As the federal government prepares to transition to the second Donald J. Trump administration in January 2025, the fate of the US Department of Education remains uncertain.
The Washington Post reports that President-elect Donald Trump “wants to do away with” DOE, a stated long-term goal of some in the Republican Party—who claim the department is unnecessary and too involved in culture wars—ever since it was created in 1979.
Critics of this plan argue that the impact of closing DOE would fall on the nation’s most vulnerable and under-served students at all levels of education: “That’s because the department’s civil rights powers help it to support state education systems in providing specialized resources to those students,” writes Vox.
Syracuse University School of Education’s Center for Academic Achievement and Student Development houses two programs that use federal grants to support under-served students: the McNair Scholars Programand TRIO Student Support Services.
We spoke to George Theoharis, Professor of Educational Leadership and Inclusive Elementary/Early Childhood Education, to explore this and other education challenges that will be faced during the next Trump Administration.
Q: Under the next Trump Administration, will we continue to have a US Department of Education?
A: Trump has said repeatedly he will end DOE. That would take an act of Congress, so it is not that easy to just get rid of the department. It also seems as though Trump and the MAGA movement have both an interest and need for federal bureaucracy to achieve some of the—in my opinion, dangerous—things they want to do to both K-12 schools and higher education. And while it would be possible to move functions of DOE to other agencies, it may prove useful it to keep it.
Q: What does the Trump Administration want to do with education policy?
A: Given that Trump seeks to appoint longtime friend and supporter Linda McMahon who comes from the business world of WWE and not necessarily a cultural warrior, we can, the Trump Administration will want to use the power of the federal government to further parts of the MAGA agenda. This effort will certainly include eliminating training aimed at diversity or equity and specific initiatives that are targeted for students of color. These efforts will include faux outrage about antisemitism that will be used to attack diversity and equity programs and undermine educational institutions.
“The Trump Administration will want to use the power of the federal government to further parts of the MAGA agenda.”
We should expect a significant drop in the way civil rights enforcement has been understood since DOE was created: protecting the rights of students of color, LGBTQ students, students with disabilities, etc. For instance, we can expect a grievance-based misappropriation of the civil rights tradition to go after programs that support students of color, people who speak up for Palestinians, and other efforts to make schools more welcoming to our most vulnerable communities.
Trump also will want to target and eliminate support for trans youth. This will involve rolling back protections the Biden Administration established and insisting on using gender assigned as birth for official gender designation. We can expect a ban on trans girls playing girls’ sports.
Trump likely will continue what he started in his first administration: to pursue banning curricula that teach the unflattering side of US history—such as slavery, Japanese internment, imperialism, destruction of Indigenous communities, etc.—and replace it with a history grounded in jingoism.
Furthermore, Trump will want to throw a bone to the MAGA white Christian nationalists and push public schools toward Christian beliefs and ritual (such as prayer in schools, public funds for religious schools, supporting the teaching of Christian beliefs over science, etc.).
Alongside this state-supported Christianity, Trump will want to expand or fully embrace school vouchers, a scheme that gives parents taxpayer money that can be used to support their child’s education at a private or religious schools, rather than a public school.
Q: How might the Trump Administration seek to accomplish these radical steps in K-12 schools?
A: Most of education reform relies on a combination of carrots and sticks. A carrot approach would incentivize school districts adopting the Trump desired policies with additional resources. It is likely we will see new regulations from DOE around some or all these areas.
These regulations could be incentivized (carrots) and would be monitored by the DOE, and the “stick” would mean schools that violate these regulations will be sanctioned and lose federal funds. This combination has been used for decades, such as in the 1960s to move the nation forward with civil rights or the Obama era Race to the Top program.
Presently, DOE funds higher education in greater ways than K-12. A main part of federal funding for K-12 schools is Title I: targeted monies for school with low-income students. That targeting will likely be changed or directed in different ways.
Q: What can educators and communities do in the face of these threats to public education and a commitment to a multiracial and diverse student population?
A: There is no magic bullet or magic local policy to fortify against wave of dangerous public policy and regulation targeting schools. In many ways this will be a key moment to let our voices be heard over and over and over again. If we do not want books, accurate history, or science banned, it is our responsibility to make that heard in our local communities, across our states, and by our nationally elected officials.
This is the time to organize locally and nationally to stand to stand up for our trans students, low-income students, Black students, and others. We saw this in many communities locally and around the nation as many communities stood up against electing MAGA school board members in recent years. School administrators and teachers need courage and solidarity to continue to teach and nurture the diversity of students. This is not easy, but it is necessary.
“This is the time to organize locally and nationally to stand to stand up for our trans students, low-income students, Black students, and others.”
Educators will need support from their communities as we continue to make our voices heard. Superintendents and other school leaders will need to communicate with their elected officials and their communities proactively, regularly, and specifically about the impact of dangerous, MAGA-indoctrinating directions, while sharing the impact on their local communities, as we see these draconian ideas take form.
Local, state, and national leaders need to hear from education leaders and community members that Christian nationalist education policies, regulations that infringe on students learning accurate content, and oversight that diminishes students’ race, gender identity, etc. fly in the face of our national commitment to a diverse and multiracial democracy.