President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on school financing on Wednesday, fulfilling campaign pledges such as school choice and eliminating money for schools that encourage what the White House terms “radical indoctrination.”
In the week and a half since taking office, Trump has signed a flurry of executive actions in an effort to reshape the federal government and impose his vast “America First” agenda, with a special focus on so-called diversity, equality, and inclusion initiatives.
Also on Wednesday, he issued an executive decree to combat antisemitism.
The order on school choice, which Trump has been pressing for eight years, may be a big victory for conservative activists and lawmakers who have been fighting for decades to make it easier for families to spend government dollars on private education.
The directive encompasses a number of agencies in an endeavor to offer public funding to parents to pay for private schools.
Among its directions, the Department of Education, which Trump has threatened to shut down, is directed to produce recommendations on how to use federal funds to promote scholarship programs for elementary school children. The Department of Defense is required to submit a plan directly to Trump outlining how military families might utilize DOD monies to send their children to their favorite school. The secretary of the interior is required to submit to Trump a plan outlining how families with pupils attending Bureau of Indian Education schools might utilize government funds to attend the school of their choice. Furthermore, the Health and Human Services Department must provide advice on how states might utilize HHS monies to attend private or faith-based schools.
Several red states across the country have already passed universal or near-universal school choice policies at the state level, such as vouchers that direct public funds to private schools or “education savings account” programs that give parents more control over where the money goes. The Trump administration’s decision to allow federal tax monies to be diverted toward school choice might galvanize the movement.
However, public school activists and teachers’ unions have long opposed shifting taxpayer funding from public to private schools, claiming it would affect impoverished public schools. Districts have previously faced financial difficulties, as well as a significant decrease in the public school population, which is sometimes used to determine how much support a school district will receive. Public school activists fear that school choice will eventually lead to the abolition of public schools and a rise in educational inequalities.
As previously noted by HEADLINESFOREVER, several of Trump’s education policies, such as dismantling the Department of Education and lowering government financing for public schools, may have the greatest impact on places that supported him. According to a HEADLINESFOREVER analysis, all 15 states that relied the most heavily on federal funding for their public schools in 2022 voted for Trump, while all but two of the 15 states that received the fewest federal dollars as a percentage of their overall revenue voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.
However, one source from a teachers’ union voiced concern about the overall impact of this decision, citing the unpopularity of school choice among certain voters who have opposed these programs at the state level.
The second school-related executive order aims to defend parental rights and combat discrimination.
“My Administration will enforce the law to ensure that recipients of Federal funds providing K-12 education comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination in various contexts and protecting parental rights,” according to the decree.
It requests that government entities devise a strategy to cease financing “for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”
Combating Antisemitism
According to a White House fact sheet, Trump is also urging the federal government to terminate student visas for what he refers to as “Hamas sympathizers” on campus.
He later signed an executive order requiring government agencies to submit a report within 60 days identifying civil and criminal authorities to combat antisemitism and “containing an inventory and analysis of all pending administrative complaints, as of the date of the report, against or involving institutions of higher education alleging civil-rights violations related to or arising from post-October 7, 2023, campus anti-Semitism.”
On the campaign trail, Trump decried pro-Palestinian student protests that erupted in reaction to Israel’s military response in Gaza following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The Republican National Convention’s 2024 platform threatened to “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again,” creating uncertainty for overseas students.