There have been multiple instances of pushback against Barack Obama’s recent executive mandate regarding “transgender students” in public schools despite the blackmailing threats by the Department of Education to withhold funding over non-compliance. Now another one has arisen, but not from a single school district. The Board of Education for the state of Kansas has taken a stand and they will not force individual schools to comply with the dictate, leaving it up to each community to decide for themselves. (Washington Post)

The Kansas State Board of Education voted unanimously on Tuesday to ignore a directive from President Obama’s administration that public schools allow transgender students to use restrooms matching their gender identity, and instead the board left decisions up to school districts.

What remains unclear is whether the 10-0 vote will endanger over $479 million in federal aid, or about 10 percent of the state’s education budget.

Scott Gordon, general counsel for the state’s education department, said that the threat of loss of federal funding is not sweeping. The entire state would not lose federal education funding if one school is found out of compliance with the anti-discrimination law. Gordon told The Associated Press that he didn’t think the board’s statement would jeopardize federal aid.

The big question hanging over their heads in Kansas is precisely the one which no educational body should have to deal with. Will the federal government exact revenge on them in the form of cutting off funding for all students in all avenues of need for refusing to comply with an executive mandate based on no science and providing only dubious (if any) benefit to the students and their families? It’s an offensive situation and one which they shouldn’t need to be struggling with. There is no final court finding on this issue as yet and the medical community is divided to say the least.

It’s doubly problematic when you consider the fact that there is such a clear and easy solution within the grasp of schools even if you accept the “problem” as one requiring an answer to begin with. Other schools have made allowances for students who present symptoms of gender dysphoria by way of providing single user bathroom, locker or changing facilities where available or allowing them to use faculty facilities if none are available. Threatening to remove the entire school system’s funding over a mandate dealing with an issue which is highly controversial at best is inexcusable.

Kansas represents yet another case where we’ll need to see if the Obama administration makes good on their blackmail threats and moves to cut off funding. If so, the Kansas Board of Education needs to bring suit and get this question in front of the Supreme Court. This overt political correctness and kowtowing to a preferred political activist group to win a few more votes in November is not just insulting, but detrimental to the education system.