And for more on those major changes proposed to the landmark law.
I'm joined by Maria Malinga, education reporter for The Washington
Post. It's good to have you with us in the by the administration,
as you know, in proposing these new rules today.
They're effectively tossing out the title. Nine rules introduced
back in May 2020 by then Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, and
those were controversial because, among other things, they reduced
schools reporting responsibilities regarding sexual misconduct.
And they strengthened the rights of the accused. So in what significant
ways does this proposal, this new Biden proposal depart from the
current regulation.
So one of the most significant things is that it offers schools a
lot more flexibility. The device rules were very prescriptive. So,
for example, they required live hearings for to adjudicate.
You know accusations of sexual assault, which meant that everybody
had to be in the same room or in the case of after the pandemic,
everybody had to be in the same zoom room.
Um, and it created an atmosphere of intimidation for some people
who are reporting and they were concerned that people would not report
because they did not want to go through that process. The proposed
rules today allows schools to do that if they want to, but it does
not require them to do it.
And for the first time, LGBTQ students would have a federal protections
under title nine. Looking at the way the law was written back in
1972. There's no explicit language that touches that topic. So how
would they have new rights? How would that work under this new proposal?
Well, as you know, Title nine provide prevents discrimination on
the basis of sex.
And there's long been a debate about whether that covers sexual orientation
and gender identity. Um, and the administration wants to make very
clear that it does cover both of those topics. So that means that
schools are not permitted to discriminate against transgender students
or or LGBTQ students.
On the basis of their gender identity, so they have to address things
like harassment. They have to accommodate students in bathrooms as
well. And yet, Mariah There's nothing in this set of proposals at
least not yet.
Dealing with the rights of transgender students in sports. What accounts
for that delay? Is that a political consideration given that you
know there's a conservative push across the country, 18 states now
have formalized.
Laws preventing transgender students from participating in sports.
Yeah, it's not clear why they made the decision to wait on that particular
aspect. Certainly I would say that it's one of the most controversial.
Um And as you said, Yeah, there's been a lot of there's been several
states that have outright ban transgender students from participating
in school sports.
It is very complicated. It's going to require a lot of nuance and
perhaps a lot more thought. And certainly I'm sure that there is
a fear that if the Republicans take the House and Senate in the fall
that they can overturn this with the Congressional Review Act,
So what happens next? There's a public comment period. The real certainly
be pushed back. There may even be legal challenges. What's the expectation
for what's coming in the weeks and months ahead?
Well, I certainly expect to see more backlash from conservatives
this That's what we saw, for example, when Obama issued guidance
protecting transgender students, um and right now it's just the start
of a long, very tedious process to make these rules so they will
solicit comments. The last set of rules got over 100,000 comments,
so I expect a lot of people.
To run away in. I think that they want to just carefully consider
exactly how this is going to play out and Mariah. If this proposal
is finalized, it would mark the second rewrite of title nine. In
two years. You have the
The Trump era rules, which were essentially a rewrite of the Obama
era rules. And now you have the Biden proposal, which is meant to
replace the Trump era regulation.
Give us a sense of the Ping Pong effect, the whiplash effect that
schools are are likely facing right now. I mean, certainly this is
a really complicated area of the law in it involves administrative
procedures.
It involves civil rights. Um, but I think a lot of school administrators
are going to be pleased that they actually have more flexibility
under these rules so that they can kind of make decisions about whether
they want to have things like live hearings. They can decide. Um
what standard of proof that you use things along those lines, So
I actually think that some administrators may view this in a positive
light, even though it is changing things.
Mariah Belinda to the Washington Post. Thanks so much for sharing
your reporting and your insights with us.