DDonald Trump will serve a second presidential term, and probably with both houses of Congress Under Republican leadership — although the House has yet to decide — the future of education in the United States could dramatically change.

Trump has pledged to dismantle the Department of Education, cut federal funding for schools teaching critical race theory and ban transgender female athletes from participating in school sports.

“The American people re-elected President Trump with a large majority, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will keep his promises,” Trump-Vance transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to TIME.

Trump’s transition team did not respond to specific questions about which of his policies will be prioritized in January.

Here’s what you need to know.

Dismantle the Department of Education

During the election campaign, the president-elect pledged to eliminate the Department of Education, which has been a cabinet-level agency since 1980. The department performs many functions: designating federal aid through Title I , which provides state and local funding to schools. serving low-income families, distributing Pell Grants, and regulating student loan relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program or income-driven repayment plans.

Experts tell TIME that dismantling the Department of Education is probably unlikely. “It’s entirely possible to close the Department of Education, but the functions of the Department of Education will have to continue,” says Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, an organization that brings together education associations. higher education to discuss student issues.

This is because the Department of Education has many moving parts. It is home to the Office for Civil Rights, which enforces federal civil rights laws in all schools to protect students from discrimination. Department of Education regulations also affect college sports, something Josh Cowen, professor of education policy at Michigan State University and author of Privateers, how billionaires created a culture war and sold school voucherssaid Republicans probably wouldn’t want that impacted.

Grants or funds designated by Congress would also require a new federal headquarters. “They’re also going to have to use the federal programs and funding sources that they want to continue to authorize, and find new institutional homes for that,” Cowen adds.

Cut funding for DEI and critical race theory

On his campaign website, Trump promised to “cut federal funding for any school or program pushing Critical Race Theory or gender ideology on our children. (Critical race theory refers to academic frameworks that teach that systemic racism is embedded in American society.) Trump has also spoken out against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) measures in colleges and universities across the country.

The campaign against DEI has proven popular in Republican strongholds, as a dozen states have already passed DEI restrictions that closed public university offices, including Kentucky and North Carolina.

“It is absolutely accurate and fair to say that the Trump administration will seek to penalize any institution, whether K-12 or higher education, for administering programs DEI,” Cowen says. “How much money they can take away, how difficult they can make life bureaucratically, those are still slightly open questions, but they will absolutely try.”

Amy Loyd, CEO of the nonprofit All4Ed, says the Trump administration could target funding for such programs through avenues such as the Higher Education Act or Congress. “(The Trump administration) could work with Congress on reauthorization of any of the core education funding streams,” she said.

Erosing the rights of LGBTQ+ students

Experts predict that the rights of LGBTQ+ students would suffer under the Trump administration due to changes that would likely be made to Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education. The Biden administration has attempted to expand Title IX protections to include the LGBTQ+ community., and particularly transgender students, in April. But the expansion faced legal challenges from Republican-led states, preventing protections from being implemented in 26 states.

Trump would not need congressional authority to make changes to Title IX guidance.

Trump has also repeatedly said he would ban transgender female athletes, whom he refers to as “men,” from participating in sports that match their gender identity. “We are of course going to exclude men from women’s sports,” he said during a November 2 speech in Virginia.

Impact on Victims of Campus Sexual Assault

During Trump’s first term, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announcement regulations that would better protect those accused of sexual harassment and assault on campus under Title IX. Biden reversed parts of that guidance — particularly the Trump-era definition of sexual harassment, which critics said made victims less likely to report crimes — this spring, but some experts like Mitchell predict that victims of sexual assault could become vulnerable again under Trump. .

Develop “parental rights”

To understand what would change in education under the Trump administration, experts say people can also glean what’s happening in Republican states with the parental rights movement. The push was behind book bans-who should have almost tripled from the previous school year – and Lois “Don’t Say Gay” in states like Florida and Texas.

Trump pledged to “adopt a Parental Bill of Rights and implement direct election of school principals by parents” on his campaign website.

Although Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, his policy agenda includes using federal education funding for private schools. State lawmakers have failed to pass bills along these lines. “Three states had this exact thing on the ballot Tuesday, and voters rejected it in all three states, including two states, Nebraska and Kentucky, that voted for Donald Trump,” Cowen says. A similar measure has not been adopted in Colorado.

Censorship and freedom of expression

Debates around free speech have gained momentum on college campuses amid pro-Palestinian camps and demonstrations Earlier this year, in the United States, Trump already called himself the “president of law and order” and pledged to restore free speech, end censorship and ban federal funding for academic and nonprofit programs that engage in censorship. But in 2020, Trump threatened to use federal force to end protests following the killing of George Floyd. He praised the police crackdown on student protesters and told wealthy donors that he would expel student protesters from the country if elected, according to Washington Job.