George Mason University’s efforts to diversify its workforce violate a civil rights law intended to end segregation, according to the Trump administration.
Following a roughly six-week-long investigation of GMU’s hiring practices, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has found that the Northern Virginia-based university violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race in public education.
The Trump administration appears to be following through on its threat to withhold federal funds from public schools in Northern Virginia after they refused to roll back policies that support transgender and gender non-conforming students.
The U.S. Education Department announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it has placed Fairfax County Public Schools and the school systems in Arlington, Alexandria, Prince William and Loudoun on “high-risk status,” a move that it claims lets it attach specific conditions for releasing funding.
Fairfax County Public Schools is joining its counterparts across Northern Virginia in rejecting the Trump administration’s demands that it rescind policies supporting transgender and gender-nonconforming students.
In a message to FCPS staff and families, Superintendent Michelle Reid says she has sent a response to the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) defending the school system’s policies as consistent with existing state and federal law, requesting that the federal government pause any further action until the issue is “clarified” by the courts.
One month after Congress passed a federal budget bill with a provision directing NASA to transfer a space shuttle to Texas, the space agency remains tight-lipped on any impending relocation plans.
The bill, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 4, requires acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy to identify a space vehicle to transfer to a NASA field center. The requirements stipulate that the ship must have flown into space, carried astronauts, and is selected with the concurrence of a nonprofit entity designated by the administrator.
Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano took a swing at the federal government yesterday (Wednesday), claiming that the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is making it harder for prosecutors to effectively do their jobs.
“The first thing that I hear in our community over and over again is, not only does the federal government focus on fearmongering around crime, but they’re taking it a step further now by actually creating a culture of fear around law enforcement,” Descano said.
The Trump administration has released a new list of localities and states it considers “sanctuary jurisdictions,” and Fairfax County is no longer on it.
The Justice Department identified some three dozen states, cities and counties as so-called sanctuary jurisdictions on Tuesday (Aug. 5), two months after the federal government quietly removed a much longer list that included many localities that support the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies.
The number of Fairfax County residents seeking employment is up by a third year-over-year in new state data, as Northern Virginia continues to grapple with the Trump administration’s slashing of federal government jobs.
A total of 23,561 county residents were reported as looking for work in June’s unemployment figures, provided to FFXnow by state officials on Monday (Aug. 4).
It’s been a rough six months for federal government workers, and few places in the country have been hit as hard by layoffs as Fairfax County.
Based on 2023 Census estimates, approximately 80,000 people — or 13% of the county’s entire workforce — are employed by the federal government, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority reported this spring. But with drastic cuts initiated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in recent months, that number has likely plummeted.
The next meeting of George Mason University’s Board of Visitors could be among the most heavily scrutinized in the Northern Virginia school’s 53-year history.
In addition to revisiting an anti-diversity-programs resolution that was tabled in May, the board is scheduled “to discuss the performance goals” of GMU President Gregory Washington during a closed session at its annual meeting tomorrow morning (Friday).
FCPS Pride is urging Northern Virginia school districts to hold their ground after the Department of Education accused the schools’ trans-inclusive policies of violating Title IX.
Last week, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found Fairfax County Public Schools and nearby Arlington, Alexandria, Prince William and Loudoun school divisions in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The findings argue that letting students use bathrooms and other facilities consistent with their gender identity constitutes discrimination on the basis of sex.
