For decades, the Education Department has perpetrated massive wrongs within the education system, while costing trillions of dollars. The strategic appointment of Ernie Trakas as the department’s senior civil rights lawyer could help roll back some of the damage before the department is dismantled entirely.
In early September, Trakas was appointed senior counsel in the Office for Civil Rights at the department, under assistant secretary Kimberly M. Richey. The position is powerful, supporting the enforcement of federal civil rights laws in education and initiating sanctions against non-compliant institutions that receive millions of dollars in annual federal funding. As senior counsel, Trakas will advise leadership and guide policy decision-making.
Trakas has spent decades successfully litigating for parental rights and protections for children as an attorney for Child and Parental Rights Campaign, a public-interest law firm that focuses on protecting children from transgender policies.
In Blair v. Appomattox County School Board, Trakas provided legal support in a lawsuit brought by the adoptive mother of Sage Blair. The lawsuit alleges Blair was physically and sexually assaulted on school property after school counselors encouraged her use of the male restroom if she identified as a boy. The school failed to inform her guardian. These circumstances allegedly led Blair to run away, falling prey to sex traffickers. The stunning Title IX claim was remanded to a lower court, but received national attention for highlighting the dangers of queer ideology and sparked efforts to prevent similar future atrocities through legislation called “Sage’s Law.” The Federalist was the first national outlet to report on the saga and resulting lawsuit.
In Landerer v. Dover Area School District, Trakas won a settlement for a mother who sued the school district that kept her daughter’s gender confusion confidential.
Trakas has also advocated for the protection of women and girls in sports, serving as counsel for Melissa Batie-Smoose, who alleged she was suspended from her coaching position after speaking out against the detrimental inclusion of a biological male on the women’s volleyball team. The department’s investigation into the case found the university in violation of Title IX and issued a proposed resolution agreement.
Entrenched and Invasive
Parents’ fundamental authority over their children was upheld by the courts in the 1920s, but has significantly eroded since then. Entrenched radical ideology coupled with invasive foreign influence has exerted increasing sway over public education since the mid-1900s, when the federal government significantly expanded funding and regulating education.
Modern education ideology is disturbingly leftist, prescribing school control of curriculum and health and student information, and encouraging secrecy from caregivers. Artificial intelligence tools designed to racially discriminate are gaining traction. Democrats staunchly opposed Republicans’ Parents Bill of Rights Act, which would have expanded parental access to information about curriculum, school budgets, and school privacy practices, and backed an alternative bill identifying parents as “complementary” rather than primary authorities.
Republican-run school districts have not evaded infection. In traditionally conservative counties, schools have made national headlines in recent years for protecting sexual abusers, espousing radical teaching, and encouraging gender-confused children through secrecy policies.
Exploitation, coercion, and indoctrination efforts are so rampant that some former educators recommend parents remove their children from schools altogether. “Outside groups have infiltrated many of our nation’s schools, often making propaganda, rather than traditional education, their foremost priority,” said Larry Sand, a retired classroom teacher and former president of the California Teachers Empowerment Network.
Winning Advocacy
The work to salvage a system as broken as public education is daunting, but a significant reform effort is underway. House Republicans proposed the Parents Bill of Rights Act in 2023 and passed the Stopping Indoctrination and Protecting Kids Act in 2026. In 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that parents challenging a Maryland district’s use of LGBTQ-themed children’s books were entitled to a notice and opt-out option.
President Trump’s executive efforts to end radical indoctrination have resulted in a patchwork of negotiations and legal losses. The department’s rescinding of several Biden-era Title IX resolution agreements has had limited effect.
Schools now disguise or defy restrictions on DEI instruction in states that have outlawed the discriminatory material, continuing to reap the benefit of state and federal funding. Secrecy policies persist. Antisemitic activity on college campuses is well-documented. Free speech is increasingly suppressed.
Trakas enters a department investigating a myriad of claims. The Office for Civil Rights database lists nearly 3,000 open Title IX investigations in elementary, secondary, and postsecondary schools. Instances of sexual misconduct, discrimination, and abuse abound in schools.
Historic Push for Protections
In a farewell tribute to her longtime colleague, Child and Parental Rights Campaign’s president Vernadette Broyles lauded Trakas’ legacy as one of “excellence and compassion.”
“Ernie’s expertise, gained through a long career, will reverberate in our firm for years to come,” Broyles said. “He consistently demonstrates wise insight, clear thinking, and an entrepreneurial mindset that has assisted this firm in innumerable ways … those who work with him also know that his mastery of legal strategy is equally matched by a sincere care for clients — parents and children whose fundamental rights and well-being hang in the balance.”
Trakas enters the department at a historic time. Multiple efforts to enforce laws that protect parents and children, including an interagency agreement with the Department of Justice, are underway. His ability to skillfully navigate Title IX funding and education law, successfully litigate in hostile courts, and advise on lasting parental rights and child safety reform is critical to the restoration of basic liberties in a very sick system.
