Donald Trump will be serving a second presidential term, and with both chambers of Congress likely under Republican leadership—though the House is still to be decided— the future of education in the U.S. could starkly change.
Trump has pledged to dismantle the Department of Education, cut federal funding for schools teaching critical race theory, and bar transgender female athletes from participating in school sports.
“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. He will deliver,” Trump-Vance Transition Spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told TIME in a statement.
Trump’s transition team did not respond to specific questions regarding which of his policies will take priority come January.
Here’s what to know.
Dismantling the Department of Education
On the campaign trail, the President-elect vowed to eliminate the Department of Education, which has been a cabinet-level agency since 1980. The Department takes on numerous functions: designating federal aid through Title I, which gives state and local funding for schools serving low-income families, handing out Pell Grants, and regulating student loan relief through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program or income-based repayment plans.
Experts tell TIME that dismantling the Department of Education is likely improbable. “It is entirely feasible to close down the Department of Education, but the functions of the Department of Education will need to continue,” says Ted Mitchell, president of American Council on Education, an organization that convenes higher education associations to discuss student issues.
That’s because the Education Department has numerous moving parts. It houses the Office of Civil Rights, which enforces federal civil rights laws across schools to protect students against discrimination. Regulations by the Education Department also affect college sports, which Josh Cowen, an education policy Michigan State University professor and author of The Privateers, How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers, says Republicans would likely not want to see impacted.
Grants or funds designated by Congress would also need a new federal home. “They’re going to have to also take the federal programs and the funding streams that they want to continue to reauthorize, and find new institutional homes for that,” Cowen adds.
Reducing funds for DEI and Critical Race Theory
On his campaign website, Trump promised to “cut federal funding for any school or program pushing Critical Race Theory or gender ideology on our children.” (Critical race theory refers to academic frameworks that teach systemic racism is embedded in American society.) Trump has also spoken out against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) measures at colleges and universities across the country.
Campaigning against DEI has proven popular across Republican strongholds, as already some 10 states have passed restrictions on DEI that have shut down offices at public universities—including Kentucky and North Carolina.
“It’s absolutely accurate and fair to say that the Trump administration will be looking to penalize any institution, whether K-12 or higher ed, for administering DEI programs,” says Cowen. “How much money they can remove, how hard they can make life bureaucratically, those are still slightly open questions, but they’re absolutely going to try that.”
Amy Loyd, CEO of nonprofit All4Ed, says that the Trump Administration could target funding for such programs through avenues such as the Higher Education Act or Congress. “[The Trump Administration] could work with Congress on the reauthorization of any of the foundational funding streams for education,” she says.
Erode rights of LGBTQ+ students
Experts predict the rights of LGBTQ+ students would suffer under a Trump Administration due to the changes that would likely be made to Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education. The Biden Administration attempted to expand protections under Title IX to include the LGBTQ+ community, and particularly transgender students, in April. But the expansion has faced legal challenges from Republican-led states, blocking the protections from being implemented across 26 states.
Trump would not need Congressional authority to make changes on Title IX’s guidance.
Trump has also said on numerous occasions that he would ban transgender female athletes, who he refers to as “men” from participating in sports that match with their gender identity. “We will of course keep men out of women’s sports,” he said during a speech on Nov. 2 in Virginia.
Impact sexual assault victims on-campus
During Trump’s first term, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced regulations that would better protect people being accused of campus sexual harassment and assault under Title IX. Biden reversed parts of that guidance—in particular, the Trump-era definition of sexual harassment, which critics argued made victims less likely to report crimes—this spring, but some experts like Mitchell predict that sexual assault victims could become vulnerable yet again under Trump.
Expand “parental rights”
To understand what would change regarding education under a Trump Administration, experts say people can also glean what is happening in Republican states with the parental rights movement. The push has been behind book bans—which are forecasted to have nearly tripled from the previous school year— and ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws in states such as Florida and Texas.
Trump vowed to “adopt a Parental Bill of Rights, and implement the direct election of school principals by the parents” on his campaign website.
While Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, the policy agenda outlines plans to use federal education funding for private schools. State legislators have been unsuccessful in passing bills that would do so. “Three states had this exact thing on the ballot on Tuesday, and voters rejected them in all three states, including two states, Nebraska and Kentucky, that went for Donald Trump,” says Cowen. A similar measure did not pass in Colorado.
Censorship and free speech
Debates around free speech earned momentum across college campuses amid pro-Palestinian encampments and protests earlier this year in the U.S. Trump has previously called himself the “president of law and order” and vowed to restore free speech, end censorship, and bar federal funding for nonprofit and academic programs that engage in censorship. But, In 2020, Trump threatened to use federal force to end protests following the murder of George Floyd. He praised police crackdowns on student protestors and told wealthy donors that he would remove student demonstrators from the country, if elected, according to the Washington Post.
