The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) terminated federal funding last week for a California sex education program that refused to remove radical gender theory from its curriculum. The move is the latest effort by the Trump administration to eradicate far-left ideologies from K-12 schools.
California’s sex ed curriculum is delivered through the statewide Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), with services offered in “schools, juvenile justice facilities, homeless shelters, and foster care group homes.” HHS requested that California remove certain gender ideology teachings from PREP within 60 days in June. The state refused, claiming that “the materials are medically accurate.”
HHS Acting Assistant Secretary Andrew Gradison explained that the Trump administration will not allow California to continue indoctrinating children at taxpayer expense.
“California’s refusal to comply with federal law and remove egregious gender ideology from federally funded sex-ed materials is unacceptable,” Gradison said. “The Trump Administration will not allow taxpayer dollars to be used to indoctrinate children. Accountability is coming for every state that uses federal funds to teach children delusional gender ideology.”
Fox News reported that PREP could “lose $12.3 million in funding that it has not yet received, covering multiple years.” The program is aimed at California youth between the ages of 10 and 19. The California Department of Public Health’s website provides a list of target populations for the curriculum, including youth who “attend school or receive reproductive health services in a high-need geographic area” and who “identify as LGBTQ.”
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is the HHS agency that oversees federal funding for PREP in California. ACF sent a termination letter to California on August 21, explaining that PREP’s curriculum includes “lessons teaching students that gender identity is distinct from biological sex and that boys can identify as girls and vice versa.”
As ACF explained in the letter, the goal of PREP is to educate adolescents on “both abstinence and contraception for the prevention of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS,” as well as other “adult preparation subjects.” Accordingly, gender ideology is “both irrelevant to teaching abstinence and contraception and unrelated to any of the adult preparation subjects” the program is supposed to teach.
Parental rights advocate January Littlejohn, who has spoken at previous AMAC events and appeared on AMAC’s Better for America podcast in March, praised the Trump administration for taking action in a post on X.
“Gender ideology pseudoscience has NO place in our schools,” she said. “Teaching these lies is creating confusion in children, and [sex ed] is just one way they sneak this nonsense in. I’m so grateful HHS is taking these steps. Promises kept!”
California has a long history of promoting radical gender ideology to children. The state passed a law in 2011 that mandated that K-12 schools teach children about “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.” In 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that mandates schools include gender-neutral bathrooms by 2026 for students who identify as transgender. A year later, Newsom signed another law prohibiting school staff from telling parents if their children identify as transgender while at school.
The ACF’s move to defund California’s PREP program is an attempt to push back against a state that has increasingly been forcing LGBTQ ideology onto children and that has stripped parents of their rights.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
Grant that should not have been granted in the first place. Dept. of ed. is not here to meddle with that which is not it’s dept. Very little is produced in the way of true education. Put it out of it’s misery.
California, which was a great State, is now a POS State! You’re not helping anyone but your political selves. Be what you want, do what you want all on your own, and deal with your consequences. Don’t ask taxpayers to pay for any of it!
What should happen is Pres. Trump should cancel all Federal funding pertaining to schools whether its K-12 or universities, California is a sh## hole and i for one want none of my tax dollars going to support a state full of criminals and paid off politicans.
This needs to be stopped immediately in any state participating in this.No federal funding
Trump is currently attempting to defund all of this garbage (no more taxpayer dollars) but once again, the lower courts and leftist/activist judges (San Francisco) are stepping in the way and issuing nationwide injunctions, right in the face of the recent SCOTUS decision!
There is no Constitutional authority for “The Department of Education” It should be eliminated. Any functions it has that are Constitutional can be handled by the Departments with Constitutional authority.
Sex education is for the parents to tell their children.
Why are left-wing radical perverted Demorats so obsessed with wanting to indoctrinate innocent children with such horrors as mutilating and chemically castrating them?
Why? Because they are pure evil. They want to turn innocent ‘normal’ children into confused, and then into sexual deviates, making boys think they are or can become women. And young girls into thinking they can become men.
PURE EVIL AT IT’S WORSE.
What I don’t understand is why aren’t the parents standing up against this nonsense?