The U.S. Department of Education has dramatically escalated its involvement in the nation’s most contentious education debates, withholding millions of dollars in federal funding from several large public school districts while simultaneously directing a record sum toward charter schools in Ohio. These moves, announced in late September 2025, have ignited fierce debate over the intersection of civil rights, school choice, and federal oversight in education.
On September 25, 2025, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia learned that the Education Department had denied a reimbursement request and would soon lose $3.4 million in Magnet School Assistance Program (MSAP) funding due to its policies allowing students to use restrooms and locker rooms based on gender identity rather than biological sex. According to WTOP, the exact amount withheld and the specific programs affected remain unclear, but the action is part of a broader federal crackdown on school districts whose gender policies the Department deems out of compliance with Title IX.
Fairfax County, along with other Northern Virginia districts, maintains that its bathroom policies align with federal law. Yet, the Education Department has taken a hard line. As department spokesperson Julie Hartman told The Associated Press, “The Department will not rubber-stamp civil rights compliance for New York, Chicago, and Fairfax while they blatantly discriminate against students based on race and sex.” The Office for Civil Rights has refused to certify Fairfax County’s compliance, meaning the MSAP grant will expire on September 30, 2025, and will not be renewed for the next fiscal year, which begins October 1.
The stakes for Fairfax County are significant. Superintendent Michelle Reid told WTOP that the district could ultimately lose up to $167 million in federal funding—money that supports students with disabilities and those who receive free school meals. School leaders in nearby Arlington, Prince William County, and the City of Alexandria have voiced similar concerns, fearing a ripple effect that could jeopardize essential programs for vulnerable students.
In response to the funding freeze, Fairfax County filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent the loss of federal dollars, but a federal judge declined to rule, citing a lack of jurisdiction. The school district has since filed an appeal and an emergency motion for an injunction pending appeal, hoping to stave off further financial fallout.
The federal government’s stance is not limited to Virginia. In Chicago, the Department of Education informed Chicago Public Schools (CPS) on September 23, 2025, that it would cancel the district’s MSAP grant after CPS refused to abolish its Black Student Success Plan and to bar transgender students from using bathrooms or participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, as demanded by the Office of Civil Rights. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, CPS had expected $8 million from the grant to fund personalized learning and STEM/arts instruction. While this sum is small compared to the district’s estimated $10 billion budget, the move signals that more federal funding—projected at $1 billion for CPS’s 2026 budget—could be at risk.
Craig Trainor, the Education Department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, made the government’s position clear in communications with CPS. He described the Black Student Success Plan as “textbook racial discrimination,” arguing that it disadvantages non-Black students, and asserted that allowing trans students access to facilities matching their gender identity creates a “hostile educational environment.” Trainor initially gave CPS two tight deadlines—September 19 and then September 23—to comply with the federal demands. CPS attorney Elizabeth Barton criticized the short notice and defended the district’s policies as compliant with state laws and in the best interests of students.
On September 25, Education Department spokesperson Julie Hartman reiterated the administration’s hardline approach, stating, “These are public schools, funded by hardworking American families, and parents have every right to expect an excellent education—not ideological indoctrination masquerading as ‘inclusive’ policy. If these entities are willing to risk federal funding to continue their illegal activity, that decision falls squarely on them.”
The department’s actions have not gone unnoticed in New York City either, where similar threats to withhold funding have been issued over comparable policies, though specifics remain under wraps as of this writing.
While federal dollars are being withheld from districts over civil rights disputes, the Education Department is simultaneously channeling unprecedented funding to support charter schools in Ohio. At a press event at the headquarters of the Center for Christian Virtue—a group instrumental in expanding taxpayer-paid vouchers for all Ohio families—U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced that Ohio will receive nearly $105 million over five years to open new charter schools and expand existing high-quality ones. This is part of a $500 million investment by the Trump administration in charter school grant programs for the 2025 fiscal year.
“This investment is the largest ever for the program. It will support six different grant programs aimed at expanding and replicating high quality charter schools,” McMahon said at the event, according to WOSU. She emphasized that the administration sees school choice as the solution to what she described as a decade-long decline in academic performance: “This decline has been evident over more than the past ten years, and we’ve not arrested and we’ve not made it better. But now we are clearly on the path to do that. And school choice is our way out of this slump.”
Echoing this optimism, Senator Bernie Moreno predicted, “We’re going to see over the next five years is a transformation unlike anything we’ve ever seen. We are going to see an absolute revolution with AI that’s going to affect every sector of our lives. And we have to start at kindergarten all the way up into our higher education institutions.”
The charter school funding, however, comes amid ongoing controversy. Critics point out that Ohio charter schools have a graduation rate of just 69.4%, compared to the 86.8% rate for traditional public schools, as revealed in state report cards released in September 2025 by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Furthermore, a June 2024 study by education funding expert Howard Fleeter found that more than half of new voucher recipients in Ohio were already attending private schools, raising questions about whether voucher and charter expansion truly benefits underserved students.
Federal funds for charter schools will not go to non-public, non-chartered schools—nearly all of which are religious. Senator Moreno lamented this, saying, “That’s not the case, which is unfortunate, honestly, because parents should have the choice of where to send their kids. That’s what’s next on the agenda.”
The Center for Christian Virtue, which played a pivotal role in the 2023 EdChoice expansion, has seen the state’s voucher budget balloon from $977 million to $2.4 billion, reflecting a broader push for school choice in Ohio.
As the federal government flexes its authority over what it deems civil rights violations in public schools while simultaneously championing school choice in others, the nation’s education landscape is being reshaped. School leaders, parents, and policymakers are left grappling with the immediate impacts on students and the longer-term implications for public education’s future.
For now, the only certainty is that the debate over civil rights, federal funding, and school choice is far from settled—and the consequences will be felt in classrooms across the country.
