Under Donald Trump Department of Education made a 180-degree change from the federal education policies of the last 20 years. Secretary Education offered a vision of school choice, deregulation, and a new vision of the federal government’s place in the education of Americans. In the eyes of supporters, it was a long overdue return of power to states and parents. In the eyes of critics, it was a withdrawal from equity and public education. To understand the impact of the Trump Department of Education, one needs to understand the current debate over school vouchers, student loan debt, and the enforcement of civil rights in education.
The Philosophy of Education and Leadership of Betsy DeVos and the School Choice Movement
The focus of the Trump Administration’s Department of Education was directly tied to one individual, Betsy DeVos, and her long history of supporting school vouchers and charter schools as the Secretary of Education.
Advocate for School Choice
No public school alternatives, according to DeVos, was the central focus of her mission. According to her, education should not be determined by a student’s home’s zip code. Parents should have the power to decide where their children will learn.
Skepticism of Federal Overreach
The administration operated under the belief that the U.S. Department of Education had gotten too big. They were trying to mitigate that and refocus power back to the state and local governments.
Focus on Privatization
One of the ideas was to use public money to pay for the tuition of private and religious schools, and fund them through voucher and tax-credit scholarship programs. This policy led to massive legal and ethical debates and concerns.
Policies and Initiatives: The Agenda in Action
The Trump administration translated its philosophy into the Department of Education and consolidated it for a few changes.
Aggressive Expansion of School Choice
That was the administration’s number one choice. However, it faced bipartisan congressional challenges.
- Proposed Federal Voucher Program: Each year the administration proposed a $5 billion federal tax-credit scholarship program called “Education Freedom Scholarships.” Unfortunately, none of them were ever approved by Congress.
- Advocacy and Leverage: DeVos made it a point to advocate state-level voucher programs and stimulated a push for states to fund private school options with Pandemic Relief Funds.
Rolling Back Obama Era Regulations
A big one was removing regulations that were considered to be overreaching, excessive, or burdensome.
- Title IX Overhaul: The administration implemented changes regarding sexual assault accusations on campuses, narrowing the definition of sexual harassment and expanding the due process protections of the accused. This was perhaps the most impactful of the changes.
- Discipline Guidance Rescinded: The Obama guidelines to reduce the racial gap in school suspension policies were also removed, as the administration justified the changes by claiming over gaps in school suspension policies resulted in over gaps in school suspension policies resulted in unsafe.
- For Profit College Regulations: The Gainful Employment rule was also removed, which restricted which career programs went to which graduates. For-profit colleges were also receive a reduction in the oversight.
Restructuring Student Loans and Forgiveness
The policy principles emphasized limiting federal exposure and tightening the programs.
- Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF): The administration received criticism over Microsoft approvals, and included a temporary expanded waiver.
- Borrower Defense to Repayment: It became a backlog of claims as it became extremely difficult to defrauded students by for-profit colleges and the process became extremely difficult.
- Management Overhaul: It continued the shift of loan servicing to the privatization of loan servicing as it had begun to document the borrower service problems.
Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Pandemic was the most unprecedented crisis of his final year.
- Emergency Funds: Somehow, this provided local flexibility to states and schools while it distributed billions from the CARES Act.
- Push for Reopening: In the Fall of 2020, the administration heavily encouraged schools to start in-person learning and tied it to the opening of the economy, while also publishing and promoting the metrics describing which schools remained in remote learning.
Lasting Impact and Controversies
Currently, the Trump administration, particularly the Department of Education, is the most controversial and doesn’t seem to be losing that title anytime soon, as it continues to shape and change the policy debate in this country.
The School Choice Movement Elevated
Though there were no federal vouchers, this administration was able to instate a national advocacy for the choice movement at the state level and has provided federal focus to many of the state efforts, making a large impact in the choice movement.
Regulatory Whiplash
The rapid and extensive undoing of the Obama administration’s institutional rules created a unique set of problems for schools and colleges, particularly for Title IX, which schools now follow a completely different set of rules for Title IX under the Biden administration.
Defining the Federal Role
This period of time provided us with no choice but to divide the country on the concept of a Federal Department of Education to the extent in which it either has a foundational concept of a minimal department with the vision of providing a civil choice and freedom to the states, or with the vision of a department that heavily intervenes in the enforcement of civil rights, and the construction of a set of rules for equity.
Student Loan Legacy
The default side of the policy debate that impacted student loans relates to the idea that there is a large cohort of student borrowers whose loans are owned by for-profit companies servicing them. This impacted the political debate around debt cancellation, which was primarily because of the extensive loans owed to the Government.
FAQs
Who was Trump’s Education Secretary?
Betsy DeVos was Secretary of Education from February 2017 until Trump’s term ended in January 2021. DeVos didn’t have any formal qualifications in education or public school administration. Her advocacy background was in school vouchers and charter schools.
Did Trump implement a federal school voucher program?
No. Even though he made it a priority and proposed it as part of his vision multiple times, he never managed to get a federal school voucher or tax-credit scholarship program through Congress.
What changes to Title IX did Trump’s Department of Education implement?
In regard to Title IX, in 2020, the Department of Education issued rules that would narrow the definition of sexual harassment, and limit a school’s responsibility concerning sexual misconduct to events that happen on school grounds or during school. In addition, the rules required a live hearing with cross-examination. In doing so, the rules gave increased due process to the accused but it was argued that the rules would limit the number of victims that would come forward.
What was the administration’s stance on student loan forgiveness?
Under Trump, the Department of Education was certainly not in favor of mass student loan forgiveness. They were working on trying to wind down student loan forgiveness programs, such as, Borrower Defense, and were trying to impose limits on how much graduate students and parents can borrow. They viewed mass forgiveness as too expensive and not worth it.
How is the Biden Department of Education different?
The Biden administration is accomplishing the opposite as it is trying to cancel mass amounts of student debt (though to be blocked by the Supreme Court), as well as, reinstating and strengthening the regulations from the Obama presidency, eliminating the DeVos Title IX rules, increasing oversight on for-profit colleges, and stopping the federal funding of Private School Vouchers to focus more on funding Public Schools.