In the US, each state is largely in charge of its own education policies, yet the election of Donald Trump has seriously scared many parents, teachers and experts. The reason is that during the campaign he promised to close the Federal Ministry of Education and to stop financial aid to schools that deal with topics such as racism in their classes and recognize the transgender identities of their students.
"Inappropriate Content"
„The main complaint of Republicans in the field of education, which they raised during the campaign, was that schools were indoctrinating children with inappropriate content on issues such as racism, sexuality and gender identity,” David Steiner from the Institute of Education explains to DV to the renowned “John Hopkins“ University. “The paradox is that the state policy cannot change anything in this direction, because the curricula are adopted at the state level”, he adds.
However, Trump can take certain moves. For this purpose, he will rely on Linda McMahon, who he named as the new Minister of Education. Most of McMahon's professional career, however, has not been related to education. She works alongside her husband Vince McMahon in the world wrestling federation WWE.
But can Trump just shut down an entire ministry? No, he needs support in Congress, and in the Senate a “supermajority“ - i.e. 60 out of 100 votes. This means that he also needs support from senators from the Democratic Party, which seems more than impossible.
Risk for children with disabilities and those from poor families
Full support from Republicans is not expected for the idea either, because the federal department provides schools with funds to help poor children. And there are especially many of them in Republican-controlled states. The Ministry also provides funding for teacher training and for the needs of children with disabilities. According to Steiner, the government is unlikely to revise them.
Brandi Urie is a parent of such a child and is also an elementary school teacher in Idaho. According to her, closing the Ministry of Education would be a big mistake. “Similar thing would remove their protection throughout the country, which guarantees that students with disabilities have access to the same education as all other children,”, Urie told DV.
Battle to defend conservative and Christian values
So the Department of Education in the US is likely to remain, but the Trump administration will make other changes to the sector. It is currently prohibited for educational institutions to discriminate against students because of their origin, religion, sexuality and gender identity.
Trump and the “conservative majority in Congress could change what counts as discrimination, for example in sports,”, Steiner said. A favorite topic of conservative politicians is the exclusion of transgender schoolgirls and students from women's teams on the grounds that “men should not play on womens teams”. The Trump administration could legitimize this. If the student's family sues, the case could potentially go to the Supreme Court, where the majority is conservative and most likely to go along with the Trump administration's reasoning, Steiner added.
"At the whim of fate"
Another example of conservative policies that can be introduced is, for example, the requirement that the Ten Commandments of God be displayed in a prominent place in classrooms, and that religion classes become a mandatory element of a “curriculum promoting Christian values” . In Texas, for example, a law was passed that financially incentivizes schools that include parts of the Bible in their programs. “I am definitely worried that a person has been elected to the highest post in the country, who intends to influence the curriculum”, says Karen Svoboda from the parent initiative “Protection of Democracy”. According to her, this means that “any child who is not white, Christian and heterosexual will be left to their own devices”.