President-elect Donald Trump will come into the White House in January with Republicans in control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, along with a friendly Supreme Court—greasing the skids for him to begin implementing education priorities he and allies laid out in the runup to last month’s election.
“We’re now beginning to see the scaffolding, the framework” for much of that to take place, said Kenneth Wong, professor of education policy at Brown University.
Wong sees the influence of President Ronald Reagan’s legacy on Trump as he begins his second term: calls for deregulation and sending decisionmaking authority to the states. Trump could also elevate Republican-led states as partners to advance his aims.
Education policy researchers believe that Trump, in his second term, will double down on initiatives he laid out in his first, including deep cuts to the Department of Education’s bottom line, a focus on private school choice, and rolling back protections for transgender students.
Within the first 12 months of Trump’s return to the White House, Wong anticipates the new education secretary—Trump has tapped Linda McMahon—will be tasked with delivering on some of these pledges.
But for further changes to education, Congress will need to go along, and Republicans who support Trump’s initiatives will still have to answer to their constituencies, who may benefit from federal education programs and seek to protect funding, Wong said.
“I think there is a balancing act on the part of every single Republican member of Congress,” he said.
Here are some key policy changes that the Trump administration may tackle early in his second administration.
Dismantling the Department of Education—or limiting it
On the campaign trail, Trump embraced the perennial cause of calling for the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education. Many Republicans have sought to end the agency ever since it was founded in 1979. There’s renewed momentum for it following Trump’s win, with a bill already filed to kill the department.
Reagan came closest. But the education secretary he charged with shutting down the agency led a commission that ultimately contributed to a consensus that federal leadership on education was needed, through its show-stopping report “A Nation at Risk.” No longer would Reagan dissolve the department; he would change the paradigm, Wong said. Prior to his administration, the department focused on providing resources; Reagan introduced the concept of accountability and expansive data collection.
Instead of dismantling the Education Department, Reagan signed the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act, which reduced federal regulations for Title I—the grant program that provides extra money for schools that enroll large numbers of students from low-income households—as part of a larger philosophy of assigning states more control over education while maintaining a federal role in schools.
Researchers have said that dissolving the department will be a difficult undertaking. But a Trump administration could do as Reagan did: downsize the role of the department without getting rid of it entirely.
“I think this particular Congress is going to be very supportive” of consolidating programming, Wong said.
Expanding private school choice nationwide
Trump prioritized an expansion of school choice in his first term, but he didn’t notch many significant policy victories to make it happen at the federal level. However, such an expansion has taken off among Republican-led states since Trump left office. Today, 28 states and Washington, D.C., have at least one private school choice program that allows parents to use public funds to pay for private school tuition, according to an Education Week analysis.
Expanding private school choice is likely to remain a top education policy priority for Trump as he takes office in January. Trump tapped World Wrestling Entertainment founder and chair of conservative public policy think tank America First Policy Linda McMahon to “expand ‘Choice’ to every State in America, and empower parents to make the best Education decisions for their families,” as he said in a statement announcing her selection.
There is already momentum in Congress, with bills introduced in the House and Senate. In a new session, with Republicans controlling both chambers, similar measures could see more energy. In the bill to eliminate the Education Department, states would also be able to use federal funds for private schools.
But Republicans representing rural areas, where there are limited choices beyond the public system, have opposed expansive choice programs in the past and derailed some state school choice programs. Those legislators will be careful not to alienate their constituencies, researchers have said.
“In order to promote choice, this partnership of very active federal and state collaboration is necessary in order for choice to go forward,” Wong said. “I don’t think the federal government can do as much, but I do feel that state legislation and state funding can actually propel this choice platform of the Trump administration.”
Rolling back Title IX protections for transgender students
Trump has pledged that on “Day 1,” he will roll back the Biden administration’s more extensive Title IX regulation, which interpreted the landmark sex discrimination law to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in federally funded schools.
Already, the Biden rule is on hold in 26 states, as well as a number of individual schools elsewhere, as a result of legal challenges that are still making their way through courts.
Legal experts have said that Trump can’t undo the Biden administration’s regulations immediately through an executive order, but it is something he can direct the education secretary to do through the federal government’s formal rulemaking process. It’s not something that requires an act of Congress.
Targeting DEI efforts and “unpatriotic” education
Taking a lesson from Reagan—and emulating an initiative from his first term—Wong says that Trump could create a commission to elevate his education priorities, with a particular focus on “patriotic” education and schools’ diversity, equity, and inclusion work.
Trump’s 1776 Commission in his first term sought to generate momentum around teaching “patriotic” U.S. history. President Joe Biden ended it immediately upon taking office, but it’s credited with breathing life into a wave of state laws restricting how teachers can discuss race, racism, and gender identity in classrooms.
“I think that’s the cluster of guiding principles that might permeate through some kind of a commission that would justify the elimination, or significantly reducing the size and the role, of the U.S. federal government in K-12,” Wong said.
The federal government does not control curriculum, but a recent House education subcommittee hearing on civics education telegraphed Republican priorities for continuing to energize states to take action on banning critical race theory in schools.
At the federal level, Trump’s administration could work toward these priorities through the Education Department’s office for civil rights, which enforces federal laws barring discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, and disability status.
Wong said it’s possible the Trump administration will use OCR to crack down on school DEI efforts.
Challenging undocumented students’ right to a free education
Trump has called for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, echoing efforts from his first term. Though a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling has long protected undocumented students’ right to a free public education, there have been calls for the decision to be overturned, with some Republicans blaming migrant students for taking resources away from other students.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that has developed a detailed policy agenda with the help of Trump allies and former Trump administration officials, recently issued a brief calling on states to require that public schools charge unaccompanied migrant children and children of undocumented immigrant parents tuition, in an attempt to bring the issue before the Supreme Court again.
Rhetoric surrounding mass deportations has already seeped into schools, and there’s concern from some that Trump may try to reverse a policy that prevents immigration raids at “sensitive locations,” allowing immigration officers to arrest parents dropping children off at school.
“Trump has very high priority in terms of addressing this immigration issue. I think that has several dimensions. One is that he is going to elevate the role of the state to collaborate as partners—so the state and the federal government are going to partner to address some of these major challenges such as immigration,” Wong said. “In education, my sense is he’s going to use that even more rigorously.”
