Schmidt running mate defends his opposition to USDA rule banning LGBT discrimination
A recent Eagle column’s attack on Derek Schmidt for standing up against the Biden administration’s latest attempt to force its liberal politics into our kids’ schools ( “Why is Derek Schmidt trying to allow anti-gay discrimination?” June 17) missed the mark by a mile.
As Kansans know, America is in the midst of a vigorous national debate about who decides how and what our kids are taught. Most of us believe those decisions are best made locally by parents and elected and accountable school board members.
Kansans can oppose discrimination — and Derek Schmidt and I do — while also standing against Washington telling us how to raise our kids. In fact, here’s the not-so-secret truth: Washington has no monopoly on virtue, and when it gets involved, everything gets political.
As parents, we owe it to our kids to provide a learning environment that helps them grow and thrive, equipped with the skills to succeed in modern life. They should be taught American history, the good and the bad, free from controversial racial politics. Our girls should be afforded a level playing field against other girls — free from controversial gender politics — like I was when I competed in high school athletics.
Derek Schmidt agrees with me on that. But Joe Biden and Laura Kelly don’t.
One of Biden’s first acts as president was to issue a sweeping executive order instructing federal agencies to insert gender-identity politics into their operations. Last year, Biden’s federal Department of Education issued guidance to enforce his order in our schools. As a result, every school that preserves female-only sports and locker rooms risks losing funding or facing lawsuits.
Now Biden’s federal Department of Agriculture has piled on, announcing new requirements to participate in federal nutrition programs including those that feed school kids. USDA claims its new rules have nothing to do with the culture wars and politics in schools, but that’s disingenuous — the USDA rules do not exist in a vacuum. They will be applied in schools together with the Department of Education rules that seek to punish noncompliance with Biden’s preferred gender politics.
Several states’ school administrators around the country have objected to the new USDA requirements but acknowledge they will be forced to comply, as one put it, out of “caution and prudence” to “maintain a flow of federal funds to support children.” After all, the express or implied threat of losing federal funds can be a big hammer. That’s how USDA nutrition programs become another pawn in the Left’s culture wars.
Through all this, Laura Kelly has stood silent while Derek Schmidt has stood up. As our state attorney general, Derek is suing the Biden administration to stop the Department of Education edict, and he is standing together with at least 30 state attorneys general, governors, and state superintendents against the new USDA decree.
Laura Kelly was also wrong to twice veto the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which would protect female athletes from having to compete against biological males in sports. And she was wrong to veto the Parents Bill of Rights — which protects parental involvement in their kids’ education — dismissing it as the “worst thing we can possibly be doing.”
As a mother, I find it a much worse thing that Biden is doing – trying to inject his preferred liberal politics into our schools. I’m frustrated by Laura Kelly standing against girls’ sports and parents, but not against Biden. I’m disappointed by the Eagle falsely asserting that opposing new federal mandates somehow equates to defending discrimination.
It doesn’t.
Derek Schmidt and I will keep Biden’s politics and his culture wars out of our schools. In Kansas, we can raise our kids just fine without the Biden administration forcing its liberal politics on our teachers, administrators, school board members, and parents.
This story was originally published June 28, 2022 at 12:00 AM.