The Wake County school system is taking a second look at its policies amid a flurry of education changes and executive orders signed by the Trump administration.
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening to withhold federal funding to schools that he says “indoctrinate” students with “gender ideology” and “discriminatory equity ideology.” The US. Department of Education also announced it was dropping Biden administration changes that expanded Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students and staff.
“As soon as we got word of the orders, our staff has begun to work with our legal team to decide what changes may be required,” Wake school board chair Chris Heagarty said in an interview Monday. “As you know, there’s lots of litigation independent of these executive orders that carry the full force of law. We have to comply with the law.”
Heagarty said an answer from staff won’t come before Tuesday’s school board meeting.
“We need a lot more research and preparation so we can make sure our policy both serves the students of Wake County and also complies with the law,” Heagarty said.
Board member calls for ‘swift action’ to comply with Trump order
Wake County school board member Cheryl Caulfield wants the board to quickly take steps such as rescinding the Title IX changes approved last summer. Wake had adopted Biden administration rule changes to ban discrimination based on gender identity in educational programs receiving federal funding.
“Considering that Wake County School Board rushed to implement Biden’s extreme Title IX changes because they were so concerned about losing federal funding, I expect the same swift action to comply with President Trump’s Executive Order,” Caulfield posted on Facebook last week.
In an email Monday, Caulfield said dropping the Title IX policy would be a “quick first step” to other changes she said Wake should make.
“The Wake County School Board’s strategic plan is centered around diversity, equity and inclusion, the very thing President Trump is ordering we dismantle in order to keep federal funding, so complying with the executive order is going to be a heavy lift,” Caulfield said in the email. “We need to start assessing all aspects right away while we wait for more guidance from the White House.”
Caulfield is among two Republicans on the officially non-partisan nine-member school board.
Trump: Schools should ‘instill patriotic admiration’
The title of Trump’s executive order is “ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling.” He has accused schools of promoting critical race theory, a charge denied by school leaders.
The executive order would withhold federal funding from schools that discuss concepts such as unconscious bias, white privilege and systemic racism because it “undermines national unity.”
For instance, the order says schools shouldn’t teach that a person can consciously or unconsciously be racist or sexist or that a person is privileged or oppressed primarily due to their race or sex.
The order says it’s “immoral” to teach that “the United States is fundamentally racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory.”
The executive order also warns schools not to help minor students “social transition” to a gender identity that differs from their biological sex. Examples of prohibited action cited in the order include using a different pronoun or name such as Jane instead of James and allowing the use of a school bathroom or locker room for persons of the opposite sex.
Much of the language in the executive order was incorporated in what supporters said was an anti-CRT bill that was passed by NC House Republicans in 2023. The bill stalled in the Senate.
The executive order says schools should instead “instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation and the values for which we stand” and “the concept that celebration of America’s greatness and history is proper.”
“The district is currently reviewing the Executive Order in consultation with our attorneys,” a Wake school spokesperson said in an email Monday.
Wake school questioned for promoting LGBTQ+ books
Wake County has been in the spotlight since Libs of TikTok, a popular conservative social media account, posted Sunday a photo of a hand-written poster of LGBTQ+ books that the group said is being promoted in a Wake school library.
“School library in @WCPSS promoting radical gender ideology,” Libs of TikTok said on its post on X. “This violates Trump’s EO which aims to end indoctrination in schools. The school’s funding can be cut.”
The post went viral, drawing 158,000 views and 2,000 reposts in 24 hours. Libs of TikTok has been labeled as extremist by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
A district spokesperson said Monday that the poster was put up by a student and not by a staff member at the school.
Wake board member applauds Trump’s order
Caulfield, the school board member, posted last week on Facebook that the district’s federal funding is at risk because some Wake schools provide materials that promote gender and discriminatory equity ideology.
“Parents have come to us after books and materials promoting gender fluid themes and concepts have been made available and assigned in WCPSS schools,” Caulfield said in her email Monday. “Classroom activities and materials violating the Parents Bill of Rights have been used. President Trump’s executive order is providing accountability. “
Caulfield told her supporters on Facebook, “I applaud this Executive Order because it requires school boards to put students first, not adult agendas.”
Is Trump’s executive order illegal?
Most of the comments on Caulfield’s post came from supporters. But Heather Koons, a spokesperson for Public Schools First NC, took exception to Caulfield’s comments.
“If you read the order, it’s obviously illegal,” Koons wrote on Caulfield’s Facebook post. “It dictates curriculum, which is FAR outside the purview of the federal government. It’s actually prohibited by federal law.
“Title IX is about ensuring equal rights. This executive ‘ending radical indoctrination’ order is all about telling schools what to teach. As a school board member, I’d expect you to object to this massive intrusion into local control.”
Legal action against Trump’s executive order is expected.
“Lambda Legal is taking a hard look at the details of this horrific executive order, as we have done with the other executive orders targeting our community that have been spewing out of this administration, and is actively considering potential courses of action,” Lambda Legal, a civil rights group that focuses on the LGBTQ+ community said in a news release last week.
