WA superintendent threatens to cut funds for district that vows to tell parents about students’ gender identity

Washington’s Democratic Superintendent of Public Instruction, Chris Reykdal, is claiming that the La Center School District’s decision to inform parents of how a student identifies in school discriminates against students and families regarding gender inclusivity and rights of queer and transgender students.

La Center Schools Superintendent Peter Rosenkranz told KATU he believes that the state’s policies leave parents out of the equation by requiring school staff to ask students their preferred pronouns rather than their parents.

Last month, Reykdal claimed in an interview, “It is quite simply inaccurate to say biologically that there are only boys and only girls," in response to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order that there are only two genders.

He also claimed, "DEI is not a harmful thing, it's a good thing," in response to another executive order banning the discriminatory curriculum.

Reykdal is threatening to withhold funds if the La Center School District refuses to comply with the state’s radical gender-inclusive policies. Reykdal previously threatened to withhold funds from districts that would not comply with onerous COVID mandates.

The move comes even as Washington is challenging many of Trump’s executive orders in court and risking a loss of its own federal funds.

On Monday, citizen political action committee Let’s Go Washington introduced a second initiative to protect parents’ rights by repealing Washington House Bill 1296, that gutted a previous parental rights initiative. Earlier this month, the organization introduced an initiative to repeal the bill’s counterpart in the Senate, SB 5181.

HB 1296 and SB 5181 are attempts by the Democrat-controlled Legislature to gut the group’s “parents’ bill of rights” Initiative 2081, which was passed by the Legislature last year. HB 1296 passed the House last Thursday after 2 am on a party-line 56-37 vote, following more than six hours of floor debate, with all Democrats voting in favor of the bill, and all Republicans opposing it.