WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s return to the presidency could pave the way for sweeping changes in American education policy.

Throughout his campaign, Trump pledged to “save American education,” emphasizing parental rights and universal school choice – in stark contrast to the state’s educational record. Biden administration.

With Trump’s victory in the White House solidified, here’s a look at his stance on education:

Getting rid of the US Department of Education

Perhaps Trump’s most ambitious education plan includes his promise to close the U.S. Department of Education.

The department – ​​which has only been around for 45 years – is not responsible for setting school curricula because education is decentralized in the United States. THE the agency’s mission is to “promote student success and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equality of access”.

Trump has repeatedly called for moving education “to the states,” even though responsibility for education already falls primarily on state and local governments, which allocate much of the funding to elementary and secondary schools.

Funding increases

Trump has proposed increasing funding to states and school districts that align with his vision for education, including adopting 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 provide funding preferences to schools that eliminate the “teacher mandate” for grades K-12 and adopt “merit pay.”

It could also increase funding for schools where parents directly elect principals, as well as schools that significantly reduce the number of their administrators.

Trump’s plan also includes creating an accrediting body to certify teachers “who embrace patriotic values ​​and understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children, but to educate them.”

He is also threatens 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 back in office.

The updated regulations, released by the Biden administration earlier this year, extend federal protections to LGBTQ+ students.

The final rule reverses changes to Title IX made under the previous Trump administration and under then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

A large number of Republican-led states challenged the measure, leading to several legal battles and a political patchwork across the country.

Student debt and higher education

Trump has criticized the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness efforts, calling them “not even legal,” and may abandon any mass student loan forgiveness efforts.

Trump could repeal the administration’s Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan, which is currently on hold due to a legal challenge. This large-scale initiative aims to reduce borrowers’ monthly payments and reduce the time needed to repay their debt.

In the meantime, the GOP 2024 platform called for making colleges and universities “healthy and affordable,” noting 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 through the creation of “additional, significantly more affordable alternatives to a traditional four-year college degree.”

Asset also proposed the “American Academy,” a free online university that he said would be endowed with “the billions and billions of dollars we raise by taxing, fining, and suing the excessively large endowments of private universities.”

Project 2025

In addition to the Republican platform and Trump’s proposals, the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 proposes a broad conservative agenda that, if implemented, could have major implications for the future of education.

Although Trump disavowed the conservative think tank’s plan, some former members of his previous administration helped shape the program.

Some of the educational policy proposals presented in the detailed document include eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and Head Start, ending time- and occupation-based student loan forgiveness, and reinstating Title IX regulations established under DeVos .

The proposal also states that “the federal government should limit its involvement in education policy to that of a statistics-gathering agency that disseminates information to the states.”

Major teachers unions respond to Trump’s victory

“The voters have spoken. Although 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 largest teachers unions, said Wednesday of the country.

“Right now, the country is more divided than ever and our democracy is in danger. Last night we saw fear and anger win,” Weingarten said.

Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest union, said in a statement Wednesday that “this is not the outcome we campaigned for, nor the future we wanted for our students and our families, but it’s the path through history.” we must now travel.

Last updated at 4:38 p.m., November 6, 2024