Trump wants to put an end to ‘wokeness’ in education and promises to use federal money as leverage

By COLLIN BINKLEY

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s vision of education revolves around a single goal: rid America’s schools of alleged “ wake up ‘and ‘left-wing indoctrination’.

The president-elect wants to keep it transgender athletes from girls’ sports. He wants to ban classroom lessons about gender identity and structural racism. He wants to abolish it diversity and inclusivity offices.

During his campaign, the Republican has portrayed schools as a political battleground that must be reclaimed from the left. Now that he has won the White House, he plans to use federal money as leverage to make progress his vision on education throughout the country.

Trump’s education plan promises to cut funding for schools that challenge him on a host of issues.

On his first day in office, Trump repeatedly said he will cut funding to “any school that pushes critical race theory, transgender inanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.” During the campaign, Trump said he would give “not a dime” to schools with vaccination or mask requirements.

He said this would be done through executive action, though even some of his supporters say he does not have the authority to make such quick and sweeping changes.

Trump’s opponents say his vision of America’s schools has been distorted by politics — that the kind of liberal indoctrination he rails against is a fiction. They say his proposals will undermine public education and harm the students who need the school’s services most.

“It’s fear-based, non-factual information, and I would call it propaganda,” said Wil Del Pilar, senior vice president of Education Trust, a research and advocacy organization. “There is no evidence that students are taught in schools to question their sexuality. There is no evidence that our American education system is full of maniacs.”

Trump’s platform calls for “massive funding preferences” for states and schools that end teacher tenure and enact universal laws school choice programs and give parents the opportunity to choose school principals.

Perhaps his most ambitious promise is to completely shut down the U.S. Department of Education, a goal of conservative politicians who have argued for decades that it has been infiltrated by “radicals.”

America’s public elementary schools receive about 14% of their revenue from the federal government, mostly from programs aimed at low-income students and special education. The vast majority of schools’ funding comes from local taxes and state governments.

Colleges rely more heavily on federal money, especially from the federal government grants and loans the government gives students the option to pay tuition fees.

Trump’s strongest tool to risk schools’ money is his authority to enforce civil rights — the Department of Education has the power to cut federal funding schools and colleges that fail to comply with civil rights laws.

The president can’t immediately withdraw funding from large numbers of districts, but if he wants to reach a few, he can civil rights investigationOthers are likely to fall along the same lines, said Bob Eitel, president of the conservative Defense of Freedom Institute and an education official during Trump’s first term. That authority could be used to go after schools and colleges that have or are accused of having a diversity and inclusion office anti-SemitismEitel said.

“This is not a loss of funding on day one,” Eitel said, referring to Trump’s campaign promise. “But ultimately the president will get his way on this issue because I think there are some real legal issues.”

Trump has also hinted at possible legislation to implement some of his promises, including fining universities for diversity initiatives.

To get colleges to end diversity programs — which Trump said amounts to discrimination — he said he will “propose a measure to fine them up to the full amount of their endowment.”

His platform also calls for a new, free online university called the American Academy, to be paid for by “taxing, fining, and charging excessively large private university endowments.”

During his first term, Trump occasionally threatened to cut funding to schools that challenged him, including those that were slow to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic and colleges he blamed. restricting freedom of expression.

Most threats came to nothing, although he managed to get Congress to impose a tax on wealthy college funds, and his Department of Education made major changes to the rules surrounding sexual abuse on campus.

Universities hope their relationship with the government will not be as hostile 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 a partnership between higher education and government will be better for the country than an attack on education.”

Trump’s threats of harsh punishment appear to contradict another of Trump’s education pillars: withdrawing the federal government from schools. In closing the Department of Education, Trump said he would “give all education work and needs back to the states.”

“We are going to put an end to education coming out of Washington DC,” Trump said on his website last year. In his platform, he promised to ensure that schools are “free from political interference.”

Instead of letting states and schools determine their positions on polarizing issues, Trump is proposing blanket bans that align with his vision.

Taking a neutral stance and letting states decide would fall short of Trump’s campaign promises, said Max Eden, a senior fellow at AEI, a conservative think tank. Trump, for example, plans to withdraw guidance from President Joe Biden’s administration on the matter expanded Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students. And Trump would go further and promise a nationwide ban on transgender women in women’s sports.

“Trump wanted to get boys out of girls’ sports. He didn’t want to let guys play sports in the blue states if they wanted to,” Eden said.

Trump also wants a say in the school curriculum and promises to fight for ‘patriotic’ education. He promised to restore his 1776 Commissionwhich he created in 2021 to promote patriotic education. The panel created a report calling progressivism alongside fascism a “challenge to American principles.”

To complement that effort, Trump is proposing a new certification body to certify teachers “who embrace patriotic values.”

Few of his biggest education goals can be accomplished quickly, and many would require new congressional action or federal processes that typically take months.

More immediately, he plans to nullify executive orders issued by Biden, including one that promotes racial equity within the federal government. He is also expected to work quickly to repeal or rewrite Biden’s Title IX rules, although finalizing those changes will be a longer regulatory process.

Trump hasn’t detailed his student loan plansalthough he has called Biden’s cancellation proposals illegal and unfair.

Most of Biden’s signature education initiatives have been put on hold by courts amid legal challenges, including a proposed widespread measure cancellation of the loan and more generous loan repayment plan. Those plans could be withdrawn or rewritten once Trump comes to power.

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Originally published: November 14, 2024 at 10:18 PM MST