The President Donald Trump-led administration on Thursday ended a $12 million grant for a California program aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, saying the state refused to remove “radical gender ideology” from its curriculum.
The Personal Responsibility Education Program teaches abstinence and contraception, with a focus on young people in foster care, those who are homeless, or those living in areas with high teen birth rates.
Andrew Gradison, acting assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told Fox & Friends: “If you continue to push radical ideology on our children, we will not pay for it anymore,” adding that the program included “radical gender ideology” but without giving details.
Gradison said the department is reviewing curricula in all states and that by early next week, nearly 40 states would be told to make changes or risk losing funding.
The White House issued a statement saying President Donald Trump is committed to “protecting students from indoctrination” and giving parents more control. “California’s schools have become hotbeds of woke ideology and have been held hostage by the failed liberal leadership of Gavin Newsom and the teachers’ unions that own the Democrat Party,” it said.
Before the announcement, Trump posted on social media that any California school district not following his administration’s transgender policies would lose federal funding. He did not provide further details.
While most school funding comes from local and state sources, districts also receive some federal money.
The administration has previously clashed with California over transgender rights. In July, it filed a lawsuit against the state’s policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ school sports, claiming it violated federal anti-discrimination laws. In February, Trump signed a directive to block federal funding to schools that allow transgender women or girls to compete in female sports.
