Parental-Rights Mandates and Voucher Expansion for Federally Run Schools

The parental-notification policy enacted via Executive Order in February 2025 and the OPM memo barring preferred pronouns in federal workplaces are already in effect, forcing teachers in DC, BIE, and DoDEA schools to out transgender students against their will or risk losing federal funding. This commandeers local educators as enforcers of a policy that medical and child-welfare experts say harms vulnerable youth by stripping them of privacy and safety. The Title IX final rule issued in April 2025, which redefines sex discrimination to exclude gender identity, compounds the harm by erasing federal civil-rights protections for transgender students—a 180-degree shift from the Biden-era rule that covered them under Title IX.

The school-choice proposals—unlimited DC vouchers and federal ESAs for all DC, military, and BIE students—are still on paper but represent a dangerous privatization bridgehead. Voucher programs like the existing DC Opportunity Scholarship Program have rigorous evidence of weakening public schools: they drain per-pupil funding while private schools are unaccountable for outcomes, often close without warning, and are not required to serve students with disabilities. The Heritage Foundation's claim that even a 10% ESA take-up would cost sending districts only 0.1% of their budget is contradicted by actual state experience—Arizona's ESA program cost $1.4 billion in 2024-25, far exceeding initial projections, and triggered deep cuts to district schools. For BIE schools, which already suffer from a 150-year history of federal underfunding and a 53% graduation rate, ESAs would funnel scarce dollars away from the very public schools that Native families rely on, without addressing chronic infrastructure gaps, teacher shortages, or the 30-point attainment gap the plan itself highlights. The correct response is to fully fund Title I and IDEA in these districts, enforce civil-rights oversight through a restored Office for Civil Rights, and invest in the public school improvements that every student—not just those who win a lottery—deserves.