Trump executive actions on colleges, schools : NPR

President Trump on Wednesday signed a list of executive actions aimed at both higher education and K-12 schools.

One of the actions takes aim at college and university accreditors, organizations the White House says have “abused their authority by imposing discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)-based standards.”

Another promises new discipline guidance for K-12 schools, with the goal of “ensuring school discipline policies are based on objective behavior, not DEI,” the White House said in a statement.

“Today’s Executive Orders pave the way for critical innovations — inviting more competition in the higher education accreditation system, ensuring transparency in college finances, supporting new technologies in the classroom, and more,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote on social media.

The collection of orders aim to cement Trump’s conservative agenda when it comes to education in America, including rolling back the policies from the Biden administration, bolstering workforce training, improving teaching about artificial intelligence in schools, and launching a new White House initiative on historically Black colleges and universities.

Changes to university accreditation

The order pertaining to college accreditation directs McMahon to “overhaul” the system. Accreditation is the process colleges are required to go through to receive federal financial aid, aimed at ensuring that a program meets an acceptable level of quality.

Trump referred to accreditation on the campaign trail as his “secret weapon” in his efforts to combat what he considers ideological bias in higher education. The executive action aims to use the process as a way to hold colleges accountable for “ideological overreach” and to increase “intellectual diversity” on campus.

The action directs the education secretary to recognize new accreditors in an effort to encourage more competition. Trump has previously modified the accreditation system: During his first administration, he removed restrictions that forced schools to use accreditors based on their geographic region.

“Trump’s goal is to manipulate accreditors in order to force colleges and universities to do his bidding and punish them when they resist,” said Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors in a statement. “He is weaponizing the accreditation process to gain the leverage he seeks.”

Colleges to disclose foreign gifts

Another executive action warns that federal grants for universities could be revoked if schools do not complete “full and timely disclosure of foreign funding.”

In a briefing announcing the order, White House staff secretary Will Scharf said, “We believe that certain universities, including, for example, Harvard, have routinely violated this law, and this law has not been effectively enforced.”

Federal law already requires schools to disclose gifts or contracts worth $250,000 or more from foreign entities. In a statement, a Harvard spokesperson said the school had, for decades, been in compliance with the law.

On Truth Social on Thursday, Trump dug in on Harvard again calling the university “a Liberal mess” and “a threat to Democracy.”

This new order doesn’t provide specific thresholds or new rules, but instead asserts that universities “provide the American people with greater access to general information about foreign funding.”

Changes to school discipline policy

In an executive action aimed at K-12 schools, Trump requested new federal guidance on school discipline. The measure calls for revoking previous policies by Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama aimed at reducing racial disparities in, for example, suspensions and expulsions. The new guidance would prohibit using “racially preferential discipline practices.”

“Trump’s order empowers local school boards by encouraging real discipline,” said Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty and a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “By ending federal overreach, it frees educators to focus on teaching, not chaos, ensuring kids get a quality education.”

But some civil rights activists disagree. 

“These executive orders are another move to dismantle civil rights protections,” said Judith Browne Dianis, who runs the Advancement Project, a civil rights nonprofit. “The Administration wants to rebuild the school to prison pipeline but civil rights law is clear: schools cannot punish students more harshly because of race, color, national origin, sex, or disability.”

The other executive actions issued Wednesday aim to enhance “high-quality education” at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs); to strengthen workforce programs like apprenticeships in high-demand trade jobs; and to establish a White House task force on teaching artificial intelligence (AI) in schools, prioritizing research on the use of AI in education, among other initiatives.