President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly talked about shutting down the United States Department of Education. Vice President-elect JD Vance has called universities the “enemy” and “hostile institutions”.And while Trump’s pick for education secretary, former wrestling executive Linda McMahon, stands out primarily for having no apparent experience in the field of education, advocates are anxiously waiting for what many believe will be an all-out war against universities under the incoming administration.
While the federal Department of Education has repeatedly been threatened, it is unlikely that the incoming Trump administration will be able to shut it down, as that would need congressional approval – including a supermajority in the Senate, which the Republicans do not have.
But the president-elect still has the ability to affect the education sector.
Trump has threatened to pull accreditation and federal funding from schools and colleges promoting “critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content”, as he put it. He has also pledged to ensure schools are “free from political meddling”.
But some conservative groups are planning to do just that, and hoping to seize on Trump’s second presidency to push for a broad overhaul of the higher education system, seeking to restrict universities’ autonomy on multiple fronts, from student selection and faculty hires, to what can be taught and how.
Trump is especially expected to go after “diversity and inclusion”, or DEI, an umbrella term encompassing a broad range of policies meant to ensure equitable access and opportunity to all people, particularly those historically excluded from them. Conservatives have long derided the policies as “wokeism” and rallied against diversity-focused curricula and hiring practices th …
