBTQ and Non-Binary youth and families.

As public school educators, we must push the conversation not only in congressional hearings, but also in classroom meetings with school administrators and in the lessons we produce and prioritize in our curriculum.

How are we creating safe, supportive and affirming environments for all students? How are we not only challenging Betsy DeVos’ willful, life-threatening ignorance, but also acting against the silence meant to destroy transgender people?

Devon Shanley is a middle school English teacher in Brooklyn.