Trump v. Department of Education: The President-Elect’s Plans for Schools in America
The Department of Education is on the chopping block, as president-elect Donald Trump plans to disband the federal agency upon returning to office. Photo by Andy Feliciotti on Unsplash
As January draws near, president-elect Donald Trump’s plans for the country are becoming larger topics of discussion. In a video on the Agenda 47 website titled “President Trump’s Ten Principles For Great Schools Leading To Great Jobs,” the president-elect listed several principles that he intends to implement upon returning to the White House, focusing on the removal of the Department of Education.
“One thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and sending all education and education work it needs back to the states,” Trump stated in the video. “We're going to end education coming out of Washington D.C. We're going to close it up — all those buildings all over the place and yet people that in many cases hate our children.”
Many who support this plan believe that by cutting the Department of Education, the states will have more power in deciding their curriculum and will not be subjected to “woke” educational topics. However, local governments have more involvement in educational policy than the federal government.
Curriculum choice has long been in the power of the states rather than in the purview of the Department of Education. State governments have the main responsibility of establishing public school curricula, as well as regulating teaching methods and instructional materials.
The desire to close the Department of Education is supported by several conservative policymakers, who see the action as a way to remove the integration of Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in schools across the country. According to the Agenda 47 website, “President Trump will get Critical Race Theory, transgender ideology and left-wing indoctrination OUT of our schools — and he will get reading, writing and arithmetic back IN, so that America’s young people have the knowledge, skills and training they need to get a great job and lead a successful career.”
In place of CRT and other topics that the Trump administration believes are “Marxist” ideals, Trump is looking to reinstate the 1776 Commission, which is a plan “to ensure America’s children learn the truth about their country’s history and the timeless principles of liberty and equality.”
The 1776 Commission, disbanded on President Joe Biden’s first day in office, supports a curriculum that intends to show the patriotic and successful achievements throughout American history, with a focus on the Founding Fathers and other heroes of American legend. The curriculum was highly criticized for being historically inaccurate, and the American Historical Association, along with 33 other historical societies, made a statement disavowing the project. The groups described it as “a simplistic interpretation that relies on falsehoods, inaccuracies, omissions and misleading statements.”
Another facet of Trump’s educational principles is the removal of discussion relating to the concepts of gender fluidity and sexuality. The Agenda 47 site states, “President Trump will immediately reverse Joe Biden’s barbaric ‘gender-affirming care’ policies, and he will sign an executive order instructing every federal agency, including the Department of Education, to cease all programs that promote the concept of sex and gender transition, at any age.”
Trump also plans to punish teachers and educators who discuss this topic; “President Trump will also inform states and school districts that if any teacher or school official suggests to a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body, they will be faced with severe consequences — including potential civil rights violations for sex discrimination and the elimination of federal funding,” according to the site.
For those looking to go into education as a career, these policies can bring some tension and nervousness. Justin Sloan ‘25, a history and adolescent education major, is looking to become a history teacher but is nervous about some of Trump’s plans for education.
“I'm nervous about censorship and credentials for educators, because as far as I'm aware, I think that president-elect Trump wants to implement some new level of certification for educators that's ‘patriotic,’ and that sort of has a dangerous or misleading connotation to it,” Sloan said.
Part of Trump’s plan for hiring educators is outlined to “create a credentialing body to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values and support the American Way of Life,” which as Sloan stated, has a potentially negative connotation for many who hear it.
Along with hiring practices, in regards to the 1776 Commission, Sloan is afraid of what implications that might bring to curricula in schools; “I'm afraid that we're going to take a turn where history teachers only want to teach the positive side of American history. By doing so, you're most likely going to be taking away the voices in literature of historically oppressed groups.”
“I think people immediately assume that it's ‘Let's just leave it up to the states.’ But it's not that black and white. There's so many intricacies that go into it, and I think people don't really know a lot about this issue of potentially getting rid of the Department of Education,” Sloan concluded.