By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
Kobach faults Gov. Laura Kelly’s 2019 executive order on gender identity
TOPEKA — The Kansas State Board of Education and Attorney General Kris Kobach have been fighting about whether Kansas should drop a ban on discrimination against persons based on sexual orientation or gender identity from public school district contracts tied to federally funded food nutrition programs.
Kobach asserted the language of some contracts was inconsistent with executive orders issued by President Donald Trump in January, while the state Board of Education said anti-discrimination provisions in contracts for goods or services complied with an executive order issued by Gov. Laura Kelly in 2019.
On July 3, representatives of the state Board of Education met with Kobach to inform the attorney general the text of contracts had to be “made or approved” by the Kansas Department of Administration rather than the state Board of Education or the Kansas State Department of Education.
Kobach’s reply was to reiterate his opinion that non-discrimination language related to gender identity or sexual orientation wasn’t allowed in contracts affixed to federal funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He urged Kansas education officials to require deletion of offending passages from contracts with public school districts participating in USDA food nutrition programs.
“I remain convinced that school districts have the legal right to refuse the inclusion of language referring to ‘sexual orientation, gender identity or expression’ in their contracts,” Kobach said. “Whether these contracts are categorized internally as ‘state’ or ‘federal’ contracts, if any of the funding for these contracts originated from the federal government, they must be consistent with federal law going forward.”
Kelly’s Executive Order No. 19-02 declared Kansas state government was committed to employment practices that prevented discrimination or harassment on account of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression as well as race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, military or veteran status, disability status, marital or family status, genetic information or political affiliation.
“In a perfect world, we wouldn’t need executive orders like this,” Kelly said at the time she signed the order in 2019. “It’s important that, until we become a perfect world, that we make sure that we’ve got the kinds of things in place that move it towards perfection.”
Kobach said the governor’s six-year-old directive was eclipsed Jan. 20 when Trump signed Executive Orders 14173, 14151 and 14168.
Trump’s orders said federal agencies were forbidden from taking part in “dangerous, demeaning and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity and inclusion.'” Trump’s orders also sought to reject the concept of gender identity and to prevent federal funds from being “used to promote gender ideology.”
In addition, Kobach pointed to an injunction issued in Kansas v. U.S. Department of Education forbidding then-President Joe Biden to establish gender identity as a protected category in Title IX. In July 2024, U.S. District Judge John Broomes of Kansas, who is a Trump appointee, blocked in four states enforcement of Biden’s rule expanding anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students.
“A refusal by the Kansas Department of Administration to disburse funds, based on the absence of the (Kelly-mandated nondiscrimination) language … would be inconsistent with federal law and may risk federal funding for Kansas school children going forward,” Kobach said.
On Wednesday, the state Department of Education issued a statement that said collaboration continued with Kansas schools “toward a satisfactory resolution” of the conflict.
The dispute was initiated in June when Kobach contacted the state Board of Education to request removal of anti-discrimination language from contracts associated with USDA funding. That led to the July 3 meeting with the attorney general and representatives of the governor’s office, state Department of Administration, state Department of Education and state Board of Education.
“During that meeting, representatives of KSDE and the state board explained that the agencies are bound by state procurement laws and policies,” the state Department of Education statement said.
In late June, Kobach separately requested the U.S. Department of Education investigate four Kansas school districts for potentially failing to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act or FERPA.
Kobach said the Topeka, Olathe, Shawnee Mission and Kansas City, Kansas, school districts had “harmful and illegal” policies allowing or requiring teachers to conceal from parents information concerning social transitioning of children.
“That a Kansas school district would so cavalierly act to hide such information from parents is shockingly irresponsible,” Kobach said.
Meanwhile, the Kansas Court of Appeals in mid-June reversed a district court decision blocking Kansas officials from complying with requests from individuals to change gender markers on their driver’s licenses. Kobach had filed a lawsuit in 2023 to stop transgender people from changing gender information on licenses.