Teacher, researcher, and writer Mercedes Schneider considers the possible Trump approach to education. Reposted with permission.
I do not believe American education is a top concern for Donald Trump. I do believe that he could well turn it over to the likes of the Heritage Foundation and their Project 2025, so long as nobody outshines him in the press and puts anything (Constitution included) ahead of loyalty to him above all else.
So, when ABC News reports that Trump’s Agenda 47 as though the Heritage Foundation has not already done most of Trump’s homework for him, well, that fashions Trump’s interest in a number of issues as though it is something more than just letting those extreme-right-leaners who really care about that stuff have at.
Now that the election is over, Trump allies are openly admitting that Project 2025 was the Trump plan all along.
One featured Project 2025-Trump issue is the proposed dismantling of the US Department of Education (USDOE), which was created during the Carter administration. Talk of getting rid of USDOE began with the Reagan administration (in other words, soon after it was created). It should come as no surprise that in 1980, the “fledgling” Heritage Foundation was in Reagan’s ear and is proud to declare as much in the opening pages of its Project 2025:
Several decades later, USDOE still exists, and several decades later, the Heritage Foundation is still trying to kill it.
Heritage et al. has taken great pains to outline its 900+-page wish list of ultra conservatism, including nixing USDOE. However, it would take a lot to achieve the kind of legislative unity required to dissolve a federal department that supports numerous Americans in desired and positive ways, not the least of which is via the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).
Brookings offers a concise discussion of the Project 2025 plan for education, including this “sample list” of negative consequences:
No surprise that Heritage wants school vouchers for all, a notably unpopular concept at the 2024 ballot box:
Of course, the key is to have legislatures jump onto the choice bandwagon and force choice onto voters whether they want it or not. But some voters do benefit from having access to publicly-subsidized private schools: Those with money. Heritage alludes to Arizona’s “expanded program… available to all families. However, in Arizona, those accessing school voucher cash tend not to be the working class but more affluent families.
Speaking of the affluent and private school vouchers: Billionaire former US Ed secretary Betsy DeVos, who in 2023 could not get private school vouchers over the line in her home state of Michigan, apparently smells opportunity.
On January 07, 2021, DeVos resigned as Trump’s US ed sec. In her resignation letter, DeVos placed the fault of January 06, 2021, chaos squarely on Trump:
In a November 07. 2024, interview with EdWeek about advice for Trump’s next Ed sec, , DeVos is fact checked as she tries to put lack of a school choice “big moment” at the feet of the Democrats. Not so, Betsy:
During Trump’s first term, DeVos’ inability to push private school choice to her liking has to be attributed in part to some Republican resistance to the idea. Heritage and any Heritage-sympathetic ed sec could well face similar issues in Trump’s second term.
Amazingly, after her resignation resulting from the January 06, 2021, assault on the Capitol, DeVos says she would be willing to join Trump again as ed sec even as she states that part of the agenda needs to be “depowering” USDOE:
I don’t think Trump would be willing to meet with a former Cabinet member who rebuked him in a resignation letter in which she pointedly noted that “we are left to clean up the mess…. There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation.” However, Trump does speak Billionaire, and DeVos did donate $250K to Elon Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC.
DeVos’ billionaire chunk of change via billionaire Elon Musk’s PAC is enabled by Citizens United— also championed by the Heritage Foundation.
With the extreme right, business wins. And politics and education are both rife with business opportunities.
And irony.
The ABC News article about Agenda 47 ends with this word about higher education:
Cut to another ABC News article, dated April 09, 2018:
Trump as overseer of private universities: One of the many, many ironies that one could post.
I do not believe American education is a top concern for Donald Trump, but it will be a test for our nation.
It will be quite the test.
