Mississippi Dept Of Ed Nixes Trans Bathroom Policy After GOPers Balk

State Superintendent Carey Wright is questioned, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014 in a Joint Legislative Budget Committee hearing about rising spending on administrators and whether lawmakers should spend more money on progra... State Superintendent Carey Wright is questioned, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2014 in a Joint Legislative Budget Committee hearing about rising spending on administrators and whether lawmakers should spend more money on programs not included in the formula. Wright and other officials made their legally-mandated push for support of Mississippi's school funding formula during their budget presentation. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) MORE LESS
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The Mississippi Department of Education reversed course Wednesday on its plans to follow the Obama administration’s guidelines for accommodating transgender students after Republican lawmakers in the state decried the new policy.

“Pending a discussion with the Mississippi State Board of Education, I am instructing the Mississippi Department of Education to follow the lead of state leadership and take no action at this time regarding the non-regulatory guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Education,” Dr. Carey Wright, the state superintendent of education, said in a statement.

The state education department had said last week that it would follow the guidelines issued by the Obama administration directing schools to let transgender students use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity, according to the Clarion-Ledger.

But Republican lawmakers in the state called on Wright to either step down or ignore the new guidelines from the Justice and Education departments.

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) called the federal government’s guidance the “most outrageous example yet of the Obama administration forcing its liberal agenda on states that roundly reject it” and said that Mississippi schools should disregard the guidelines.

Republican members of the state House and Senate then sent Wright letters this week calling on her to reverse her plan to accommodate transgender students, according to the Clarion-Ledger.

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