This is the Trump education agenda
"Armed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents forcing their way into schools and arresting people. Students banned from using bathrooms and other facilities according to their preferred gender identity. Teachers fired for speaking honestly about racism.
That’s Donald Trump’s education agenda. It could weaken one of the best features of America’s schools and universities — they are some of the few places in our society where people from marginalized backgrounds often feel safe and free to be their full selves.
The Trump administration has made clear that drastic changes to America’s education system is one of its top priorities. It has declared that immigration officials can now make arrests at schools, launched an investigation of Denver Public Schools over the district’s creation of an all-gender restroom at one school and threatened to cut federal funding to schools across the country if they are tolerant of transgender students or teach about systemic racism.
The education world is in a panic over these new policies. Wary of violating Trump administration limits on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, colleges are canceling conferences and workshops. On immigration, districts across the country are releasing carefully written statements, trying to reassure parents that their kids are safe on campus while acknowledging that officials must follow federal law. Some districts are training their teachers and staff on what to do if ICE comes to their school and asks to enter.
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“The immigration policies have created a mass culture of fear,” a school administrator in California told me. She didn’t want to use her name or identify her district because she worried it might trigger a visit from ICE.
“We have not yet had ICE agents approach our schools,” she added. “But the potential of that has created a lot of panic, and that is very distracting from other things. We have a lot of reading and math learning to do. But what we’re thinking about is physical and emotional safety, when I wish we would be thinking about the academic pieces.”
Some of the executive orders are vaguely written, so it is not clear what is banned or permitted. They might not all be upheld in courts. Perhaps Trump administration officials will be cowed by the likely intense political backlash if they start entering schools as part of the immigration crackdown.
But whether these policies are fully implemented, the specter of them alone is troubling. This administration is breaking with the idea that schools should be an accepting and reassuring space for young people.
And if the administration is successful, that would be a huge setback for U.S. society. A generation ago, gay students whose parents were unsupportive of their sexual orientation sometimes could find support and community at school, including from teachers. Some schools play a similar role for transgender students today. Schools don’t check the immigration status of their students, making them a literal sanctuary for undocumented young people. Though Republicans and some Democrats support more harsh policies toward adults who came to the United States without authorization, there has generally been a bipartisan, society-wide agreement that immigration enforcement should leave kids and schools alone.
Black History Month celebrations and other school-based diversity efforts have made Americans more informed about the nation’s history of racism, sexism and other forms of oppression. As a Black person, living in a country where a growing number of people are well-educated on racial issues is a relief. Those who have studied systemic racism and other concepts that the Trump administration is trying to ban from being taught in schools know that Black Americans have less wealth than White ones on average because of discriminatory policies, not because Black people are lazy or uninterested in bettering themselves.
The Trump administration’s message is essentially that our schools and universities are too tolerant of immigrants and transgender students and too focused on reducing sexism and racism. I am not defending every pro-transgender or DEI policy. But on balance, our schools and universities are a model for the rest of our society, striving to create a climate where everyone is welcome.
You might think I’m just calling for schools and universities to be liberal — and America elected a president who campaigned on conservative ideas, including cracking down on illegal immigration and transgender rights. Yes, being supportive of immigration, transgender rights and diversity and inclusion programs are (liberal) ideological stances.
That said, I am not sure the 2024 election was a referendum on whether ICE should enter public schools or whether colleges should be able to teach critical race theory. People had all kinds of disparate reasons for voting for Trump. And even if most voters did want to ban schools from recognizing the preferred gender identity of transgender students, I would oppose that as a denial of their individual rights. I would similarly oppose efforts to single out evangelical Christians or those with conservative beliefs.
The Trump administration is likely to keep leaning into this education fight — and for good reason. Trump and his team correctly recognize that schools and universities aren’t just places where people learn science and math. They are major sites of social and cultural formation. If it’s considered normal and acceptable at school to be an undocumented immigrant, transgender or enrolled in a course on systemic racism, it will likely become considered normal and acceptable across our society to be an undocumented immigrant, transgender or a person who believes in the idea of systemic racism.
I want that kind of society, but Trump doesn’t. And unfortunately, to implement his version of America, Trump is using our schools to persecute kids rather than protect them."
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