What the next Trump presidency could mean for US education

Washington (CNN) — President-elect Donald Trump has laid out some big changes for education in the US.

Much of his platform focuses on rolling back the federal government’s role in schools and giving states and parents more of a say in what children learn, with the goal of rooting out any “left-wing indoctrination.”

Trump’s campaign also hammered Democrats over transgender issues and pledged to “keep men out of women’s sports.”

In some areas, like student loans, the next Trump administration could undo the regulatory changes made under President Joe Biden.

And with Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress come January, there could be movement on legislation that establishes a nationwide school choice program.

Here are some of the things Trump has pledged and how or whether they could become reality:

Abolishing the Department of Education

Pledge: Trump has repeatedly said he will close the federal Department of Education, sending authority over education back to the states and saving taxpayer dollars.

How it can be done: Trump will need Congress to get rid of the Department of Education, which administers federal funding appropriated by Congress to K-12 schools and manages the federal student loan and financial aid programs. It’s unclear if he will have the support from enough lawmakers to do so.

Trump’s first administration proposed merging the Education and Labor departments, but the idea didn’t go anywhere despite having Republican control of both the House of Representatives and Senate at the time.

It’s possible that some programs and funding could be retained and shifted to other agencies, which is where they were housed before the department was created in 1979.

Some advocates for eliminating the department, like Trump’s former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, have called for “block-granting” the money that the federal government sends to K-12 schools. The goal would be to deliver the funds with fewer strings attached so that states and local schools could use the money how they want without as many restrictions from the federal government.

“I think they are serious about figuring out what to do with the Department of Education,” said Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice, a nonprofit that advocates for school choice policies.

One idea is to move two major K-12 funding programs to the Department of Health and Human Services, as proposed by Project 2025, the conservative blueprint published by the Heritage Foundation. Trump has distanced himself from the policy paper, but a CNN review found that at least 140 people who worked in the first Trump administration were involved.

Project 2025 also calls for phasing out one of those programs, known as Title I, completely over 10 years. Title I funding is distributed based on the number of students from low-income families. Roughly 60% of K-12 schools were eligible for Title I funding during the 2021-22 school year, the latest data available.

Project 2025 also recommends moving the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which is tasked with investigating alleged discrimination complaints at colleges and K-12 schools, to the Department of Justice. And it proposes moving the $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio to the Department of Treasury.

Universal school choice

Pledge: Trump supports universal school choice, which could allow parents to use public funding to send their children to K-12 schools other than their assigned neighborhood school – including public, private or religious schools, according to the Trump-Vance website.

“School choice is one of the most important things we’re going to be doing,” Trump said during an interview with Fox Business in October. “I’ll sign anything to do with school choice,” he said.

How it could be done: Historically, school choice initiatives have been led by states. More recently, some Republican-led states have expanded school choice programs so that all families, regardless of income, are eligible to use public funds to send their children to private schools.

Congress would likely have to act to establish a federal, universal school choice program funded by taxpayer dollars.

“Right now, the major policy initiative at the federal level is a scholarship tax credit,” said Derrell Bradford, president of the nonprofit advocacy group 50CAN.

Earlier this year, a universal school choice bill that had dozens of Republican co-sponsors passed out of a committee in the House. Known as the Educational Choice for Children Act, the bill would create a federal scholarship fund that would help students cover expenses related to K-12 public and private education. The legislation would create a tax credit for businesses and individuals that contribute to the scholarship fund.

LGBTQ rights

Pledge: Trump has repeatedly vowed to “keep men out of women’s sports,” and has said he will, on day one, undo a rule implemented by Biden under Title IX that sought to expand protections for LGBTQ+ students.

How it could be done: Biden’s new rule clarified that Title IX’s ban on “sex” discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and “pregnancy or related conditions.”

His administration did not issue a formal rule on the issue of trans students participating in sports teams that are consistent with their gender identity, punting on the hotly contested issue during an election year. But it’s possible that Trump’s new administration could issue its own rule that clarifies Title IX prevents trans students from playing on girls’ sports teams.

The Biden rule, which took effect in August, was quickly met with legal challenges by GOP-led states, and it’s currently on hold in about half the country as federal appeals courts review it.

Trump cannot simply undo the new rule. His education secretary would need to begin a process of rolling back the Biden-era rule, which would take some time under federal rulemaking procedures.

It’s also likely that Trump’s Department of Justice will stop defending the federal rule in court or ask judges to pause proceedings in cases challenging the rule while his administration works to undo it.

It’s worth noting that many blue states already have such nondiscrimination protections on the books, so a rollback of the rule would largely be felt in Republican-led states.

“The states are allowed to be more generous in their anti-discrimination protections, but not more restrictive than the federal law allows,” said Vanessa Kelly, an attorney and expert on Title IX policy.

Parental rights

Pledge: Trump’s platform calls for restoring the right of parents to know what their children are being taught in the classroom and to cut funding for school programs that “push” critical race theory and gender ideology on children.

“Rather than indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual and political material, which is what we’re doing now, our schools must be totally refocused to prepare our children to succeed in the world,” Trump said in a video posted to his platform website in September.

How it could be done: It’s not clear how the Trump administration could achieve these goals. States and local school boards, not the federal government, have direct control over curriculum in schools.

But the new Trump administration could set certain requirements that schools must meet to receive federal funding. The Office for Civil Rights that currently exists within the Department of Education could also be used to pressure schools by bringing investigations and lawsuits.

“Essentially, the Office of Civil Rights can play one side or the other on these issues,” said Thomas Toch, director of FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Plus, the president can use the bully pulpit to call out schools that he believes are pushing inappropriate curriculum.

“Like any issue that a president supports, it does influence public opinion and enables those who are supportive of whatever the president is advocating,” Toch said.

Student loans

Pledge: Trump hasn’t made specific promises on student loans or college financial aid. But his administration will face a decision about what to do with Biden’s student loan repayment plan, which is currently tied up in court and has left 8 million borrows in limbo.

What’s at stake: Biden’s SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education) repayment plan – which lowers monthly payments and shortens the time to qualify for loan forgiveness – is currently on hold, and the 8 million borrowers enrolled are not required to make payments. The plan was challenged in court by several Republican-led states who argue that the president doesn’t have the authority to implement the plan. A ruling by the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals is expected imminently.

The Trump administration could decide to rescind the repayment plan, which was created by a regulatory process. It could also decide to stop defending the plan in court.

SAVE ties payments to a borrower’s income and family size. While other existing repayment plants do the same, SAVE is the most generous for low-income borrowers.

Trump is unlikely to do away with all income-driven repayment plans. But many Republicans are opposed to the loan forgiveness portion of the SAVE plan. Project 2025 calls for creating one new income-driven repayment plan and eliminating all the others.

The Biden administration also has two other student loan forgiveness proposals on the table. But neither have been finalized, and Trump’s new administration could decide not to move forward with implementing them. One proposal, which would cancel interest for some student loan borrowers, is already facing a Republican-led lawsuit.

To date, Biden has canceled a record $175 billion of student loan debt for nearly 5 million people. The debt relief largely came through federal programs that predated the Biden administration – making it less likely debt cancellations could be clawed back.

During his first term, Trump called for phasing out one of those preexisting loan forgiveness programs for public sector workers, known as the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which grants relief after borrowers make 10 years of qualifying payments. But since the program was created by Congress, it would have to be dissolved by Congress – and that move did not receive support in the past.

Trump’s first administration also made attempts to limit the borrower defense to repayment program, which grants debt relief to people who were misled by their college. While borrowers have a right to this kind of debt relief under law, the program that sets the rules to determine who is eligible was created by the Obama administration and can be changed by the Department of Education rulemaking process.

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