How will a second Trump presidency impact education in Florida?
Tampa Bay Times | By Divya Kumar | November 12, 2024
Schools could see the Department of Education dismantled, and a nationwide expansion of some Florida policies.
Donald Trump’s return to the White House could mean big changes for education in America.
Trump made bold campaign statements about ending the U.S. Department of Education, and vice president-elect JD Vance has criticized universities as “the enemy.”
While it’s not yet clear how Trump’s campaign promises will translate to policy, some of his pledges echo sentiments behind the conservative effort over the last few years to overhaul education in Florida.
“The real worry is that the Florida model goes national,” said Isaac Kamola, a political science professor at Trinity College.
Here’s how a few areas could change.
A dismantled Department of Education?
Trump’s official platform states an intention to dismantle the Department of Education and “return” education governance to each state.
The department is responsible for overseeing several programs, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits racial discrimination in schools; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination based on sex; and Title I, which provides funding for low-income K-12 schools and Pell Grants for undergraduates with financial need.
Though Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, a policy guide from the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, the document offers a glimpse into how the dismantling could unfold.
Project 2025 says the responsibility for Title I funding would be transferred back to states over a 10-year period. It also calls for cutting summer meals offered to students not taking classes and withholding funds for meals for schools that record “sexual orientation and gender identity” instead of “sex” as part of title Title IX compliance.
The policy guide also points to eliminating Head Start and rolling back regulations on charter schools. It calls for removing “nonbinary” as a gender category for civil rights data collection; rescinding some student loan forgiveness programs; restoring Trump-era Title IX rules on gender discrimination; and providing universities more flexibility on accreditation.
The morning after Trump was elected, Alan Levine, a member of Florida’s Board of Governors, posted on X that he believed changes to the department would be welcomed.
In an interview, Levine said the state university system would follow federal laws and requirements regardless of which department enforces them.
“The only involvement they ought to have at the collegiate level is to make sure that there’s good governance in place and that the accreditors are qualified, and that there’s good standards in place for high quality education, and then get out of the way and let us govern our universities,” he said.
America could look more like Florida
Trump’s platform lists several priorities, including deporting “pro-Hamas radicals” and making college campuses “safe and patriotic again,” as well as cutting federal funding for schools “pushing critical race theory, racial gender ideology and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.”
In Florida, at least one pro-Palestinian student protester who was suspended has had their student visa form suspended, and the state has passed controversial legislation to ban certain topics from both K-12 and higher education.
Kamola’s research has mapped the language of conservative legislative efforts to overhaul higher education across the country and in Florida. It found many of the bills can be traced back to an overlapping network of 11 well-funded conservative and libertarian think tanks, including the Heritage Foundation.
“The whole premise of the university and of higher education in general is that the institution has to be free from political interference,” Kamola said. “Faculty need to have academic freedom to pursue knowledge wherever it leads.”
Some are encouraged by the proposed changes, including establishing a federal parental bill of rights, supporting universal school choice and encouraging prayer and Bible study in schools.
“Florida has been a model for the rest of the country, certainly,” Moms for Liberty co-founder Tiffany Justice said. “Gov. DeSantis has put parents in the driver’s seat when it comes to their children’s education.”
Floridians helping Trump’s vision
Several people with ties to Florida’s education system could see influential roles in the Trump administration.
State education commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. told Politico that he would be interested in leading the education department if tapped. A former state representative and educator, he led the push for removing sociology from general education curricula at the college level.
Seattle-based conservative activist Christopher Rufo has appeared at multiple education bill signings with DeSantis and is a member of the board of trustees that governs New College. Rufo, who has worked for the Heritage Foundation and other think tanks, popularized the campaign against critical race theory and worked with the previous Trump administration on an executive order to ban training on systemic racism for federal employees.
Erika Donalds, the wife of U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, sits on the advisory board for Moms for Liberty, and was appointed by DeSantis to the state’s advisory committee on Education and Workforce Development and the Florida Gulf Coast University board of trustees. The New York Times reported that Trump once said she knows “more about education than just about anybody I know.”
Justice, who co-founded Moms for Liberty in 2021 after serving on the school board in Indian River, said she’d be interested in working in or with the administration.
“It would be an honor to serve President Trump in any capacity,” she said. “There’s no one else like him. He’s so invested in the parental rights movement.”
