WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) – Donald Trump’s vision of education revolves around a single goal: to rid America’s schools of perceived awake ” and “leftist indoctrination”.
The elected president wants to keep it transgender athletes outside of girls’ sports. He wants to ban classroom lessons about gender identity and structural racism. He wants to delete it diversity and inclusion the offices
During his campaign, the Republican portrayed schools as a political battle to be won from the left. Now that he’s won the White House, he plans to use federal money as leverage to move forward his view of education nationwide
He has promised to cut funding to schools that challenge Trump’s education plan on a number of issues.
On his first day in office, Trump has repeatedly said he will cut funding to “any school that promotes critical race theory, transgender insanity, and inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content to our children.” On the campaign trail, Trump said he “wouldn’t give a dime” to schools with vaccine or mask requirements.
He said it would be done through executive action, although some of his supporters have said he does not have the authority to make such swift and sweeping changes.
Trump’s opponents say his vision of America’s schools is skewed by politics: the kind of liberal indoctrination he does is fiction. They say his proposals will undermine public education and harm students who need school services the most.
“It’s fear-based information, non-factual, and I would call it propaganda,” said Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president of the Education Trust, a research and advocacy organization. “There is no evidence that students are taught to question their sexuality in schools. There is no evidence that our American education system is full of maniacs.’
Trump’s platform calls for “massive funding priorities” for states and schools that terminate teacher tenure, establishing universal school choice programs and giving parents the opportunity to choose school principals.
Perhaps his most ambitious promise is to completely shut down the US Department of Education, a goal of conservative politicians for decades who say it has been infiltrated by “radicals.”
America’s K-12 public schools get about 14% of their revenue from the federal government, mostly from programs aimed at low-income students and special education. The majority of school funding comes from local taxes and state governments.
Universities rely more on federal money, especially grants and loans the government gives it to students to pay tuition.
Trump’s most powerful tool for jeopardizing school funding is his civil rights enforcement authority — the Department of Education’s power to cut federal funding. the schools and universities that fail to comply with civil rights laws.
The president can’t immediately withdraw money from large numbers of constituencies, but only if he targets a few civil rights inquiriesothers are likely to fall in line, said Bob Eitel, president of the Freedom Defense Institute and an education official during Trump’s first term. This authority could be used for schools and colleges that have or are charged with diversity and inclusion offices. antisemitismsaid Eitel.
“This is not a loss of day one funding,” Eitel said, referring to Trump’s campaign promise. “But in the end, the president will have his way on this issue, because I think there are some real legal issues.”
Trump has also suggested potential legislation to follow through on some of his promises, including fining universities for diversity initiatives.
In order for universities to close diversity programs – which Trump says is discrimination – he said he would “advance a measure to impose fines for the full amount of their endowment”.
His platform also calls for a new free online college called the American Academy, “taxing, fining and suing over-extended private college endowments.”
During his first term, Trump occasionally threatened to cut funding from schools that defied him, including during the COVID-19 pandemic and at universities he blamed for slow reopenings. restricting freedom of expression.
Most of the threats came to naught, though Congress succeeded in increasing the endowment tax on wealthy colleges, and its Department of Education made major changes to related regulations. campus sexual assault.
Universities hope their relationship with the administration is not as antagonistic as Trump’s rhetoric suggests.
“Education has been an easy target during the campaign season,” said Peter McDonough, general counsel for the American Council on Education, an association of college presidents. “But cooperation between higher education and administration will be better for the country than an attack on education.”
Trump’s threats of tough penalties seem to contradict one of his pillars of education: getting the federal government out of schools. In closing the Department of Education, Trump said he would “return all education jobs and needs to the states.”
“We will end the education that comes out of Washington DC,” Trump said on his website last year. In his platform, he pledged to ensure that schools are “free from political interference.”
Instead of letting states and schools decide where to stand on polarizing issues, Trump is proposing blanket bans that fit his vision.
Taking a neutral stance and letting the states decide would not fulfill Trump’s campaign promises, said Max Eden, a conservative think tank at AEI. For example, Trump plans to rescind directives from President Joe Biden’s administration IX The degree’s protections have been extended to LGBTQ+ students. And Trump would go further, promising to ban transgender women from women’s sports nationwide.
“Trump wanted boys out of girls’ sports. He didn’t execute if he wanted to let boys play girls’ sports,” Eden said.
Trump also wants a say in the school curriculum, vowing to fight for “patriotic” education. He promised to get his back 1776 CommissionIt was created in 2021 to promote patriotic education. The panel created a report that called progressivism, along with fascism, a “challenge to American principles.”
Adding to that effort, Trump is proposing a new accrediting agency to certify “teachers who embrace patriotic values.”
Few of its biggest educational goals can be achieved quickly, and many would require new acts of Congress or federal processes that take months.
More immediately, Biden plans to rescind executive orders, including one promoting racial equity across the federal government. Biden is also expected to work quickly to repeal or rewrite the Title IX rules, even to end those changes longer rulemaking process.
Trump has not specified his student loan plansAlthough he has called Biden’s proposal to cancel it illegal and unfair.
Most of Biden’s signature education initiatives have been stalled by the courts between courts, including a broad-based expansion proposal. cancellation of the loan and more generous loan repayment plan. Those plans could be scrapped or rewritten when Trump takes office.
___
The Associated Press’s education coverage receives financial support from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs the standards for working with philanthropies, a the list of sponsors and funded coverage areas on AP.org.
