President-elect Donald Trump has proposed a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s educational systems.
Here’s a look at the areas of education his second term might impact:
Department of Education
Trump’s “Agenda 47” campaign proposed eliminating the Department of Education — which, according to the Department of Education’s website, “sets policy, administers, and coordinates most federal aid to education.”
The Department of Education, created by President Jimmy Carter, provides programs such as Title I funding to low-achieving or high-poverty K-12 schools in need of support, as well as Pell Grants for undergraduate students with high financial need.
Throughout Trump’s first term, he proposed billions in cuts to the Education Department’s budget.
In a campaign video, Trump said he wants states — not the federal government — to have control over schools.
However, he also outlined plans to further restrict content or classroom discussion in schools based on guidelines that will be implemented at the federal level.
Republican presidential candidate and former US President Donald Trump waves as he stands on stage with his wife Melania, son Barron and Lara Trump at a Trump rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, November 6, 2024.
Brian Snyder – Reuters
Content restrictions
The Trump campaign has outlined a plan that includes prayer in public schools, expanding parental rights to education, patriotism as a focus of education and an emphasis on the “American way of life.”
He also called for dismantling diversity in education initiatives and cutting federal funding for schools or programs that include “critical race theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racist, sexist, or political content.” Republican-backed legislation across the country has similarly sought. To limit these topics, efforts have been criticized for being vague and leading to “censorship” in schools and classrooms on topics related to race, gender, and politics.
Similar policies and rhetoric against school content regarding race, gender, sexuality and more have coincided with the removal of more than 10,000 books from library shelves during the 2023-2024 school year, according to the free speech advocacy group PEN America.
Trump also proposed that he would create a new credentialing body to certify teachers “who espouse patriotic values and support the American way of life” and restore his administration’s 1776 commission to align the teaching of history with the “values” of the founding of the United States. United States – Although Agenda 47 does not further explain what these values are or define criteria for adopting an “American way of life.”
Republican presidential candidate, former US President Donald Trump, gestures to his supporters with former First Lady Melania Trump during an election night event, November 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
School choice
Trump also supports nationwide public school choice programs, which allow public education funds allocated to a student to be diverted to non-public education options — including private schools or homeschooling.
This comes as voters in three states — Nebraska, Kentucky and Colorado — rejected efforts to legalize or expand this type of school choice.
Teachers’ salaries and length of service
Trump’s Agenda 47 also foresees ending teacher tenure laws. The United Federation of Teachers describes these statutes as state laws that prevent a school district from firing a tenured teacher without due process. Most states have possession laws in place; However, at least 10 states have zero or limited tenure laws, according to the National Education Association.
He also said he would adopt merit pay for teachers. Some studies have shown that merit pay programs improve student outcomes, but critics say there is not enough evidence and that various factors influence student performance — including funding and inequality in resources.
Higher education
Trump’s higher education agenda includes creating a new free university called the American Academy and funding it by “taxing, fining, and prosecuting” private universities.
