Trump signs order on school 'ideology,' choice
By: Zachary Schermele
USA Today
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Wednesday [01/29/2025] issued two executive orders promoting conservative education priorities.
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The first diverts federal funding from schools that teach "discriminatory equity ideology," a phrase that loosely refers to systemic racism.
..... The prohibited ideology, the order says, treats "individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals," and minimizes "agency, merits, and capability in favor of immoral generalizations." the edict says it will sanction schools that assert some people are oppressed because of their race, or that the U.S. is "fundamentally racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory."
..... The order also att4empts to bar schools from using federal funds to support transgender and non-binary students through their social transitions - directly or indirectly. It prohibits allowing trans students to participate in sports on teams that don't correspond to the sex assigned at birth.
..... The mandate will likely face court challenges since the federal government does not have the authority to set curriculum for U.S. schools. Legal experts also argue that anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people extend to students.
..... The federal government provides about one-tenth of the funding for school districts. The bulk of revenue for most schools comes from state and local property taxes.
..... The second executive order directs federal agencies to find ways to prioritize school choice programs, which often use taxpayer money to help parents enroll their kids in nonpublic schools.
..... The order instructs the Education Department to favor school choice programs when awarding discretionary grants. It requires the Interior secretary to find ways to use federal money to help families with kids in Bureau of Indian Education schools enroll elsewhere. The Defense secretary must propose a plan for military families.
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The decree delivers a win to the controversial school choice movement after it took several bruising defeats in the November [2024] election: Voters in Colorado and Kentucky rejected proposals to enshrine support for school choice in state Law, an Nebraskans decided to repeal a, school voucher program.
..... The heads of the nation's largest teachers union blasted the school choice order on Wednesday. [01/29/2025] Becky Pringle, who leads the National Education Association, accused Trump of illegally funneling federal dollars to private schools. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, echoed those sentiments, calling the president;s announcement a "likely illegal scheme to diminish choose and deny classrooms resources to pay for tax cuts for billionaires."
..... Also this week, [01/29/2025] the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights announced it is investigating Denver Public Schools for allowing a restroom in a high school to be used by people of all genders. The office claims the district violated Title IX protections when it converted a girls restroom into a multisitall all-gender bathroom.
Contributing: James Powel, USA Today.