A letter is going out today from Emperor Obama’s henchman at the Departments of “Education” and “Justice,” implicitly threatening public schools with loss of federal funding if they protect private restrooms and locker rooms for schoolchildren.

The ideologues have no legal basis for this decree. The Constitution doesn’t allow it. Nor does Title IX of the Civil Rights Act (the fragile peg on which they hang this coal of mail), which prohibits discrimination in schools on the basis of “sex” but not “gender identity.” The vast weight of legal authority is clear on this. But Obama assumes (not without reason) that most state and local officials will roll over rather than risk the almighty dollar.

This is not just another development in the Left’s gradual imposition of its essentially totalitarian ideology. It’s worse than that. This is the utter obliteration of any distinctions in the area of sex and gender. Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s comparison of sex-segregated restrooms to Jim Crow laws illustrates the now-dominant view on the Left: It doesn’t matter that males and females are constructed differently, and that normal males and females have some natural modesty and expectation of privacy. Sex is merely a social construct, unrelated to nature.

And what of the vast majority of boys and girls who don’t quite buy this, despite the public schools’ assiduous efforts to indoctrinate them? What of the millions who don’t want to — or are even afraid to — change clothes in front of a member of the opposite sex? Well, according to Commandant Lynch, they just have to get over it. They may be in a primitive state of social enlightenment because of the retrograde influence of family and (God forbid, if there were a God, which there isn’t) Church, but the State, through the school, will take care of that. These children will come to understand that the State is more important than they are — they must surrender their own good to that of the State. It’s for the best.

Currently, best estimates are that “transgender” people constitute less than one-half of one percent of the human population. As pointed out by Dr. Paul McHugh, former head of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital, the vast majority of children who claim opposite-sex identity will outgrow it. But under the careful cultivation of the Left, more of these children will blossom into full-blown transgendered adults and so can look forward to the life of stability and peace enjoyed by, for example, Bruce Jenner.

Under this radical new structure, what happens when parents of a tomboy decide, per the scientific data, to let her outgrow it rather than cater to her fantasies? Will the school step in to overturn their decision? Will the school tell her, either directly or through actions, that her parents are know-nothings whose opinions can be safely disregarded? Could the school even report her parents to the authorities for failing to “affirm her identity”? A court in Canada has already ordered a father to begin treating his daughter as a son. Is that the next step here?

This is what happens when too many citizens, and too many of their elected state and local officials, decide that the federal government is in fact supreme in all areas and that nothing can be done about it.

But if citizens and their elected officials don’t fight back against this assault on their children, our country is indeed lost. Fight back how?

• Challenge the feds in court, as North Carolina has done. Every sane governor, state school superintendent, and state or local board of education member should be willing to put his or her name on a lawsuit defying the federal government.

• If necessary, give up the federal money. Yes, give it up. For most states, federal funding constitutes less than ten percent of the education budget. Much of that could probably be recouped by not having to comply with the endless federal regulations and the maintenance of federal programs which serve the interests of neither the states nor students. Imagine the freedom of throwing off the federal shackles — and the satisfaction in watching Lynch & Co. sputter and spew in utter impotence. (This applies to private schools as well — accepting any federal funding risks subjection to evil.)

• On an individual level for elected officials, if all else fails, resign. Every elected official should be willing to go out in a blaze of glory rather than preside over implementation of such a monstrous policy. Be an example of courage for our children.

• On an individual level for parents, pull your children from the public schools until this policy is defeated. If alternatives are cost-prohibitive, join with other parents to find creative ways to accomplish the goal. Our children are at stake.

Jane Robbins is an attorney and a senior fellow with the American Principles Project. Emmett McGroarty is the American Principles Project’s Director of Education.