An Arlington School Board member is cautioning Democrats against arguing with voters about the school system’s policies on transgender students this election season.
“Please don’t engage — you don’t need to get into a debate,” School Board member Zuraya Tapia-Hadley told attendees at an Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting on Wednesday.
Her remarks tacitly acknowledged that a segment of the electorate is unhappy with Arlington Public Schools’ policy on access to bathrooms and locker rooms, and suggested a road map to addressing it.
Tapia-Hadley said volunteer party canvassers knocking on doors across the community should discuss the issue in terms of the Trump administration attempting to take away vital school funding supporting students not connected to the transgender dispute.
The U.S. Department of Education contends that current policies for bathroom and locker-room access at five school divisions across Northern Virginia violate Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972. That legislation prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs receiving federal funding.
As a result of the determination, federal officials are holding up some funds that normally would flow to the local school divisions, part of an effort to force school districts into compliance.
Members of the all-Democratic school boards in Arlington and Fairfax counties have filed lawsuits to overturn the actions, claiming the Education Department and other critics of local policies are misrepresenting the law.
“There’s been a lot of noise and a lot of things said that are not true,” School Board Chair Bethany Zecher Sutton said. But because of ongoing litigation, “there’s limits to what I can say,” she told Democrats.
The federal government currently provides about $23 million to APS, accounting for roughly 3% of the school system’s $845 million annual budget. While representing a small percentage, those dollars would be hard for the school district to replace during the current budget year.
The federal funds now imperiled largely provide support for Arlington elementary schools serving large numbers of low-income households, known as Title I schools. For the 2025-26 school year, they are Arlington Traditional School and Barcroft, Barrett, Campbell, Carlin Springs, Drew and Randolph elementaries.
At the Democratic meeting, Tapia-Hadley said Arlington school leaders had no intention of backing down in their support of transgender students and staff. They will fight the Trump administration to maintain existing policies, she said.
“We are doing it to be the most inclusive and supportive school system in the country, which I think we are,” she said.
Matthew Hurtt, who chairs the Arlington County Republican Committee, believes there is another reason Democrats don’t want to engage the public on the issue while on the campaign trail this fall.
“Seventy percent of Northern Virginia voters oppose Arlington Democrats’ radical gender policies,” he told ARLnow. “It’s no surprise elected Arlington Democrats are advising their volunteers to deflect from this issue — it’s a losing issue for them.”
Hurtt believes trying to avoid engagement with voters on the topic is a bad look for local Democrats, and bad public policy.
“Shame on them for diminishing parents’ legitimate concerns,” he said.
Democrats are hoping to run up the local vote count for the party’s statewide ticket. Having a Democratic governor and attorney general will give Northern Virginia school districts backing in battling the Trump administration, Zecher Sutton said.
“We are desperate for some support,” she said.
Arlington Democrats are ramping up get-out-the-vote efforts in advance of early voting, which begins Sept. 19.
The party will be “really concentrating on hitting those doors and talking to voters,” party chair Steve Baker said.
“Having a high turnout is critical to ensure Democrats do well statewide,” he said.
Local Republicans are ramping up similar efforts.
“Arlington Republicans raised more money [in August] than we have ever raised in a month since the Virginia Department of Elections began keeping electronic records,” Hurtt wrote in an email to the rank-and-file.
The battle over the school system’s policy on transgender and nonbinary students broke into public view at a late-August School Board meeting attended by Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears. Democratic attempts to counter her appearance may have backfired after an attendee carried a political sign that caused controversy and was disavowed by many in the party.
“Thanks to the Arlington Democrats — a rare shoutout — Arlington Republicans reached more people on social and traditional media than we have ever reached in my time as a member of this organization,” Hurtt said.
