(The Center Square) – The transition team for President-elect Donald Trump has said it will “deliver” on the former president’s promises regarding sweeping changes to the nation’s educational system and federal agencies.
On the campaign trail, Trump said he would disassemble the Department of Education and give states control of local schools as well as promoting school choice and removing improving outcomes for students.
“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail,” said Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump-Vance transition team.
“He will deliver,” Leavitt said.
The transition team did not provide clarity about how Trump would abolish the Department of Education.
Scholars have pointed out that despite Republicans promise to end the Department of Education for decades, it has remained and would require cooperation from Congress to shutter the agency.
Trump also has made smaller promises that would alter the education landscape, generally at a more local level. In a campaign video and transcript from 2023, Trump proposed 10 “key ideas” to “ensure a great education for every American child:”
First, we will respect the right of parents to control the education of their children.
Second, we will empower parents and local school boards to hire and reward great principals and teachers, and also to fire the poor ones. The ones whose performance is unsatisfactory, they will be fired. Like on The Apprentice, you’re fired.
Third, we will ensure our classrooms are focused not on political indoctrination, but on teaching the knowledge and skills needed to succeed – reading, writing, math, science, arithmetic, and other truly useful subjects.
Fourth, we will teach students to love their country, not to hate their country like they’re taught right now.
Fifth, we will support bringing back prayer to our schools.
Sixth, we will assure that schools are safe, secure, and drug free, with immediate expulsion for any student who harms a teacher or another student.
Seventh, we will give all parents the right to choose another school for their children if they want. It’s called school choice.
Eighth, we will ensure students have access to project-based learning experiences inside the classroom to help train them for meaningful work outside the classroom.
Ninth, we will strive to give all students access to internships and work experiences that can set them on a path to their first job. They are going to be very, very successful. I want them to be more successful than Trump. Let them go out and be more successful. I will be the happiest person in the world. But we want our children to have a great life and be successful.
And tenth, we will ensure that all schools provide excellent jobs and career counseling so that high school and college students can get a head start on jobs and careers best suited to their God-given talents.
The Department of Education currently oversees large amounts of federal funds which go to schools that serve low-income students. It also handles special education funding and the enforcement of federal statutes like Title IX, which historically prevented sex discrimination in schools.
The Biden administration expanded Title IX through the federal rulemaking process to include gender identity and other characteristics.
States and organizations have challenged the changes, which are not likely to continue to be defended in courts under a Trump administration opposed to the changes.
As Chalkboard/The Center Square previously reported, the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights under the Biden administration seemingly suspended an investigation into Evanston/Skokie School District 65 in Evanston, Illinois.
The Trump administration OCR issued a letter of finding that found the district violated Title VI. After Biden took office, the Department of Education withdrew the letter “without explanation” according to the lawyers for a teacher in District 65 who have requested the government provide them with a response.
• This story initially published at Chalkboard News, a K-12 news site that, like The Center Square, is also published by Franklin News Foundation.
By Brendan Clarey | The Center Square
