| | | | |  | | By Bianca Quilantan | ANOTHER LEGISLATIVE SESSION FILLED WITH ANTI-LGBTQ BILLS — More than 180 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced so far this legislative session, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, with dozens centered on restricting transgender students in school. — Last year, state legislators introduced 315 anti-LGBTQ bills, according to the Human Rights Campaign. More than 90 percent of the legislation failed as only 29 bills were signed into law, but HRC said it still “marked the passage of the most anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-transgender legislation in recent history.” — In 2023, more than 80 bills look to restrict the rights of transgender students in schools, according to the ACLU, which is tracking the legislation. The bills include preventing transgender students from participating on sports teams that match their gender identity, restricting access to bathroom facilities and preventing teachers from using their students’ pronouns. About 59 bills restrict access to gender-affirming care.
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Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks during an interview. | Rick Bowmer/AP Photo | — Just this weekend, Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed into law a measure that bans gender-affirming surgeries for minors and puts a moratorium on hormone therapies for any new transgender patients.“While not a perfect bill, we are grateful for Sen. [Mike] Kennedy’s more nuanced and thoughtful approach to this terribly divisive issue,” Cox said in a statement. “More and more experts, states and countries around the world are pausing these permanent and life-altering treatments for new patients until more and better research can help determine the long-term consequences.” “While we understand our words will be of little comfort to those who disagree with us, we sincerely hope that we can treat our transgender families with more love and respect as we work to better understand the science and consequences behind these procedures," Cox said. — Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, called the law a “dangerous violation of the rights and privacy of transgender Utahns.” “Claims of protecting our most vulnerable with these laws ring hollow when lawmakers have trans children’s greatest protectors – their parents, providers, and the youth themselves – pleading in front of them not to cut them off from their care,” Strangio said. IT’S MONDAY, JAN. 30. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. Let’s grab coffee (even virtually!). Reach me at bquilantan@politico.com. Send tips to my colleagues Mackenzie Wilkes at mwilkes@politico.com, Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com and Michael Stratford at mstratford@politico.com. And follow us on Twitter: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.
| | | | JOIN POLITICO ON 2/9 TO HEAR FROM AMERICA’S GOVERNORS: In a divided Congress, more legislative and policy enforcement will shift to the states, meaning governors will take a leading role in setting the agenda for the nation. Join POLITICO on Thursday, Feb. 9 at World Wide Technology's D.C. Innovation Center for The Fifty: America's Governors, where we will examine where innovations are taking shape and new regulatory red lines, the future of reproductive health, and how climate change is being addressed across a series of one-on-one interviews. REGISTER HERE. | | | | | Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You’ll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day’s biggest stories.
| | | JORDAN DEMANDS INTERVIEW REQUESTS ON NSBA LETTER —House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on Friday sent requests for transcribed interviews to people involved with a controversial letter from the National School Boards Association. The NSBA requested federal intervention to address threats to school board members and floated possible enforcement of “domestic terrorism” laws. — Jordan sent letters to Chip Slaven, NSBA former interim executive director, Nina Jankowicz, who led the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board, NSBA’s Viola Garcia and Jennifer Moore, FBI executive assistant director for human resources. — Republicans have accused the NSBA of colluding with the Biden administration to get federal law enforcement to stifle dissent from parents protesting their local school boards. An outside review commissioned by the NSBA “did not find direct or indirect evidence” that the Biden administration requested the letter from the group. Chip Slaven, then the NSBA’s interim head, “was behind the letter, both in origin and substance,” according to the report.
| | | ONE-ON-ONE WITH FOXX — Your host and POLITICO’s Eleanor Mueller sat down with new House Education and Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx to talk about her priorities in the 118th Congress. This will be Foxx’s second time chairing the committee after securing a rare GOP term-limit waiver to lead Republicans on the committee for a fourth time. She has served as ranking member twice. — Just a quick refresher: Foxx wants to work on bolstering the rights of parents through a parents’ bill of rights and pushing for school choice. Oversight is the biggest thing on the list for her, like it is for other Republicans leading committees in the House. This includes scrutinizing how Covid relief cash has been spent, the Biden administration’s work on preserving free speech rights on campus and President Joe Biden’s federal student loan forgiveness program. — What to watch this week: The House Education and Workforce Committee is expected to have its organizing meeting on Tuesday.
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Getty | Here’s a snippet of our conversation. POLITICO Pros can get the whole conversation here. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length. — MORNING EDUCATION: Is it your impression you have greater support in bringing education bills to the floor? FOXX: Absolutely. Every meeting with Republicans, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says the three things he's most concerned about are the debt, our educational structure, and China — those are his three focuses. … To have this speaker focus on those three things, I think is fabulous. And as I said, members are concerned. I am so impressed with the new members that I've had a chance to talk to, and how they feel about this. How many of them have done alternatives to the public schools. Some have home-schooled, some have had their children in charter schools. Many of these members understand the alternatives there are to the bureaucracy and the unions have had in the public schools. So it's the right time. I feel like I'm in the right place at the right time, and that the Republicans are in the same situation. — ME: Any plans to revisit WIOA, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, after bipartisan talks broke down last Congress? FOXX:Of course we will. I can’t wait to get into it. WIOA was passed in exactly the same situation we're in right now. We had a Republican House, a Democrat Senate, and a Democrat president. Two of my predecessors, John Boehner and Buck McKeon, had both worked on trying to reauthorize it. And then I came in and I was asked to do it. … Moving forward, we need to enforce things we were doing before. We'd like to have short-term Pell Grants; that's one thing you're seeing. Everybody's talking about short-term Pell; even Democrats care about short-term Pell. So that's one thing.
| | | ICYMI: WOMEN RULE THE IVIES — Six of the Ivy League’s eight private research universities are slated to have female presidents this fall: Harvard University, Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania and Dartmouth College. — It’s the first time the group of elite colleges will have women at the helm of six of eight campuses, nearly 30 years after Judith Rodin became the first woman to lead an Ivy League school in 1994. — But don’t let the prominence of women leaders in the Ivy League mask the reality of college leadership across the country. The gender power gap in higher education persists. Read more from your host in POLITICO Women Rule.
| | | — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced his new staff on the Senate HELP committee, according to Punchbowl News. Jessica Cardichon will be Sanders’ education policy director. Cardichon was previously the Education Department’s deputy assistant secretary for P-12 in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. — Eric Waldo is now DC College Access Program’s new president. Waldo previously was the former executive director of former first lady Michelle Obama's Reach Higher Initiative.
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