By COLLIN BINKLEY (AP Education Writer)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican states are filing a barrage of legal challenges against the Biden administration’s new expanded campus sexual assault rules, saying they overstep the president’s authority and undermine the Title IX anti-discrimination law.

At least three federal lawsuits were filed on Monday seeking to have the new rules overturned. Cases were filed in Alabama, Louisiana and Texas, with backing from a combined nine Republican-led states. Tennessee and West Virginia also promised a “multi-state response” on Tuesday.

The lawsuits are the first to challenge Biden’s new Title IX rules, which expand protections to LGBTQ+ students and add new safeguards for victims of sexual assault. The policy was finalized in April and takes effect in August.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to the lawsuits.

Central to the dispute is a provision expanding Title IX to LGBTQ+ students. The 1972 law forbids discrimination based on sex in education. Under the new rules, Title IX will also protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Texas’ lawsuit called it a federal overreach that attempts to bring “radical social change” to the nation’s schools. Attorney General Ken Paxton argued the 1972 law was meant to forbid discrimination based on “biological sex” only.

“This Final Rule tells States and other regulated parties that they must ignore biological sex or face enforcement actions and the loss of federal education funding,” the suit said.

The states involved argue that the updated rules clash with their own laws, including those restricting which bathrooms and locker rooms transgender students can use, banning them from using facilities that align with their new gender identity.

A lawsuit filed in Alabama says the expansion conflicts with state laws around “harassment, bathrooms, sports, parental rights, and more,” calling it a violation of “sovereign authority.” Florida, Georgia and South Carolina also backed the suit.

The Biden administration’s new rules broadly protect against discrimination based on sex, but they don’t offer guidance around transgender athletes. The Education Department has promised a separate rule on that issue later.

Yet in their suits, Republican states argue that the latest update could be interpreted to apply to athletics.

A suit filed in Louisiana said the policy “cannot help but sound the death knell for female sports.” Joining that suit were Mississippi, Montana and Idaho.

As legal basis for the new rules, the Education Department cited a 2020 Supreme Court case protecting gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment.

The lawsuits challenge that justification, saying the Supreme Court decision focused on employment law, not Title IX. The decision “involved an unrelated statute that was enacted nearly a decade earlier, pursuant to a different constitutional power,” with no mention of “sex segregated bathrooms, locker rooms and dress codes,” the Texas suit said.

Among other things, the suits also take exception with the new policy changes dictating how schools and colleges must handle complaints of sexual assault.

States say the new rules erode the due process rights of accused students and turn campus disciplinary boards into “kangaroo courts.” They ask courts to immediately halt the rules and overturn them.

The Biden administration’s new rules were proposed nearly two years ago, with a public comment period that drew 240,000 responses, a record for the Education Department.

The policy rolls back many of the changes implemented during the Trump administration, which added more protections for students accused of sexual misconduct.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas are at AP.org.

Jon Healey | Los Angeles Times (TNS)

LOS ANGELES — Those who obtained federally backed student loans from private banks can have some or all of their remaining debt forgiven by the Biden administration, but they need to act fast: The deadline for qualifying is Tuesday.

The relief is available for students enrolled in income-driven repayment plans or the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. It’s also available for some parents who borrowed through the Federal Family Education Loan program.

This is not a new initiative, however — instead, it’s the last chance to participate in one of the administration’s first and most successful efforts to reduce the mountain of student debt.

The Education Department launched the Income Driven Repayment One-Time Adjustment initiative in 2022 to address complaints about loan servicing companies losing track of payments, not giving borrowers proper credit for their work in public-service jobs, and steering struggling borrowers into costly forbearance or deferment programs instead of payment plans based on their income.

After completing its review of payment records last year, the department granted all or partial forgiveness automatically to the borrowers who qualified — no application was required. The Education Department estimated that 3.6 million borrowers would receive credit for at least three additional years of payments, moving them that much closer to having their remaining debt wiped out.

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Under income-driven repayment plans, borrowers pay a monthly amount that’s a percentage of their income, regardless of the size of their debt. Those who stay current on their payments have all the remaining debt canceled after 10 years if they’re in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program; otherwise, those in income-based plans would have their debt canceled after 20 to 25 years of payments.

The recalculation applied only to loans issued directly by the federal government, however. That left out borrowers with federally backed loans issued by banks through the Perkins Loan, Federal Family Education Loan and Health Education Assistance Loan programs.

Those borrowers have one last chance to qualify. for a one-time adjustment. If they combine their federally backed loans into a federal direct consolidation loan before Wednesday, their previous payments on those loans will automatically be eligible for review.

Borrowers can apply online to consolidate their loans at the studentaid.gov website. To meet the deadline, the application just has to be submitted by the end of the day Tuesday — the approval can come later, said Celina Damian, the student loan servicing ombudsperson for the California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation.

As part of the one-time adjustment, the Education Department gives borrowers credit for the entire period when repayments were paused because of the pandemic. That’s a little more than three years’ worth of credits.

In addition, the department is giving credits for payments made under any other type of repayment plan that the borrower was in before opting for an income-based plan. And it credits borrowers for months they spent in deferment or in lengthy periods of forbearance.

Borrowers whose adjusted payment counts push them over the 20-year (for most undergraduate loans) or 25-year (for graduate loans) thresholds will automatically have their remaining debt forgiven.

Although the Supreme Court rejected President Joe Biden’s bid to provide debt relief to roughly 40 million borrowers in 2023, the administration has two other major efforts available or in the works. It has proposed a set of rules that would shrink the debt owed by about 30 million borrowers, and it has rolled out a new income-based repayment plan that has lower monthly payments and accrues less interest.

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch will have surgery Wednesday to repair the the ruptured patellar tendon in his right knee, a source told the Pioneer Press.

ESPN first reported the surgery date.

Finch suffered the injury late in Minnesota’s series-clinching victory over Phoenix on Sunday. He was hurt when Mike Conley was hip-checked off the court by Suns guard Devin Booker, which sent the Wolves’ guard into Finch, who was standing on the sidelines. Finch immediately went down in pain and had to be helped off the floor.

The Timberwolves are expected to practice the next couple of days in Minneapolis in preparation for their second-round series against the Denver Nuggets, which is scheduled to start Saturday at Ball Arena. Finch’s chances in those practices figures to be slim to none, though he did have Monday and Tuesday to put together the plan for the week with his staff.

The Wolves flew back from Phoenix on Monday afternoon, and ESPN reported that Finch should be able to fly with the team to Denver on Friday. Whether he will be able to coach from the sidelines is another question.

Post-patellar tendon surgery patients must keep their leg immobilized, usually for a number of weeks. That likely rules Finch out for front-of-bench seating for awhile. That’s a position assistant Micah Nori likely will fill for the time being.

Minnesota could potentially create a setup where Finch sits in the second row behind Nori, and Nori hinted at that possibility during an interview with KFXN-FM 100.3 on Monday.

“A worst-case scenario that I need to be prepared for is that he would have to sit maybe behind the bench with his leg, crutches or whatever,” Nori said. “Essentially, he would be the maestro pulling the puppet strings, and I would be Pinocchio — the front man. But he would tell me what to do and what to say.”

But whether Finch will be that close to the floor in Game 1 of Minnesota’s second round series in Denver on Saturday — just three days removed from major surgery — remains to be seen. The first few days following this surgery are the most painful.

ESPN reported if Finch isn’t able to “park” on the sidelines to start the series, he is “likely communicating to the bench from the locker room.”

Game 2 will be played Monday in Denver, with a full three days off following that contest prior to Game 3 next Friday in Minnesota.

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