WASHINGTON – Donald Trump’s return to the presidency could lay the foundation for sweeping changes in U.S. education policy.
Throughout his campaign, Trump has vowed to “save American education,” with a focus on parental rights and universal school choice – a keen contrast to the Biden administration’s education record.
With Trump cementing his victory in the White House, here’s where he stands on education:
Get rid of the US Department of Education
Perhaps Trump’s most far-reaching education plan includes his promise to close the U.S. Department of Education.
The department, only 45 years aged, is not responsible for setting school curricula because education in the United States is decentralized. The Mission of the agency is to “promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by promoting educational excellence and ensuring equal access.”
Trump has repeatedly called for moving education “back to the states,” even though responsibility for education already lies primarily with states and local governments, which provide much of the funding for K-12 schools.
Funding boost
Trump has proposed funding increases for states and school districts consistent with his education vision, including passage of a “Parental Bill of Rights that includes full curriculum transparency and some form of universal school choice.” according to his plan.
He also wants to give funding preferences to schools that eliminate “teacher tenure” for grades K-12 and instead implement “performance pay.”
It could also enhance funding for schools whose parents hold direct elections of principals, as well as for schools that significantly reduce the number of principals.
Trump’s plan also includes creating a credentialing board to certify teachers “who represent patriotic values and understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children, but to educate them.”
He is too threatened to cut federal funding for schools that teach “critical race theory” or “gender ideology,” and pledged to roll back updated Title IX regulations under the Biden administration on his first day in office.
Updated regulations the Biden administration released earlier this year expand federal protections for LGBTQ+ students.
The final rule reverses changes to Title IX made under Trump’s previous administration and then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
A number of Republican-led states have challenged the measure, leading to multiple lawsuits and a political patchwork across the country.
Student debt and higher education
Trump criticized the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness efforts, describing them as “not even legal” and could abandon any mass student loan forgiveness efforts.
Trump could repeal the administration’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, which is currently on hold as it faces a legal challenge. The aim of the comprehensive initiative is to enable borrowers to make lower monthly loan payments and shorten the time it takes to pay off their debts.
In the meantime, the 2024 GOP platform called for making colleges and universities “healthy and affordable” and noted that Republicans will “fire radical left accreditors, cut tuition, restore due process protections and pursue civil rights lawsuits against schools that discriminate.”
The platform also calls for reducing the cost of higher education by creating “additional, significantly more affordable alternatives to a traditional four-year college degree.”
Trump also suggested the American Academy, a free online university that he says will be funded by the “billions and billions of dollars we will raise through taxation, fines and lawsuits against overly large private university foundations.”
Project 2025
Setting aside the GOP platform and Trump’s proposals, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 proposes a sweeping conservative agenda that, if implemented, could have significant impact on the future of education.
Although Trump rejected the conservative think tank’s draft, some former members of his previous administration helped craft the agenda.
Some of the educational policy proposals listed in the extensive document These include abolishing the U.S. Department of Education and Head Start, ending time- and job-based student loan forgiveness, and restoring Title IX regulations enacted under DeVos.
The proposal also states that “the federal government should limit its involvement in education policy to that of a statistical agency that reports information to the states.”
Major teachers unions react to Trump’s victory
“The voters have spoken. “While we hoped and fought for a different outcome, we respect both their will and the peaceful transfer of power,” Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the country’s largest teachers unions, said in a statement Wednesday.
“At this moment, the country is more divided than ever and our democracy is in danger. “Last night we saw how fear and anger won,” Weingarten said.
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the country’s largest union, said in a statement Wednesday: “This is neither the outcome we fought for nor the future we wanted for our students and families.” but it is the path through history. “We must travel now.”
Last updated on November 6, 2024 at 4:38 p.m
