by Sarah Butrymowicz, The Hechinger Report
December 18, 2025
About 1.5 million folks educate on school campuses in the USA, and almost 4 million lecturers work in its public elementary and secondary colleges. Greater than 15 million undergraduates attend U.S. faculties and universities. There are greater than 50 million school-age kids throughout the nation.
All of them have one factor in frequent: Federal schooling coverage impacts their lives.
President Donald Trump and Schooling Secretary Linda McMahon say they need to shut the Division of Schooling and return management of schooling to the states. On the similar time, nonetheless, they’ve aggressively, and quickly, wielded federal energy over colleges.
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Right here’s a take a look at some key information factors from the primary yr of Trump’s second time period that characterize the outsized impact this presidency has had on the nation’s academic establishments and the folks inside them.
— 15 —
Variety of government orders Trump signed that solely deal with faculties or colleges
In 2017, the primary yr of his first time period, Trump signed two government orders associated to schooling. This yr, he signed 3 times that quantity on only a single day in April.
Amongst his most notable government orders was one early in his time period requiring the Division of Schooling to start dismantling itself. He additionally established an Synthetic Intelligence Schooling Job Power and requested cupboard members to supply him with a plan to finish “radical indoctrination” in colleges. Different government orders have addressed college self-discipline, transgender athletes, registered apprenticeships and overseas affect on school campuses.
One other set of government orders not directly affected colleges. As an example, the Division of Schooling interpreted an order about undocumented immigrants to require limiting entry to some grownup and profession and technical teaching programs. And individually, in a presidential memorandum, Trump ordered universities to start reporting the race of their candidates and admitted college students, not simply those that enroll within the fall.
— 26 —
Variety of investigations into Ok-12 transgender insurance policies introduced by the Schooling Division
On the Ok-12 degree, the administration has given no problem extra consideration than insurance policies that govern which bogs, locker rooms and sports activities groups transgender college students can entry. In all, the division has introduced at the least 26 such investigations, together with into six state schooling companies and three statewide athletic associations.
By comparability, the Trump administration introduced eight investigations into antisemitism at elementary and secondary colleges and 4 instances of alleged racial discrimination that hurts white lecturers or college students.
In greater schooling, it’s the inverse: Simply 5 investigations into transgender points have been introduced, whereas dozens of instances of antisemitism and racial discrimination are being investigated.
— 50+ —
Variety of education-specific lawsuits filed in opposition to the Trump administration
It’s common for presidential administrations to be sued: Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton brags about suing the Biden administration 100 occasions. However the first yr of Trump’s second time period has been marked by unprecedented authorized exercise associated to his administration’s schooling actions, in accordance with a evaluation of court docket paperwork and different lawsuit trackers. Trump, McMahon and the Division of Schooling have been sued over efforts to fireside workers and dismantle the division, freeze funding and cancel grants, and finish variety, fairness and inclusion efforts.
The administration’s observe document defending itself in court docket has been combined, however it scored a serious victory when the Supreme Court docket allowed its March layoffs of tons of of Schooling Division staffers. Nevertheless, courts have blocked some efforts to ban variety, fairness and inclusion initiatives, pressured the federal authorities to pay out some once-frozen grants and allowed Harvard to proceed enrolling overseas college students.
— 1,950 —
Variety of workers who left the Division of Schooling within the spring
When Trump took workplace, the Schooling Division had greater than 4,100 workers. Quickly after, these numbers began dropping. Within the first seven weeks of the brand new administration, 572 staffers voluntarily resigned. In March, 1,378 extra workers have been let go. Many places of work have been decimated and not using a clear plan for the way or if their work would proceed.
The Nationwide Heart for Schooling Statistics, for instance, went from about 100 staffers to 3. That workplace is answerable for gathering information on the nation’s colleges and faculties and administering the Nationwide Evaluation of Academic Progress. Or take the Workplace for Civil Rights, which is answerable for investigating complaints about civil rights violations, together with sexual harassment, racial discrimination and failure to supply an sufficient schooling to college students with disabilities. Seven of its 11 regional places of work have been shuttered and, in all, it misplaced almost half its employees. (In December, a few of these staffers have been briefly known as again to assist scale back a backlog of instances.)
The administration notified one other 466 workers they have been being let go throughout the federal government shutdown in October. These positions have been reinstated, nonetheless, as a part of a congressional deal to reopen the federal government. The division additionally launched a plan to transfer massive swathes of its work to different companies, together with the departments of Labor, State and Well being and Human Companies.
The Schooling Division didn’t reply to a number of requests for details about how many individuals are working on the company now.
— 5 —
Variety of regional Head Begin places of work closed
As a part of the administration’s sweeping reductions in power, 5 out of 10 regional Head Begin places of work have been abruptly closed and all workers fired in April. The places of work, all in blue states, assist oversee the free little one care providers offered by native early teaching programs for low-income kids. In all, the 5 places of work had been answerable for oversight of 318,000 — or 44 p.c — of Head Begin slots.
That wasn’t the one upheaval Head Begin packages confronted this yr. On the finish of January, the Trump administration directed companies to briefly freeze federal funding for 1000’s of monetary help packages, together with Head Begin. Quickly after, the White Home mentioned this system was exempt, and later it withdrew the order altogether. (A federal choose ultimately dominated all the directive was unlawful.) However dozens of facilities serving greater than 20,000 kids reported weeks-long delays in accessing federal cash, with some pressured to shut briefly. Then, throughout the federal government shutdown within the fall, facilities serving 9,000 children needed to shut their doorways, some for a number of weeks, in accordance with monitoring by the First 5 Years Fund.
— 17% —
Decline in new worldwide pupil enrollment in fall 2025
The Trump administration’s assaults on overseas college students with political opinions it disliked made worldwide headlines this spring, because it focused college students protesting the Israel-Hamas conflict for deportation and introduced plans to scour the social media accounts of recent visa candidates. It additionally imposed journey restrictions and delayed some processing of pupil visas. The result’s a slower pipeline of recent overseas college students coming to the USA, in accordance with information from the Institute of Worldwide Schooling.
The lower in new worldwide college students was pushed by graduate college students, whose enrollment declined most sharply. However as a result of most returning college students caught with their U.S. schooling plans, the general variety of overseas college students (together with these engaged in jobs associated to future or previous greater schooling enrollment) ticked down simply 1 p.c. Nonetheless, that’s an enormous deal for faculties and universities: Graduate college students make up the lionʼs share of worldwide enrollment and are a serious income for a lot of faculties. Worldwide college students sometimes don’t get monetary help, paying full value to attend.
— $1,700 —
Most tax break a person can get for donating to highschool selection scholarships
Trump’s signature laws, the One Massive Stunning Invoice Act, was a serious win for varsity selection advocates: It created a brand new federal college voucher program. The legislation units up tax credit score scholarships — vouchers — households can use to pay for personal college tuition, tutoring or different academic bills. Dad and mom can even be capable to use the cash to cowl homeschooling prices. Beginning in 2027, people can get a tax credit score of as much as $1,700 for donations to nonprofits that present the scholarships. These nonprofits, in flip, can be answerable for handing out the cash.
States should choose in if they need colleges inside their respective borders to have the ability to take part. At the very least three states up to now have mentioned they are going to decline, however greater than 20 others have already established their very own tax credit score scholarship packages and are anticipated to enroll when the federal possibility turns into out there.
— 6,353 —
Variety of complaints the Schooling Division’s Workplace for Civil Rights dismissed between mid-March and mid-September
In a single six-month stretch, the Division of Schooling’s Workplace for Civil Rights dismissed greater than 6,000 complaints with out an investigation, in accordance with a September court docket submitting. In contrast, the Biden administration did the identical with 2,527 instances in its ultimate three months.
The Trump administration has mentioned in court docket filings it’s following longstanding insurance policies for dismissing instances. Former workers and advocates counter that the bounce in dismissals suggests pupil and father or mother complaints usually are not being adequately probed, and that layoffs are affecting an company that has lengthy struggled to maintain up with its caseload.
The speed at which the Trump administration reaches a ultimate decision within the instances it does examine has considerably slowed. Between mid-March and mid-September, OCR resolved 581 complaints by mediated settlements, voluntary agreements or technical help. One other 138 have been resolved after an investigation didn’t discover proof of violations. These numbers are roughly the identical because the final three months of the Biden administration (595 and 119 respectively).
— $153 million —
Quantity of grant cash the administration is spending to advertise civics schooling
The Schooling Division mentioned in September it gave greater than $153 million to 85 grantees to work on civics schooling. That’s a serious improve: Since this grant program launched in 2017, simply 38 grants price about $75 million had been awarded in all.
Selling patriotic schooling is certainly one of McMahon’s objectives. “Patriotic schooling presents American historical past in a manner that’s correct, sincere, and galvanizing,” her company mentioned in a September announcement prioritizing discretionary spending on this problem. “It emphasizes a unifying and uplifting portrayal of the nation’s founding beliefs.”
McMahon additionally began the America 250 Civics Schooling Coalition, in preparation for subsequent yr’s anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The coalition is made up largely of conservative organizations together with Turning Level USA, Mothers for Liberty, Hillsdale School and Monks for Life.
— $5.8 billion —
Minimal quantity of federal analysis funding minimize or frozen
Federal analysis {dollars}, lots of which stream to schools and universities, have been minimize manner again this yr. It’s troublesome to calculate precisely how a lot was misplaced; this cash comes from many companies and a few stays mired in authorized battles. The web site Grant Witness, run by a bunch of researchers, tracks canceled or frozen grants. Its information reveals that greater than $5.1 billion in Nationwide Institutes of Well being cash that had but to be spent was earmarked for faculties or universities, as was almost $700 million from the Nationwide Science Basis. (A few of that funding could have been restored.)
These companies have been two of the most important sources of federal grants to greater schooling, however not the one ones. Greater than $425 million in Nationwide Endowment for the Humanities grants, lots of that are awarded to schools, have been canceled. (These cuts have been later discovered to be illegal.) The Division of Agriculture canceled tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in greater schooling analysis funding, and the Environmental Safety Company additionally terminated such grants.
The image doesn’t look higher for yr two of Trump’s time period: The White Home has proposed reducing all federal analysis funding by a 3rd — a lower of greater than $33 billion from 2025.
— 0 —
Variety of faculties which have signed the Trump ‘Compact for Educational Excellence in Larger Schooling’
The Trump administration has been aggressive in attempting to bend greater schooling to its will. In October, officers reached out to 9 universities, together with among the nation’s most selective establishments, with a deal. The faculties might be first in line for federal cash in the event that they agreed to a litany of calls for together with:
- Publishing standardized take a look at scores for admitted college students by race, intercourse and ethnicity
- Capping overseas pupil enrollment at 15 p.c
- Prohibiting transgender females from utilizing ladies’s locker rooms and bogs
- Freezing tuition for 5 years
Up to now, none have accepted the provide, with seven universities rejecting it outright. The College of Texas at Austin and Vanderbilt College didn’t publicly rebuke the compact, however didn’t signal it. New School of Florida, which was not one of many 9, mentioned it will signal if given the possibility. Different universities signed separate agreements with the administration to unfreeze federal cash. Columbia College, for instance, paid $221 million and accepted a number of circumstances to regain entry to billions of federal {dollars}.
Contact investigations editor Sarah Butrymowicz at butrymowicz@hechingerreport.org or on Sign: @sbutry.04.
This story about Trump’s impact on schooling was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, impartial information group targeted on inequality and innovation in schooling. Join the Hechinger e-newsletter.
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