Just a week after threatening New York, Chicago, and suburban Washington D.C. public school districts with big funding cuts over DEI and transgender policies, the Trump administration fulfilled its vow to deny millions in grant money to the schools.

A letter from Trump’s Department of Education gave the school districts only a week to agree to its demands — including adopting “biology-based definitions for the words ‘male’ and ‘female’” — or to appeal, The City reports.

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In all, $24 million was at stake for the three districts.

In letters to the districts last week, the DOE’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights and Trump’s anti-trans enforcer at the agency, Craig Trainor, demanded the districts agree to stop giving students access to locker rooms and restrooms corresponding with their gender identity or risk losing funding for specialty magnet schools.

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Trainor employed the same dubious reasoning the administration has used to promote its crusade against trans students since Trump returned to the White House in January: the practice allegedly violates Title IX, which forbids discrimination based on sex in education.

Because the districts did not agree by Tuesday to take remedial action detailed in Trainor’s letters, the department said, Trainor will not certify that they are in compliance with federal civil rights law, making them ineligible for the grants, CNN reports.

The Education Department denied requests from New York City and Chicago for more time to respond to the demands.

Fairfax County schools in Virginia will lose $3.4 million in Magnet School Assistance Program funding in the next fiscal year, which begins October 1. About $5.8 million will be withheld from Chicago schools, while community school districts in New York City will lose about $15 million, according to the Education Department.

“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,” DOE spokesperson Julie Hartman said. “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.’”

As well as restricting bathroom and locker room access for trans students, DOE also demanded that New York City and Chicago schools issue public statements saying they wouldn’t allow trans student-athletes to compete in female athletic programs.

Chicago schools were also ordered to abolish a program that provides remedial academic resources to Black students, an initiative Trainor called “textbook racial discrimination.” School officials there estimated that about $8 million would be lost for programs that have expanded staffing, technology, and enrichment opportunities like field trips and after-school classes and activities.

DOE’s actions have also rippled into New York City’s contentious race for mayor, with incumbent Eric Adams initially questioning the school policies at odds with the Trump administration’s transgender animus. Adams has sided with Trump on various issues after the Justice Department dropped a corruption probe targeting him.

Following his loss in the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani, Adams is running as an Independent, along with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D).

“I don’t know which is more disgraceful – the Trump administration ripping funding away from students’ educations in order to further its own transphobic agenda, or Mayor Adams feeding that bigotry and wishing he could rewrite it into our laws,” said Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate.

Mamdani called Adams’ comments “completely at odds with the values of our city.”

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