MAGA Groups Help Trump Push Cultural Change in Schools
"One nonprofit, Defending Education, initiated nearly a dozen civil rights investigations targeting diversity programs and transgender policies.
Michael C. Bender has been covering the Trump administration’s efforts to bring cultural changes to the education system. He reported from Washington.
The complaint that prompted a federal civil rights investigation into gender policies at Smith College was not filed by a student, graduate or anyone affiliated with the 151-year-old women’s college.
The grievance originated from Defending Education, a conservative parents’ rights group. The organization’s senior attorney said she targeted Smith after learning that one of the school’s graduation speakers last year was Dr. Rachel Levine, a physician and retired four-star admiral who is transgender.
“I saw Levine was speaking and thought that was a curious choice for an all-women’s institution, so I decided to take a look at the college’s policies,” Sarah Parshall Perry, a vice president and senior legal fellow at Defending Education, said in an interview.
What resulted from Ms. Perry’s scrutiny was a formal investigation by the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which in May accused Smith of discriminating against female applicants by allowing transgender women to enroll, a policy that had been in place for more than a decade. The investigation also involves determining whether the college violated civil rights law with gender-neutral restrooms and locker rooms. Smith, which has an unknown number of transgender students, now risks losing millions of dollars in federal funding.
The origins of the Smith investigation highlight the catalytic role that Defending Education and other nonprofit groups have played in President Trump’s bid to reshape policy at the nation’s K-12 schools and universities, and to pressure the country to bow to his ideological and cultural agenda.
These groups, many with close ties to Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, have filed dozens of discrimination complaints aimed at eliminating diversity programs that the White House opposes. The groups have brought complaints to the Education Department and the Justice Department, which last week was put in charge of enforcing civil rights laws in schools as part of the administration’s attempt to dismantle the Education Department.
Of the more than 70 investigations into transgender school policies that the Education Department has announced since last year, about one-fourth have been based on complaints from nonprofit groups with ties to the Trump administration. Many of the investigations have been aimed at blocking transgender women from playing on female sports teams.
If federal investigators determine that schools have broken civil rights laws, educators face a choice. They can adopt the Trump administration’s policy prescriptions on gender and diversity, or fight the findings and risk losing federal funding. But for the complaining groups, the investigations themselves are partial victories that signal support from the federal government and apply pressure on schools to make changes.
The Education Department declined interview requests for Linda McMahon, the education secretary, and Kimberly Richey, the assistant secretary for the Office for Civil Rights, who is a former fellow at Defending Education. Amelia Joy, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a statement that outside groups were an important part of the agency’s process.
“Groups like Defending Education, like so many other groups, play a key role in protecting the rights of students, parents and teachers,” Ms. Joy said, adding that the department would investigate “any complaint that indicates a school is not in compliance with federal law.”
Law professors and civil rights lawyers have questioned the viability of the administration’s investigation into Smith, pointing to an exception to the federal ban on sex-based discrimination for private college admissions policies. Smith College officials, who declined an interview request, have maintained that they comply with federal law.
L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy groups have characterized the investigation as part of a broader anti-transgender agenda.
“This administration has turned the Office for Civil Rights, which was designed to protect students and guard against harms, into an ideological battering ram,” said Suzanne Goldberg, the director of the Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic at Columbia Law School and a deputy assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department under President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Smith is among roughly 30 women’s colleges remaining in the United States, most of which now admit transgender women, according to data compiled by Maggie Nanney, an independent researcher and Smith College graduate. Ms. Nanney, who was a student when the college first allowed transgender women to enroll, said the policy aligned with the college’s commitment to inclusion, which has led to broad support among students and alumnae.
After the investigation was announced, Smith students expressed support for their college’s policy with chalk drawings around campus of the transgender pride flag and phrases such as “trans Smithies belong” and “trans women belong here.”
“From what I’ve seen, this policy is fundamentally important at Smith,” Ms. Nanney said, adding that students had found the introduction of transgender classmates an enriching experience. “What is key is understanding this is an opportunity to learn, and it’s not an agenda being pushed down someone’s throat.”
Defending Education filed a similar complaint against Wellesley College on Thursday and plans to target transgender admissions policies at other women’s college, said Nicole Neily, the president and founder of the group.
She said that she was focused on protecting spaces for women based on biological sex, and that admitting transgender women was a “bait and switch” for female applicants. She described a hypothetical situation in which a woman had been sexually assaulted by a man and chose the college as a result.
“If somebody chooses that, that is not what they are being provided,” Ms. Neily said. “There are federal laws that apply. You have to uphold your promises.”
‘Voice of reason’
For decades, including during Mr. Trump’s first term, enforcing civil rights in schools has largely relied on parents to flag discrimination. In recent years, the majority of these complaints have raised allegations related to students with disabilities.
But over the past 18 months, new voices have emerged in this complaint-driven process.
America First Legal, a group founded by Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s chief policy architect, has filed complaints that have led to investigations into six school districts in Virginia and Massachusetts over gender and diversity programs.
The Defense of Freedom Institute, founded by two first-term Trump officials, Jim Blew and Robert S. Eitel, has had similar success. The group’s complaints about gender policies in two Chicago school districts, four Kansas school districts, three Maryland school districts and the Maryland Department of Education have become federal civil rights investigations.
Do No Harm, a group opposed to hormonal interventions for transgender children and diversity policies that exclude white students, has prompted federal investigations into the medical schools at Duke University and the University of California, Los Angeles. In an end-of-year report last December, the group’s founder, Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, described meeting with White House officials “aligned with our mission.”
And America First Policy Institute, where Ms. McMahon served as chairwoman for four years, triggered a civil rights investigation into transgender girls playing on female sports teams in Oregon.
But few have rivaled Defending Education’s success at turning civil rights complaints into federal investigations.
Founded in 2021 with the name Parents Defending Education, the group was intended to harness the energy of a parents’ rights movement that grew out of the backlash to school shutdowns and other restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic.
Membership dues accounted for about 1.5 percent of Defending Education’s $5.3 million revenue in 2024, with donations covering the rest.
One of Defending Education’s largest donors has been Donors Trust Inc., a fund for conservative donors to make anonymous contributions. It has given $2.2 million since 2021, tax records show.
In 2024, more than 75 percent of Defending Education’s income came from two dozen private foundations, including major philanthropic forces in the conservative movement, such as the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the Searle Freedom Trust.
With a staff of 17 people, Defending Education also helps local groups and parents navigate civil rights issues in schools, engage in the local and federal policy process, and build networks and coalitions.
Complaints from Defending Education have prompted four federal investigations into transgender policies, and seven into diversity programs accused of discriminating against white students.
“We have tried to be the voice of reason,” Ms. Neily said in an interview. “We’re teaching people what the issues are and how to effect change. You don’t have to go in guns blazing and screaming at somebody.”
‘A women’s experience’
Ms. Neily works from a cramped den in a modest townhouse in suburban Virginia, decorated to reflect her politics and background.
Conservative books critical of “woke” culture are stacked around the room, including one titled “When Harry Became Sally.” A box of Trump-branded presidential chocolates sits on a shelf.
A silver-and-blue kimono hangs on the wall. The display is a tribute to Ms. Neily’s paternal Japanese American grandparents. A nod to her mother, an Irish immigrant, is the name of her black-and-white kitten, Finn.
Ms. Neily’s work is increasingly devoted to paring back protections for transgender students. But in 2012, she was a prominent member of Young Conservatives for the Freedom to Marry, a group that supported same-sex marriage.
Ms. Neily said in an interview that she was still supportive of same-sex marriage, and did not believe people could choose to be gay or transgender. But Defending Education aggressively pushes for school policies that strictly define gender.
“To put someone in a dorm room with somebody when, like, I have to get naked? I am going to be sleeping?” Ms. Neily said. “Those are real concerns, and for them to be swept under the rug is, I think, a little bit unfair.”
She has been quoted in official government news releases and has attended parties at the White House. In a sign of her close relationship with Education Department leaders, she was seated next to Triple H, the bulky, bearded and bald wrestling star, during Ms. McMahon’s confirmation hearing. Triple H, whose real name is Paul Levesque, is Ms. McMahon’s son-in-law.
But Defending Education’s most tangible gains during the first 18 months of Mr. Trump’s second term have been turning 11 civil rights complaints into Education Department investigations. An additional five complaints appeared close to becoming government investigations, according to correspondence between the agency and Defending Education.
Defending Education’s board includes a veteran of Mr. Trump’s education team: Ken Marcus, who ran the Office for Civil Rights for two years in the first Trump administration. Ms. Neily’s top lieutenant, Ms. Perry, also worked for the office during Mr. Trump’s first term.
Ms. Richey, who ran the civil rights office during Mr. Trump’s first term and returned to the role last year, announced the investigation into Smith College with a news release saying the inquiry was about “privacy, fairness and compliance under federal law.”
“An all-women’s college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males,” Ms. Richey said. Her statement did not disclose that her former group filed the complaint.
The complaint that Defending Education filed did not mention Dr. Levine, a former assistant secretary for health in the Biden administration and the highest-ranking transgender person to serve in a Senate-confirmed position.
One of the attachments was a news release from Smith College that Dr. Levine would speak at commencement. Dr. Levine was a frequent target of television ads from the Trump campaign during the 2024 presidential race. The campaign spent more money on ads opposing pro-transgender policies than on any other issue in the final weeks of the race, according to AdImpact, which tracks advertising data.
Last year, the Trump administration changed the label on Dr. Levine’s official portrait in the Department of Health and Human Services to identify her by her previous name.
“I have no comment about this administration’s acts of pettiness and cruelty,” Dr. Levine said in a statement. “But I will say to trans youth everywhere that who you are is valid, and that this moment will pass.”
Ms. Neily said Defending Education was not punishing Smith for providing a platform to Dr. Levine, but because the college was defrauding women seeking a “women’s experience.”
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