Education Under President Trump

So it’s the day after, Trump has won the presidency, the nation is grieving or celebrating depending on how you voted.  So what now? What is in store for education.  Education advocates and policy analysts are thinking about a Trump presidential administration. President-elect Trump has spoken about education in broad terms and an education secretary hasn’t been appointed yet. In the past, Trump steered clear of education policy instead keeping his focus on immigration, healthcare and international trade.

Trump’s most substantial proposal for education has been to give a grant for $20 billion for low income families so that they could use to towards school choice.  This would give parents control as to how one’s child should be educated.  This will also mean more charter schools will become prevalent and more people vying for a place for their kids.  He also wants to give control back to the states and he is in favor of repealing Common Core.  Common Core has already been taken apart by the states and variations of this curriculum is already in practice.  This probably means not much will change at all in terms of grade school education.

In terms of higher education,  Trump has said that he would help students with college costs by forcing colleges with large endowments to use their endowments to minimize tuition.  Trump also proposed in a speech, in Ohio in October, that student loans would be based on graduates’ incomes with repayment capped at 12.5 percent of borrowers’ income and forgiven any remaining debt after payments are made for 15 years.  He also said as president he would pressure colleges to lower tuition costs by threatening to revoke their access to federal funds if they refuse.  He also said that colleges could also be driven to lower costs by being threatened with a loss of non-profit status forcing them to pay millions of dollars in extra taxes.

Trump would also like to end political correctness on campuses which he described as an environment in higher education as ones that fostered debate to places of extreme censorship.

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2016/11/whats_next_for_higher_education_under_a_donald_trump_presidency.html