The Trump administration and the Department of Education

The Trump administration has radically reformed the U.S. Department of Education, with the administration's moves on policymaking provoking praise and outrage. The administration's policymaking has been marked by deregulation and as a shift toward state authority, from the encouragement of school choice to the reformation of student loans.

A key focus of Trump’s education agenda was affirming school choice. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos spearheaded the push for increased charter schools and supported vouchers for charter schools on the basis of the argument that parents should be given increased control of the education of their child. The proposals were criticized for siphoning funds from public schools, further exacerbating the disparities in the levels of education.

Trump also initiated revolutionary change on the higher education front. The Trump administration undid the borrower protections of the Obama years, making it more difficult to qualify for the forgiveness of loans under such plans as Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Along with this, The Trump administration also loosened the standards on for-profit colleges, repealing the standards that sought to hold the institutions responsible for the debt of the students. The action created the fear of the spread of student debt with no sufficient protection for the borrowers.

The other controversy involved the administration's stance on the rules related to campus sexual assault under Title IX.. The Education Department reorganized the rules with the intention of increasing protections of due process for the accused perpetrators, stating existing rules were unfair. Some advocates for survivors, however, were concerned the rules would discourage survivors from making reports. The Trump administration also conflicted with teachers' unions and public school activists, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it pressed for learning on the campuses despite safety concerns. All these were characteristic of the repeated conflicts on the balance of the local and national levels of education policy making. Overall, the Trump administration's education agenda had a lasting imprint, particularly on the issues of furthering school choice and turning around the national oversight of the colleges and universities.