With the recent re-election of Donald Trump, many in the education business have either been cheering or fearing the changes that may happen during his second term.
In his first term, education was not a priority in the list of issues Trump needed to address. He promised to dismantle the Department of Education. He attempted to do so by appointing Betsy DeVos Secretary of Education. DeVos then shrank the size of the agency, much to the dismay of the unions. She did this by consolidation of offices within the agency causing the Department of Education to lose 14% of its staff.
Trump also worked to cut the Department of Education's budget, but was unable to do so because of Congress, a Congress controlled by Republicans. Trump and DeVos worked to fund school choice through tax credits, but that never got fully off the ground. They were able to enact a program that allowed 529 plan funds to be used for both K-12 and college tuitions.
Also during the first Trump presidency, many Obama era regulations and guidance were negated regarding transgender students using the bathrooms and locker rooms of the gender they identify with, keeping students' identities as transgender from their parents, and using restorative discipline. However, many districts maintained these practices and still do today. The focus on race based civil rights data was de-emphasized even though complaint actions were more efficiently processed. States like Maryland have accelerated the effort to push a progressive agenda forward.
What has Trump planned for his second term? Here is the link to his plan on his website:
There are many interesting ideas in this platform. Here are a few for K-12 education that I find most interesting:
Abolish teacher tenure for grades K through 12, so we can remove BAD teachers, and adopt Merit Pay to reward GOOD teachers. We want great teachers in our schools.Even when I was a teacher, I disagreed with the tenure system. In no other profession are people guaranteed that they will keep their job after two or three years, regardless of their performance. Teachers are in charge of educating our most precious children, and bad teachers can drastically set back and even prevent the success of their students. Yet, because of tenure, removing bad teachers can take years and hundreds of thousands of dollars. This leads most school districts to either ignore a teacher's poor performance, hide a poor teacher or employ a tactic called "pass the trash" where bad teachers are moved from school to school to spread the damage. Some districts have been known to put these incompetent teachers into "special" make work jobs rather than fire them. While merit pay has been a controversial topic, particularly because the unions hate the idea, it can be implemented quite easily by using observations, assessments of student growth in subjects taught, and other measures. Again, that is how most professions function as well. Merit pay will encourage good teachers to maintain superior performance.
Adopt a Parental Bill of Rights that includes complete curriculum transparency, and a form of universal school choice.This is an absolute must for schools for so many reasons. First, if a parent knows what the curriculum is in their child's classroom, they can support their child in their learning. Second, parents are the ultimate decision makers for their children. Schools and teachers need their support in many different areas including academics, motivation, and behavior. By being transparent about curriculum, you enlist this support. Also, if we are truly going to be inclusive, parents need to know that their values and beliefs are not circumvented by curriculum. And let's not forget that these parents are taxpayers who fund the schools.
Drastically cut the bloated number of school administrators, including the costly, divisive, and unnecessary Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion bureaucracy. While student needs have grown, it has become harder to find teachers to fill spots while administrators are a dime a dozen. They also command much higher salaries. I remember a top district administrator asking central office staff to start "justifying" their jobs in writing because no one could see why they were needed. The most important staff members in a school system are the teachers, yet most districts are bloated with central office staff. The bloat goes all the way from the local to the State to the Federal level, creating bad policy and mandates that school districts cannot afford. One thing that can be done is to create a better pathway for teachers to advance in their profession; a path that doesn't take them out of the classroom. This is currently being done in some states.
Dismantle the Department of Education: The Department of Education was created during the Carter Presidency in an effort to standardize education in the United States and wrest control from local communities. During the existence of the DOE, test scores in the U.S. have plummeted. Part of the problem is the political nature of the Department of Education. This means that they dictate education based on what any current administration wants, not on what different districts want or need. They also hand out grants to states/ local districts, but these grants often come with strings attached to force the states/districts to adopt certain policies, hire more staff and/or adopt certain curricula. When the grant money is gone, as in the case of grant money based on the pandemic, the positions continue and salaries, benefits, etc. have to be funded by the district. This increases a burden on school funding and may result in services being lost. Most of these grants have zero positive impact on student academic performance. In fact, they fund programs that take time away from the main focus of schools, teaching content. It is due to the Department of Education that such harmful initiatives as restorative discipline, the teaching of critical race theory, gender ideology instruction beginning in kindergarten, boys in girls' sports, and mental health and medical counseling/treatment for all students without parent consent or knowledge have been implemented. With the Department of Education no longer directing education in the States, legislatures will allow state departments of education and local systems to direct what is taught in their schools.
Create tax policy that favors school choice. Whether through the 529 plans or federal tax breaks for private school tuition, Trump has championed school choice. Of course, this drives the teacher's unions crazy as affordable private school education would compete with public schools. Instead of allowing the competition to push them toward excellence, many in the public schools see this as "unfair" and call supporters elitist and racist. Meanwhile, leaders in the unions and many of the elite educators send their children to private schools. One of the foundations of this country is the right to practice one's own beliefs and raise children in the values of their parents. Private schools, religious and generic, promote this.
Direct the Department of Justice and Education to open Civil Rights investigations into any school district that has engaged in race-based discrimination. That includes discrimination against Asian Americans (or any ethnic group for that matter). While many of us may think this monitoring is going on now, it isn't. Quota systems in hiring have been implemented in many districts. School systems are now hiring based on race and ethnicity rather than going for the most qualified candidate. This is based on the flawed premise that students learn better from teachers who "look like them." The truth is that students learn best from great teachers, regardless of their race, ethnicity, etc.
Reinstate the 1776 Commission. Trump originally created the commission, but it was disbanded by Joe Biden on his first day in office. The Commission was to ensure America’s children learn the truth about their country’s history and the timeless principles of liberty and equality. Furthermore, the Commission will support President Trump’s pledge to commemorate the 250th anniversary of our nation’s Founding on July 4, 1776, with a yearlong celebration as well as the construction of the National Garden of American Heroes.
Ensure safe and secure schools: Trump will completely overhaul federal standards on school discipline to get out-of-control troublemakers OUT of the classroom and INTO reform schools and corrections facilities, for the good of themselves and their peers alike. This will include supporting immediate expulsion for any student who harms a teacher or another student. He will also support federal funding to hire veterans, retired police officers, and other trained gunowners as armed guards in our nation’s schools.
Trump has also promised education that helps students prepare for occupations with career counseling, internships, and apprenticeships.
If the Department of Education is dismantled, federal funding for programs such as Title 1 and Special Education will be sent directly to state and local districts thus eliminating the federal middleman. These "block grants" will allow locals to use the funds as needed for the economically disadvantaged or special education students in their systems. Instead of some distant bureaucrat deciding how these funds can be spent, how staff may be allocated, and what services students will get, local officials will have control to design programs that help their students in need.
Trump has also proposed not funding districts who allow teachers to teach and promote Marxism, CRT, etc. He proposes this as supporting the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution. While most parents don't want these ideologies taught to their children, it will be hard to root them out of the current system. For one thing, ideologies are not taught as a specific class, so every lesson, activity, etc. could contain this content. Individual teacher lesson plans are not readily available to the public. In fact, some of the ideologies are not present in written lesson plan format but rather in teacher presentation. Hard to find except through student/parent anecdotal evidence. Having access to school curriculums should help a bit with ferreting out this indoctrination.
The most important part of Trump's education plan will be who his Secretary of Education. He really can't go wrong here as anyone would be better than current Secretary Cardonna.
Many names are being mentioned. One of the most popular is Ryan Walters, State Superintendent of Oklahoma. A former Oklahoma State Teacher of the Year, Walters has been a force in fighting DEI, CRT, and Gender Ideology in Oklahoma schools. He has also promoted charter schools in his state. He is extremely popular with conservatives and unpopular with Teachers Unions, which make him a good choice. He has also committed to Trump's education policy.
Other names mentioned are Congressman Byron Donalds and Co-founder of Moms for Liberty Tiffany Justice. Former Secretary Betsy DeVos has also been mentioned. However, DeVos left the Trump administration after January 6th, 2021. She has said she would be open to serving again but it's hard to believe Trump would want her back.
Whoever is selected will have to fight a long-term battle as the union entrenched school systems will fight any changes the Trump Administration wants to implement. The problems in the public schools have taken decades to develop and they will take decades to solve.
For many parents, teachers, and students, changes may seem imperceptible. That's the way the change happened as schools went from being dedicated to teaching children content turned into indoctrination and social ideology factories, slowly and imperceptibly.
At least the process back to education has begun.
NEXT UP: Trump's American Academy and his plan for college education
Jan Greenhawk is a former teacher and school administrator for over thirty years. She has two grown children and lives with her husband in Maryland. She also spent over twenty-five years coaching/judging gymnastics and coaching women’s softball.
