President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos have released their proposed budget for the 2019 fiscal year, which channels more than $1 billion to be spent on private school vouchers and other school choice plans. The budget proposal also calls for cutting $3.6 billion from the USDE by eliminating a total of 29 discretionary programs, including federal funding for some after-school programming for needy children; eliminating funding for the $2 billion Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants Program (Title II, Part A) of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) as well as the $1.2 billion 21st Century Community Learning Centers program (21st CCLC, Title IV, Part B) of the ESSA; professional development for teachers; Special Olympics; and a grant program for college students with exceptional financial need. The budget proposes the deepest funding cuts to the USDE since the Reagan administration was in office. Last year, USDE rolled back steps taken by the Obama administration that protected transgender students when it came to the right of transgender students to use the restroom at school that corresponds with their gender identity. Now the USDE, under the leadership of DeVos, has stated that it will not hear complaints about or take action on the right of transgender boys or girls to use the school restroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Recently, USDE had dismissed several discrimination cases regarding transgender student bathroom use. The reasoning now used by the USDE is that Title IX does not prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Similarly, access to accommodations such as restrooms, or presumably locker rooms, based on the sex of the student and not gender identity is also not considered a form of discrimination prohibited by Title IX. Opponents to this position claim that this new policy statement is contrary to court rulings on these issues which have stated that denying transgender students appropriate bathroom access in accordance with their gender identity is a violation of Title IX.