Governor Abbott has ordered Texas public universities and community colleges to “ignore” the president’s rewrite of the Title IX federal law, which protects women against discrimination in any educational program or activity that receives federal funding.
Click HERE to read and download the governor’s letter to public universities and community colleges.
Abbott says the president wants to force every school to accept every student’s self-declared gender identity.
The governor’s letter that was sent Wednesday (May 8) comes the week after sending the same instruction to the Texas Education Agency.
WTAW News received this response to the governor’s letter from Texas A&M, which was a message sent to all A&M system campuses the day before the governor’s letter:
“Texas A&M complies with all federal and state laws and regulations, as well as Texas A&M System policy. The recent updates to Title IX regulations will require extensive changes to our current operations, and our AVP of Title IX Compliance appropriately initiated steps toward the need to comply with a new federal regulation that goes into effect on Aug. 1. She worked with the Texas A&M System Title IX Compliance Office to begin this process. No changes have been made at this point – only efforts to begin preparing for the necessary changes. On May 7, Texas A&M University received guidance from The Texas A&M University System notifying us that both the regulations and the legal challenge filed by Attorney General Paxton are under review to determine the System’s course of action going forward, and additional information will be provided soon.”
WTAW News received this response to the governor’s letter from Blinn College: “We continue to monitor the developments on the proposed Title IX regulations.”
A Bryan ISD spokesman tells WTAW News “President Biden was only addressing colleges and universities in his revision. The Governor’s letter is only addressed to colleges and universities as well. I’m told TEA also governs colleges and universities.”
WTAW News has also requested a statement from the College Station school district.
News release from the governor’s office:
Governor Greg Abbott today sent a letter to Texas’ public university systems and community colleges directing them to not comply with President Joe Biden’s recent revision of Title IX and to refrain from implementing any new system-wide policy related to this revision.
“As I have already made clear, Texas will not comply with President Joe Biden’s rewrite of Title IX that contradicts the original purpose and spirit of the law to support the advancement of women,” reads the letter. “Last week, I instructed the Texas Education Agency to ignore President Biden’s illegal dictate of Title IX. Today, I am instructing every public college and university in the State of Texas to do the same.
I signed laws to ensure the safety of our students on campus and provide a process for adjudicating reports of sexual harassment and sexual assault with adequate due process for all parties involved, as well as laws to protect the integrity of women’s sports by prohibiting men from competing against female athletes—and I will not let President Biden erase the advancements Texas has made.”
The Governor sent the letter to Texas A&M University System, Texas Southern University, Texas State University System, Texas Tech University System, Texas Women’s University System, University of Houston System, University of North Texas System, and University of Texas System, as well as Texas’ community colleges.
Last year, the Governor signed the Save Women’s Sports Act into law to protect the integrity of fair competition and women’s sports by prohibiting biological men from competing against female athletes at Texas colleges and universities. In 2021, Governor Abbott signed a similar law to protect girls’ sports in Texas public schools. Governor Abbott signed Senate Bills 968 and 969 in 2017 and Senate Bill 212 and House Bill 1735 in 2019 to address student safety and adjudication processes for reports of sexual harassment and sexual assault on college campuses.