How Trump 2.0 Is Reshaping Public Education—Without Congress

In August, 2024, I wrote a Teach the Vote column about the drastically different education policy positions of the two presidential candidates, Kamala Harris (D) and Donald Trump (R). While the Harris campaign was talking about doubling federal Title I funding and universal pre-K, the Trump campaign wasn’t saying much about public education policy. “Project 2025,” a policy blueprint designed by many of Trump’s first-term staffers, proposed radical changes to the role of the federal government in K-12, including elimination of the Department of Education, block granting of Title I and IDEA funding to states, and ending diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in school policies and curriculum. At the end of that column, I asserted that because most of the policies in Project 2025 would require congressional action to amend existing law, it was highly unlikely a second Trump Administration would overcome tight congressional margins to implement them. At least that was the conventional wisdom (and what we were taught in eighth grade civics) until Jan. 20, 2025.

Although, during the campaign, President Trump disavowed Project 2025 and claimed to know nothing about it, the new administration began taking aggressive steps to implement the exact policies proposed upon taking office. Through the issuance of dozens of executive orders (EOs) and other administrative actions, the Trump 2.0 administration has bypassed Congress and moved unilaterally (some argue unconstitutionally) in its first 100 days to radically alter the role of the federal government in public education. While these EOs and other administrative actions have the force of law and direct federal agency actions, they cannot create new laws or conflict with current laws. That would be unconstitutional, yet many of them do just that.

Many of the administration’s early actions have focused on ending what they identified as a “radical indoctrination” of students based on a “woke” ideology surrounding DEI in curriculum and state- and district-wide education policies. Ironically, these actions represent a dramatic expansion of the federal role in local schools, despite numerous rejections by bipartisan congressional majorities of attempts to interfere with state and local decisions about curriculum and instruction.

Through the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), also established by EO, half of the workforce of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) has been terminated. Another EO directs the winding down of department activities. Contracts and grants have been cancelled, and bills have now been filed in Congress to eliminate the department. Legal challenges have been filed against these and many other administrative actions, arguing that they conflict with existing laws and regulations or violate principles of federalism and the separation of powers in the constitution. While those legal challenges are working their way through the courts, states, school districts, administrators, educators, and students are having to navigate, implement, and follow new federal requirements on curriculum, discipline, and civil rights —all under the threat of losing federal funding for noncompliance.

While the deluge of Trump administration EOs and other administrative actions related to public education are too numerous to analyze or even identify in this short column, a few of the more notable actions are listed and linked below. I would urge all ATPE members and Texans who care about public education not to trust that the substance and intent of these actions is accurately reflected by their titles but rather to read and inform themselves about these and the many other actions detrimental to the future of public education and make their voices heard. ATPE equips you with a robust array of advocacy tools, including the user-friendly Advocacy Central, empowering you to connect directly with your elected officials in Congress and even the president.

• 1/20/25: “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government”: This EO establishes as a federal policy that only two biologically determined sexes exist and reverses policy that Title IX protects against discrimination based on gender identity.
  
  
• 1/29/25: “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling”: This EO seeks to eliminate the incorporation of diversity, equity, and inclusion in K-12 schools, including discussions of gender and support for LGBTQ+ students.
  
  
• 1/29/25: “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families”: This EO expands school choice (i.e., voucher programs) through federal programs and funding.
  
  
• 2/5/25: “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”: This EO interprets Title IX language to prevent transgender girls and women from participating in girls’/women’s sports.
  
  
• 2/10/25: Termination of DOE education grants and contracts: This action terminates a large number of DOE and Institute of Education Sciences grants and contracts that span broadly across federal education programming and services.
  
  
• 2/14/25: Office of Civil Rights “Dear Colleague” Letter about Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: This letter announces the intent of the administration to use Title VI enforcement to advance anti-DEI priorities.
  
  
• 2/15/25: “Keeping Education Accessible and Ending COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates in Schools”: This EO seeks to withhold federal funds from schools and institutions of higher education that require students to be vaccinated for COVID-19 to attend classes in person.
  
  
• 3/11/25: US DOE 50% reduction in force by DOGE: This action reduced DOE staff by around half.
  
  
• 3/20/25: “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States and Communities”: This EO initiates the closure of the DOE.
  
  
• 4/3/25: “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History:” This EO ensures appropriations to the Smithsonian Institution prohibit spending on exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race, or promote programs or ideologies inconsistent with federal law and policy.
  
  
• 4/23/25: “Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth:” This EO seeks to promote AI literacy and proficiency among Americans by helping schools train teachers and instruct students on how to use AI.
  
  
• 4/23/25: “Restoring Common Sense School Discipline Policies”: This EO prohibits “discriminatory” school discipline by ensuring school discipline is rooted in behavior and traditional values rather than statistical racial outcomes.