In his first few weeks since the inauguration, President Donald Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders, including several dealing with issues related to higher and secondary education.
The order “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families,” issued Wednesday, promotes school choice for families.
It notes that “[a]ccording to this year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math,” and posits that families are better suited than federal bureaucrats to know at which schools their children will thrive.
As a result, the executive order, among other measures, directs that “the Secretary of Education shall issue guidance regarding how States can use Federal formula funds to support K-12 educational choice initiatives” and shall also “include education freedom as a priority in discretionary grant programs.”
Trump also signed an executive order on Wednesday with “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism” in order to defend Jewish students.
The order directs executive agency leaders to inform Trump of “all civil and criminal authorities or actions within the jurisdiction of [each] agency . . . that might be used to curb or combat anti-Semitism, and containing an inventory and analysis of all pending administrative complaints . . . against or involving institutions of higher education alleging civil-rights violations related to or arising from post-October 7, 2023, campus anti-Semitism.”
The Secretary of Education will specifically be obligated to compile “an inventory and an analysis of all Title VI complaints and administrative actions, including in K-12 education, related to anti-Semitism — pending or resolved after October 7, 2023 — within the Department’s Office for Civil Rights.”
In addition to these measures, Trump’s order also requires that colleges and universities would “monitor for and report [pro-terrorist] activities by alien students and staff,” and that any such pro-terror individuals would be deported from the United States.
Trump signed another executive order on Wednesday titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling,” taking aim at “gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology.”
The order condemns schools that have forced these ideologies on K-12 students and have stripped away parental rights in the process. It calls these ideologies “anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false.”
To address this issue, the president directed relevant executive department heads to produce an “Ending Indoctrination Strategy” that will detail, among other measures, how to end “Federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology,” and how to defend the rights of parents who want a say over their children’s education.
The executive order also directs the Attorney General to take “appropriate actions against K-12 teachers and school officials who violate the law” through “sexually exploiting minors,” “unlawfully practicing medicine by offering diagnoses and treatment without the requisite license,” or “otherwise unlawfully facilitating the social transition of a minor student.”
It also establishes Trump’s previous “1776 Commission” to “promote patriotic education.”
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
