Education issues have flown under the radar this election cycle, even though both leading candidates have substantial ideas about how the K-12 and higher education systems should operate.
From student loans to transgender rights, American students, teachers and parents would face starkly different and sometimes directly opposing proposals if Vice President Harris or former President Trump were elected.
Here are the five key educational areas where the two nominees differ:
Student loans
More than 45 million Americans currently owe billions of dollars in student loan debt.
Under a Harris presidency, borrowers will likely see a continuation of the defense of student loan initiatives begun under the Biden administration, such as the modern Saving on Valuable Education (SAVE) plan and the president’s ongoing Plan B debt relief measure for Students the negotiated rulemaking process.
The Biden-Harris administration has canceled the most student debt of any presidency in recent memory Loans for 60,000 public sector employees.
“Before President Biden and I took office, only 7,000 people had received public service loan forgiveness. We fixed the program, and now over 1 million public servants — from firefighters and nurses to military personnel and teachers — have had their student debt forgiven,” Harris said on the social platform X on Friday.
She is likely to face robust pressure from the left to pass some form of general debt relief, although President Biden’s efforts in this direction have suffered from legal challenges.
Trump, who has been a vocal critic of the White House’s efforts, would likely not support major student debt relief after doing little on the issue in his previous presidency. He could let the government pull out of the SAVE plan, which aimed to lower monthly payments and provide debt relief to some borrowers.
School choice
School choice has become an increasingly popular policy in Republican-led states and within the party nationally.
Trump said at a recent campaign rally that school choice is the “civil rights issue of our time.”
He has hinted at a universal school choice policy, adopting language used by the movement in states that have offered education savings accounts, a scholarship that goes to parents who want to homeschool their children or send their children to private school.
“We want federal education dollars to benefit students rather than propping up a bloated and radical bureaucracy in Washington, DC,” Trump said in Milwaukee.
Harris hasn’t spoken much about school choice, but Democrats have aggressively rejected the idea, arguing that it would take money away from public schools and ultimately weaken them.
Transgender rights
Progress on transgender student rights could look very different between the two presidencies.
Trump had previously said on his first day in office that he would reverse Biden’s expanded definition of Title IX, which included gender identity and sexual orientation. The expanded definition allowed transgender students to utilize the restroom or locker room of their choice, something Republican states have restricted.
Trump also wants Congress to target gender-equitable care and supports the idea of punishing teachers if they “suggest to a child that he or she might be trapped in the wrong body.”
Harris was a staunch supporter of transgender rights. Although she hasn’t spoken much about the issue on the campaign trail, she has a track record of support, and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, governs a state known as a “trans haven.”
“If you watch sporting events right now, you see that Donald Trump’s closing argument is to demonize a group of people for who they are. We’re out there trying to make the point that access to health care, a clean environment, manufacturing jobs, and keeping the local hospital open are what people really care about. They run millions of dollars worth of ads demonizing people who are just trying to live their lives,” Walz said on a recent podcast.
Transgender rights will also be the subject of a major Supreme Court case this session involving the legality of Tennessee’s law banning minors from receiving gender-affirming care. The case could have significant implications for the health care of transgender children across the country.
Ministry of Education
The fate of the Federal Ministry of Education itself could be at stake after the election.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to abolish the Education Department, arguing that it brings with it government inefficiency and that schools are best left to state and local governments.
“I say it all the time, I can’t wait to get back here. We will ultimately abolish the Federal Ministry of Education,” he said at a rally.
Project 2025, a conservative platform for the next president with which Trump has denied any connection, laid the foundation for how a government without the department would function.
The platform essentially shifts its workload to other federal agencies or the states.
However, Trump advocated for the abolition of the department back in 2016, before his first presidency, and made little concerted effort from the Oval Office to make it happen.
Curriculum Review
While curricula are largely left up to states and individual schools, Trump has threatened to change that.
Back in March, he said he would cut funding for schools that teach concepts like “critical race theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content about our children.”
Harris has not called for national curriculum reviews, and the administration has condemned efforts by Republican states to block courses like AP African American Studies.
The Democratic platform calls for funding low-income schools and establishing universal preschool education, but there hasn’t been much discussion about restricting school curricula.
“Democrats believe that all children in the United States should have access to quality early childhood education programs. We will work with states to provide preschool to all three- and four-year-olds and expand Head Start and Early Head Start,” the platform says.
