School Board Member Proposes Rejecting $40 Million in Federal Funds Over Transgender Protections

Would Force Tax Increase of 27%

One Utah School Board member suggested an unorthodox solution to increased pressure from the Obama administration to ensure protections for transgender students: Stop taking money from the federal government.

In American Fork, Utah, during a public hearing for Alpine School District’s proposed 2016-2017 budget, board member Wendy Hart introduced a motion that would explore the creation of an alternate budget, one that would not include federal dollars, and that would free the district from obligations to conform to Obama administration directives. Failing to comply with these regulations could result in the federal government withholding funds to non-compliant schools. 

“I would like us to feel like we are not a slave to federal dollars,” Hart told The Daily Herald.

The Alpine School District is set to receive $40 million this year in federal funds. According to Assistant Superintendent Rob Smith, rejecting those funds would require a 27% increase in taxes in order to compensate for the lost revenue.

The Salt Lake Tribune notes the Alpine School District already “is among the lowest districts for per-pupil expenditures in the state that is the lowest in the nation for that.”

Hart, along with fellow board members Paula Hill and Brian Halladay, sent a letter last month to leaders in the state asking them to reject the recent Obama Administration requirement mandating that schools allow transgender students to use public facilities corresponding with their gender identity. The letter spells out in fairly frank terms their objections to the rule.

“This guidance would allow a boy that identifies as a girl to be allowed to use facilities such as bathrooms, locker rooms and showers with girls,” Hart, Halladay and Hill write. “This is not just a complete violation of privacy, but is morally reprehensible.”

The letter also suggests the possibility of rejecting federal funding, noting that “with only 8% of State funds coming from the federal government, this would be an ideal opportunity to declare Utah’s sovereignty, and to allow our children to be free from the tyrannical mandates of our federal government.”

Only Hart, Halladay and Hill voted in support of the motion to explore rejecting federal funding, which was immediately defeated by the board. 

 

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