Trump Rolls Out His Vision To Reshape America's Schools

Getty; Rebecca Zisser/BI

• This week, Trump unveiled a series of executive orders aimed at reshaping US education.
• They addressed expanding school choice and changing curricula.
• A key aim is redirecting federal funds to private schools that align with his politics

President Donald Trump is initiating his efforts to reshape the American education system and give the federal government more power in local classrooms.

Through a series of executive orders this past week, Trump appeared to be moving forward with his campaign rhetoric to give parents a larger say in their child's education by expanding access to private school vouchers.

"Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Education shall issue guidance regarding how States can use Federal formula funds to support K-12 educational choice initiatives," one of the executive orders said.

With states still largely controlling funding and public school curricula, though, it's unclear how Trump's plans to shape education across all classrooms would be implemented — and they would likely face legal challenges.

Two of the executive orders addressed examining the redirection of funds toward K-12 schools that prioritize "patriotic education," including removing "gender ideology" from classrooms and expanding school choice initiatives.

Jon Valant, the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at The Brookings Institution, told Business Insider that the executive orders alone "don't actually do all that much." Rather, they direct federal agencies to prepare guidance that would determine how the orders will be carried out.

Even so, Valant said they could have "a chilling effect," prompting some schools, districts, and states to obey Trump's wishes to avoid any penalty.

"People may interpret them as having more bite than they actually do," he said.

Uncertainty over a federal role in school choice

While schools are still waiting for guidance from federal agencies on how to carry out Trump's executive orders, the orders themselves appear to have contradictions, Jonathan Zimmerman, an education policy historian and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, told BI.

The order on reshaping public school curricula is entitled "ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling," going on to say that the order will "promote patriotic education."

"The anti-indoctrination order is itself an indoctrination order, which is trying to determine what everybody can learn," Zimmerman said.

Another area of uncertainty is the legality of Trump's attempt to expand school choice, a system that provides parents with state- or federally funded vouchers to send their kids to a private school.

The executive order calls for the education secretary to issue guidance on how states can use federal funds for alternative education like private school vouchers. It also calls for an examination of how states could use federal block grants to expand school choice.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

Supporters of school choice lauded the executive order. Robert Enlow, president and CEO of EdChoice, said in a statement that it "is a crucial step toward empowering parents and giving them greater control over their children's education."

Meanwhile, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers which opposes school choice, said in a statement that the executive order "diminishes community schools and the services they provide."

"This order hijacks federal money used to level the playing field for poor and disadvantaged kids and hands it directly to unaccountable private operators," she said.

The use of private school vouchers has surged over the past decade. States like Ohio and Arkansas have expanded their voucher programs to allow most parents to receive funding to send their kids to private schools, and Arizona was the first state to create a universal voucher program in 2022.

Valant said that while many Republican states support school choice, Republican lawmakers value local control, and they might not support a federal hand in state education — and as a result, Valant said he's skeptical that the administration will actually end up making big moves on that issue.

Legal challenges to the executive orders are also expected.

"There's so much gray area in all of this, it's impossible to imagine a world where there aren't some court challenges," Zimmerman said. "It's not clear what their legal authority is. And, of course, that's a recipe for a legal challenge when you don't really know where the legal authority is."