Any doubt about the desire of the federal government to take over our local schools has been erased. The recent edict from President Barack Obama that schools receiving federal money would be required to allow students to use bathrooms and shower facilities of their choice based upon their perceived gender is an outrageous exercise of federal control over the local schools. If the federal government thinks that they can control the bathrooms and locker rooms, then they believe that they can control all of it.
If you wonder how the federal government can exercise this control, the answer is called federal money. If the school district accepts and is dependent upon federal money then it must obey the federal order or lose funding. Our schools have become highly dependent upon these funds from the government. To have these funds cut off would send the budgets into chaos.
However, the issue becomes one that is infinitely more important than funding. The issue becomes one of what is best and most healthy for the children in our schools. Parents, not schools or government, are ultimately responsible for the well-being of their children. There is, and it is rightly so, grassroots outrage over this “gender choice” issue. It is estimated that only 0.01 percent of the American population experiences gender identity issues. To put that number in context is to say that one of every 10,000 people have gender identity issues while 9,999 do not. Are we to sit idly by while our schools are expected to expose an almost infinite majority of children to gender identity issues? Parents are going to be making tough decisions on how to protect their children if our schools follow these federal government directives.
There is currently much hysteria with this issue about the safety of children, predators, and sexual perversion. While much of this concern may be valid in the coming days in the general populace, these issues are not the ones that schools face. Children most often experience puberty during their middle school years. This is a time of extreme self-consciousness and heightened peer pressure. In the high school years peer pressure becomes even more intense. The idea of being forced to be exposed to one of the opposite biological sex would be very frightening. Our schools could be faced with ever increasing psychological issues and maybe even issues of violence.
The educators in our schools teach various laws; laws of science, laws of math, laws of English, laws involved in the arts, and so on. However, this issue of federal intervention in bathrooms and locker rooms is going to usher in another law. It is the Law of Unintended Consequences.
One of the little discussed areas of local education is the number of children that are home schooled, in religious schools, or in other types of private schools. The federal government mandated gender identity issue will motivate more parents to contemplate and implement alternative types of schooling, which could deprive the local public school system of significant numbers of students.
It is a statistical fact that high parental involvement in a child’s education is a prime indicator of high student achievement. The public schools would possibly be losing higher achieving students. Loss of students also represents loss of government funding, since most of the funding is dependent on the numbers of students.
Our community should communicate with our representatives in the Congress and Senate to provide more grassroots outrage over this federal mandate. It is entirely possible that the entire matter can be subdued. Huge popular outrage is still considered by our government.
I would encourage our local schools to begin the thought process of refusing federal funds if “gender identity” actually is implemented. Do not be fooled by the raw dollar numbers of the federal money. The accurate funding number is when the cost reduction of the mandated guidelines, less paperwork, less staff, and even if necessary less participation in food programs is subtracted. It would not be surprising to find that when all costs are subtracted from the funding that schools would not be losing very much money after all. All of this from someone who is an ardent advocate of less school taxes.
Dale Landrith Sr. of Camden is a member of a group of concerned Midcoast citizens who meet to discuss issues of public interest. Their weekly column “Another View” has been awarded by the Maine Press Association.
