Keep Funding and Freedom To Learn in Our Public Schools. Act Now.
Contact Congress about Two Anti-Public School Executive Orders
Two recent federal Executive Orders (EOs) on public education have been taken directly from Project 2025, Mandate for Leadership and are attempts by the Trump administration to usurp Congress’s authority and the state and local authority. It is time for public school advocates to tell their members of Congress to insist these orders be rescinded.
1. Public Education Funds SHOULD NOT be used for Scholarships for Private Schools
Federal funding of education is legislated by Congress, not by the Executive branch, and the U.S. Department of Education is mandated to carry out policies set by Congress. Allowing the Executive Order (EO) Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunities for Families to stand diminishes the authority of Congress by directing how federal funds are to be spent, ultimately attempting to usurp power from Congress. Adding authority in the federal budget to allow states to divert federal funds to private schools, as recommended in both this EO and Project 2025, will be detrimental to the education and future opportunities of American youth. However, that appears to be the plan in the federal budget being developed at this time.
There are many downsides to diverting federal funds to private education:
Private schools are not subject to the strict accountability that is required of public schools.
Private schools are permitted to discriminate against students before or after matriculation, and can reject students who are considered “too expensive to educate” (e.g., students with disabilities). On the other hand, public schools must accept all students and provide for their education.
Also, the failure rate is high in private schools. Almost half of all new “school choice” schools close within five years, leaving students and families to return to increasingly underfunded local public schools, because public funding has been removed from the system to pay for vouchers and other “school choice” schemes.
In fact, In every state where school choice initiatives have been implemented, choice has been a monumental failure: blowing up state budgets beyond educational spending, eliminating quality controls for student learning with less qualified teachers, predominantly benefit wealthy families, and reducing monies available to public schools by as much as a third.
This EO will negatively impact public schools by directing states to prioritize the privatization of funds allocated by Congress for public education. Using these funds for “scholarships” or vouchers to private schools destabilizes and undermines the quality of the education of the very students it claims to champion. Rather than expanding “education freedom” as the order suggests, this order will starve public schools of needed funding.
The Commonwealth Institute reports that “Diverting public funding to private schools will exacerbate financial challenges for public schools. Using [public] dollars – whether in the form of tax credits or opportunity scholarships — for private schools leaves fewer resources available for public school students. And research shows that private school vouchers do not improve – and often harm – student outcomes.“
Diverting federal funds meant for public education tends to benefit the wealthy, not lower income families. This redirection of federal funding is being billed as freedom and an opportunity for families which can be a lucrative tax shelter for wealthy families and a gift to the private sector. Seldom do “scholarships” or vouchers cover the cost of private school tuition so only those who can pay the difference between the scholarship and the tuition can actually afford to use the funds for private school tuition.
Please ask your Congressperson and Senators to insist that this executive order be rescinded and that no direction to divert public funding to private schools be included in the federal budget. You can do this easily by using this one-click call to action.
2. Public School Curriculum Control SHOULD Remain at the Local Level, Not the Federal Level
Although the law is clear that the federal government can not “exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, or over the selection of library resources, textbooks, or other printed or published instructional materials by any educational institution or school system” a recent Executive Order (EO) attempts to exert control over public schools’ curricula.
The EO “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” attempts to limit classroom lessons about race, gender, and American history by punishing public schools that teach these topics. This EO is consistent with Project 2025, the Mandate for Leadership which suggests on pg 358 that “The next President should issue a series of executive orders requiring: An accounting of how federal programs/grants spread DEI/CRT/ gender ideology”.
Not only is this EO unlawful, its direction is not in the best interest of K-12 students. Historically, students have been limited to Eurocentric historical content and perspectives in public schools. Only recently have public schools made an effort to provide inclusive and factually accurate historical information that reflected all facets of U.S. History in an age-appropriate manner.
The recent EO reinstates the 1776 Commission that President Trump created during his first term in office to promote “patriotic” education and counter lessons that he says divides Americans on race and slavery. But lessons on factual history of the African American experience are important. Sometimes Black history is hard to talk about, but the teaching of true history is essential so that students know how our country was formed and the challenges faced by American who came before us.
In addition, this order discounts statements by the American Academy of Pediatricians that found that many “systematic reviews of the literature have indicated that comprehensive sex education promotes healthy sexual behaviors” and access to comprehensive sex education is known to have many benefits. Sex education has long been a focus of culture wars, with flash points caused by different viewpoints on what should be taught, and when it should be taught. But regardless, it is each state’s and local school system’s responsibility and NOT the Executive Branch of the federal government to decide what is taught in public schools.
Please ask your Congressperson and Senators to insist that this Executive Order be rescinded and the decision to develop course components of school curriculum be left to the states. Please contact your members of Congress (find them here) and tell them you do not want them to allow the federal government to prescribe curriculum content.
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