The U.S. is facing many major issues in the final year of President Barack Obama’s term. The threat of the Islamic State is growing, the national debt continues to crawl toward $20 trillion, and home ownership is in steady decline. Solving these issues would be difficult for any president, but instead of focusing the entire might of his administration on attempting to fix these issues, President Obama is working hard to regulate how public schools run their perfectly functional bathrooms.
In May, President Obama’s administration issued a statement that was sent to every school district in the country. The statement explained that unless schools allowed students to self-identify which bathroom they belong in, federal funds would be withheld from those schools. This can only be seen as blackmail from the Obama administration against school districts that need federal funds but believe bathrooms should be segregated by sex.
It has always been believed and accepted that the framers of the Constitution left education to the states and local governments to run as they see fit. In the past, the federal government has had to get involved in cases where schools were discriminating against students of color. Before the Supreme Court overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine and schools were desegregated, it was clear to most people that African-American students were not receiving the same quality of education as their white peers. The federal government came in and righted a wrong, allowing all students to benefit from a solid education.
The last major time the federal government came into local schools and mandated a change in how school facilities were run was during desegregation. Obama’s transgender bathroom mandate has been compared to the desegregation of schools as a basis to support Obama’s executive overreach into the school bathroom debate. However, these two situations have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Neither men’s nor women’s bathrooms are better or worse than each other. This is the main difference between the bathroom issue and the desegregation of schools. Since no aspect of the Constitution is being broken, President Obama has no right to meddle in the running of local schools.
The majority of people who are fighting against President Obama’s bathroom mandate take issue not with transgender individuals, but with the fact that the mandate theoretically enables all people to freely move between both the men’s and women’s bathroom. They’re concerned that the mandate does not outline any safeguards that would prevent sexual predators and perverts from using the opposite bathroom to prey on school aged kids. According to [the Counter Pedophelia Investigative Unit](http://www.cpiu.us/statistics-2/), between one and five percent of all teachers sexually abuse or harass students.
A [Rasmussen poll released in May](http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/lifestyle/general_lifestyle/may_2016/most_school_parents_oppose_transgender_bathroom_policy) showed that only a third of Americans agree with President Obama’s bathroom decree. Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder has taken the role of an outspoken champion for the majority of Americans who do not agree with the administration’s bathroom decision. He responded to President Obama’s letter that was sent to Missouri school districts. Kinder’s letter was also co-signed by over 100 elected officials in the state.
According to the lieutenant governor’s office, Kinder said: “The letter puts Missouri public schools in the unjust position of having to chose [sic] between either doing what they know is best for their particular student population or receiving federal funding. Missouri schools must not be forced to comply with this extra-constitutional decree and the practical implications it would have on their operations and on their students.”
President Obama and his administration has since doubled down on his bathroom stance by declaring in August that bathrooms in 9,000 federal buildings will be held to the same standards as his mandate to schools.
On Aug. 22, a Texas judge filed an injunction against the Obama administration’s bathroom initiative. The judge has ordered the Obama administration to maintain the status quo for the time being, meaning that each individual school district will continue to make decisions about how their bathroom facilities are run. This marks the third major setback for transgender advocates in federal courts this month.
It’s time that President Obama stops worrying about his legacy as a progressive, and starts listening to the vast majority of Americans who do not agree with his radical policies.