A new Trump administration directive aims to "reduce our colleges and universities to the status of echo chambers, similar to those controlled by authoritarian states," warned PEN America.
WASHINGTON DC, UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 12: National Education Association (NEA) and allies held a rally outside of the US Capitol in Washington, United States on February 12, 2025.
Photo by Celal Güne/Anadolu via Getty Images
Jake Johnson
Feb 16, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
Lawmakers and free expression groups voiced alarm Saturday after the Trump administration threatened to investigate and strip federal funding from public schools, including colleges and universities that don't comply with its broad interpretation of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action programs in admissions.
In a letter to state education officials on Friday, Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education, wrote that the agency "intends to take appropriate measures to assess compliance with the applicable statutes and regulations based on the understanding embodied in this letter beginning no later than 14 days from today's date, including antidiscrimination requirements that are a condition of receiving federal funding."
"Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding," the letter states.
The letter takes aim at "DEI programs"—a right-wing boogeyman that the Trump administration has used as a pretext to rip apart federal agencies—and declares that the Education Department "will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this nation's educational institutions," even as halts thousands of civil rights investigations.
PEN America warned that Trainor's sweeping directive "seeks to declare it a civil rights violation for educational institutions to engage in any diversity-related programming or to promote any diversity-related ideas—potentially including everything from a panel on the Civil Rights Movement to a Lunar New Year celebration."
"This declaration has no basis in law and is an affront to the freedom of speech and ideas in educational settings. It represents yet another twisting of civil rights law in an effort to demand ideological conformity by schools and universities," the group said in a statement Saturday. "To enact government interference in the intellectual life of such institutions is to end the United States' centuries-long history of intellectual freedom in educational settings, and to reduce our colleges and universities to the status of echo chambers, similar to those controlled by authoritarian states."
Brian Rosenberg, visiting professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, toldInside Higher Ed that the letter was "truly dystopian."
"It goes well beyond the Supreme Court ruling on admissions and declares illegal a wide range of common practices," Rosenberg said. "In my career I've never seen language of this kind from any government agency in the United States."
"Republicans tell you they want to empower local communities and that states, schools, and parents know best, and again and again use top-down threats to achieve their culture war agenda."
The letter comes amid the Trump administration's broader assault on public education, including a push to abolish the Education Department altogether. That assault is expected to intensify if billionaire Linda McMahon, a proponent of school privatization, is confirmed as education secretary.
The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency—which is currently rampaging through the Education Department and terminating contracts—posted Trainor's letter to X, the social media platform owned by Musk.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a senior member of the Senate Education Committee, said Saturday that "this threat to rip away the federal funding our public K-12 schools and colleges receive flies in the face of the law."
"I hope no parent, student, or teacher is intimidated by these threats—this former preschool teacher certainly is not," said Murray. " While it's anyone's guess what falls under the Trump administration's definition of 'DEI,' there is simply no authority or basis for Trump to impose such a mandate. In fact, federal laws prohibit ANY president from telling schools and colleges what to teach, including the Every Student Succeeds Act, that I negotiated with Republicans."
"Rather than trying to make college more affordable or helping to improve our kids' outcomes, Trump is letting far-right extremists inject politics into the classroom at every turn," Murray added. "Republicans tell you they want to empower local communities and that states, schools, and parents know best, and again and again use top-down threats to achieve their culture war agenda."
Trump Executive Order Would Defund Schools That Require Covid Vaccines
Although the move was "largely symbolic" due to lack of such mandates, one expert still warned it is "legitimization of anti-science and anti-vax noise."
Five-year-old Madelyn Mirzaian is comforted by her mother, Dr. Christine Mirzaian, after receiving the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles on November 3, 2021.
(Photo: Al Seib: Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Jessica Corbett
Feb 14, 2025
Although the move was "largely symbolic" due to lack of such mandates, one expert still warned it is "legitimization of anti-science and anti-vax noise."
Five-year-old Madelyn Mirzaian is comforted by her mother, Dr. Christine Mirzaian, after receiving the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles on November 3, 2021.
(Photo: Al Seib: Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Jessica Corbett
Feb 14, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
Amid fears of what U.S. President Donald Trump's second term will mean for global health and public education, the Republican on Friday signed an executive order to defund schools that require Covid-19 vaccination for students.
Trump's order bars federal funding "from being used to support or subsidize an educational service agency, state education agency, local education agency, elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education that requires students to have received a Covid-19 vaccination to attend in-person education programs," according to a White House fact sheet.
The order, first reported by Breitbart News, also directs the secretaries of education and health and human services (HHS) to develop a plan "to end coercive Covid-19 vaccine mandates, including a report on noncompliant entities and a process for preventing federal funds from supporting educational entities that impose Covid-19 vaccine mandates."
While signing the order in the Oval Office, Trump—who was president during the onset of the pandemic and has received intense criticism for his handling of the public health crisis—said, "OK, that solves that problem."
The White House claimed that "parents are being forced into a difficult position: comply with a controversial mandate or risk their child's educational future." However, according toABC News, Trump's move was actually "largely symbolic" considering that no states currently require K-12 students to have the Covid shots.
The Associated Pressreported that "some colleges started requiring students to be immunized against Covid-19 during the pandemic, but most have dropped the requirements. A few continue to require vaccines at least for students living on campus, including Swarthmore and Oberlin colleges. Most of those colleges allow medical or religious exemptions."
As ABC noted:
One open question is whether the new administration could opt to go beyond Covid vaccines and put pressure on schools to drop requirements for other vaccines.
Currently, all 50 states mandate that students receive certain vaccinations, including to prevent the measles. Many states, however, offer religious exemptions.
"This is anti-vax pandering," Timothy Caulfield, a professor focused on public health and law at Canada's University of Alberta, said of Trump's order. "Still worrisome, however. It is yet more normalization and legitimization of anti-science and anti-vax noise."
The new measure came a day after Senate Republicans voted to confirm vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS secretary and Trump signed another executive order establishing the Make America Healthy Again Commission.
Also on Thursday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a confirmation hearing for Linda McMahon, the billionaire GOP megadonor and former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO nominated to serve as education secretary, even though Trump has signaled that he ultimately intends to fully dismantle the department.
Amid fears of what U.S. President Donald Trump's second term will mean for global health and public education, the Republican on Friday signed an executive order to defund schools that require Covid-19 vaccination for students.
Trump's order bars federal funding "from being used to support or subsidize an educational service agency, state education agency, local education agency, elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education that requires students to have received a Covid-19 vaccination to attend in-person education programs," according to a White House fact sheet.
The order, first reported by Breitbart News, also directs the secretaries of education and health and human services (HHS) to develop a plan "to end coercive Covid-19 vaccine mandates, including a report on noncompliant entities and a process for preventing federal funds from supporting educational entities that impose Covid-19 vaccine mandates."
While signing the order in the Oval Office, Trump—who was president during the onset of the pandemic and has received intense criticism for his handling of the public health crisis—said, "OK, that solves that problem."
The White House claimed that "parents are being forced into a difficult position: comply with a controversial mandate or risk their child's educational future." However, according toABC News, Trump's move was actually "largely symbolic" considering that no states currently require K-12 students to have the Covid shots.
The Associated Pressreported that "some colleges started requiring students to be immunized against Covid-19 during the pandemic, but most have dropped the requirements. A few continue to require vaccines at least for students living on campus, including Swarthmore and Oberlin colleges. Most of those colleges allow medical or religious exemptions."
As ABC noted:
One open question is whether the new administration could opt to go beyond Covid vaccines and put pressure on schools to drop requirements for other vaccines.
Currently, all 50 states mandate that students receive certain vaccinations, including to prevent the measles. Many states, however, offer religious exemptions.
"This is anti-vax pandering," Timothy Caulfield, a professor focused on public health and law at Canada's University of Alberta, said of Trump's order. "Still worrisome, however. It is yet more normalization and legitimization of anti-science and anti-vax noise."
The new measure came a day after Senate Republicans voted to confirm vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as HHS secretary and Trump signed another executive order establishing the Make America Healthy Again Commission.
Also on Thursday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions held a confirmation hearing for Linda McMahon, the billionaire GOP megadonor and former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO nominated to serve as education secretary, even though Trump has signaled that he ultimately intends to fully dismantle the department.
McMahon Hearing Shows Trump 'Dead Set on Destroying Public Education'
"If confirmed, Linda McMahon will dismantle public education as we know it to fund tax cuts for billionaires," one union leader warned.
Linda McMahon, the nominee for secretary of education, testifies during her confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in Washington, D.C. on February 13, 2025.
(Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)
Jessica Corbett
Feb 13, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
Critics of U.S. President Donald Trump's plans for the Department of Education pointed to billionaire GOP megadonor Linda McMahon's Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday as the latest proof that the Republican administration intends to destroy public schools.
McMahon, accused of "enabling sexual abuse of children" as World Wrestling Entertainment CEO, appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions as the education secretary nominee despite Trump making clear that he wants to shutter the department and billionaire Elon Musk—who is trying to obliterate the federal bureaucracy as chair of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—claiming last week that "it doesn't exist" anymore.
"Education is meant to be the great equalizer for our children, not a great investment opportunity for the billionaires ransacking our federal government."
"Most of us believe every student deserves the opportunity, resources, and support to reach their full potential no matter where they live, the color of their skin, or how much their family earns," said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest U.S. teachers union. "But we didn't hear any of that today. As I travel around the country, parents and educators tell me their schools need more resources and more opportunities that will help students live into their brilliance. They do not want to gut public education or public schools."
She warned that "if confirmed, Linda McMahon will dismantle public education as we know it to fund tax cuts for billionaires. She will push vouchers that take funding from our public schools, where 90% of all children and 95% of those with disabilities learn and grow. Public funds should stay in our public schools. Our students need an education secretary committed to fully funding the programs that can help them reach their full potential, not siphoning money to send to private schools."
"The Senate must reject Linda McMahon as secretary of education. The agenda is clear and dangerous," Pringle argued. "Whether in Washington, with legal actions and lawsuits, or through grassroots actions in communities across the country, educators will continue to protect our students from this reckless agenda."
While the GOP-controlled Senate seems likely to confirm McMahon—so far, the chamber hasn't blocked any "fundamentally unfit" and "profoundly unqualified" Trump nominees—union and community leaders, educators, parents, and students have still pressured lawmakers to oppose McMahon and battle Trump's assault on public education.
They even braved winter weather at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday for a related rally. MomsRising executive director and CEO Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner called McMahon "wholly unqualified" and declared that "President Trump's education plan puts our children at risk and has grave implications for our workforce and our economy."
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten, who was also at the rally, pointed out that "inside the Education Department, the world's richest man and his minions have been rifling through 45 million people's private student loan accounts and feeding the data into artificial intelligence in one of the biggest data hacks in U.S. history."
In response, AFT and unions sued multiple departments and the Office of Personnel Management "for violating the Privacy Act by improperly disclosing the sensitive records of millions of Americans to DOGE staff," Weingarten explained Wednesday. "And tomorrow, we hope Linda McMahon will discuss what she'll do to secure the personal data of veterans who receive benefit payments, current and former federal employees whose confidential employment files reside in OPM's system, and teachers whose pathway to the classroom was reliant on student loans to pay for college tuition. The American people deserve to know what she'll do to kick Elon Musk and DOGE out of the Education Department, out of our schools, and out of our data."
During the Senate hearing, "Democrats repeatedly grilled McMahon on her willingness to follow orders from Trump or Elon Musk even if they run afoul of congressional mandates," The Associated Pressreported, noting that the nominee "played down the work" of DOGE and "pledged to uphold the law and show deference to Congress."
McMahon also addressed the administration's push to shut down the department. According to the AP:
"We'd like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators could get on board with, and our Congress could get on board with, that would have a better functioning Department of Education," McMahon said. But closing the department "certainly does require congressional action."
McMahon said the president's goal is not to defund key programs, but to have them "operate more efficiently." But she questioned whether some programs should be moved to other agencies. Enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, she suggested, "may very well rest better" in the Department of Health and Human Services, an agency that already has oversight of disability issues. The agency's Office for Civil Rights, she said, could fit better at the Justice Department.
Responding to the hearing in a statement, Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, said that "Linda McMahon's testimony was nothing more than two hours worth of gaslighting. McMahon had the opportunity to state clearly and unequivocally that she will protect students, borrowers, and working families across the nation from the chaos that has already ensued as a result of President Trump and Elon Musk's work to make their Project 2025 agenda the law of the land. She did not."
"When asked whether she would abide by a directive by President Trump that breaks a law, her nonanswer spoke volumes. It is clear that Linda McMahon's blind loyalty to President Trump will guide her decision-making should she be confirmed to serve as the nation's highest education official—and our students and communities will pay the price," she cautioned.
Feb 13, 2025
COMMON DREAMS
Critics of U.S. President Donald Trump's plans for the Department of Education pointed to billionaire GOP megadonor Linda McMahon's Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday as the latest proof that the Republican administration intends to destroy public schools.
McMahon, accused of "enabling sexual abuse of children" as World Wrestling Entertainment CEO, appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions as the education secretary nominee despite Trump making clear that he wants to shutter the department and billionaire Elon Musk—who is trying to obliterate the federal bureaucracy as chair of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—claiming last week that "it doesn't exist" anymore.
"Education is meant to be the great equalizer for our children, not a great investment opportunity for the billionaires ransacking our federal government."
"Most of us believe every student deserves the opportunity, resources, and support to reach their full potential no matter where they live, the color of their skin, or how much their family earns," said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the largest U.S. teachers union. "But we didn't hear any of that today. As I travel around the country, parents and educators tell me their schools need more resources and more opportunities that will help students live into their brilliance. They do not want to gut public education or public schools."
She warned that "if confirmed, Linda McMahon will dismantle public education as we know it to fund tax cuts for billionaires. She will push vouchers that take funding from our public schools, where 90% of all children and 95% of those with disabilities learn and grow. Public funds should stay in our public schools. Our students need an education secretary committed to fully funding the programs that can help them reach their full potential, not siphoning money to send to private schools."
"The Senate must reject Linda McMahon as secretary of education. The agenda is clear and dangerous," Pringle argued. "Whether in Washington, with legal actions and lawsuits, or through grassroots actions in communities across the country, educators will continue to protect our students from this reckless agenda."
While the GOP-controlled Senate seems likely to confirm McMahon—so far, the chamber hasn't blocked any "fundamentally unfit" and "profoundly unqualified" Trump nominees—union and community leaders, educators, parents, and students have still pressured lawmakers to oppose McMahon and battle Trump's assault on public education.
They even braved winter weather at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday for a related rally. MomsRising executive director and CEO Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner called McMahon "wholly unqualified" and declared that "President Trump's education plan puts our children at risk and has grave implications for our workforce and our economy."
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten, who was also at the rally, pointed out that "inside the Education Department, the world's richest man and his minions have been rifling through 45 million people's private student loan accounts and feeding the data into artificial intelligence in one of the biggest data hacks in U.S. history."
In response, AFT and unions sued multiple departments and the Office of Personnel Management "for violating the Privacy Act by improperly disclosing the sensitive records of millions of Americans to DOGE staff," Weingarten explained Wednesday. "And tomorrow, we hope Linda McMahon will discuss what she'll do to secure the personal data of veterans who receive benefit payments, current and former federal employees whose confidential employment files reside in OPM's system, and teachers whose pathway to the classroom was reliant on student loans to pay for college tuition. The American people deserve to know what she'll do to kick Elon Musk and DOGE out of the Education Department, out of our schools, and out of our data."
During the Senate hearing, "Democrats repeatedly grilled McMahon on her willingness to follow orders from Trump or Elon Musk even if they run afoul of congressional mandates," The Associated Pressreported, noting that the nominee "played down the work" of DOGE and "pledged to uphold the law and show deference to Congress."
McMahon also addressed the administration's push to shut down the department. According to the AP:
"We'd like to make sure that we are presenting a plan that I think our senators could get on board with, and our Congress could get on board with, that would have a better functioning Department of Education," McMahon said. But closing the department "certainly does require congressional action."
McMahon said the president's goal is not to defund key programs, but to have them "operate more efficiently." But she questioned whether some programs should be moved to other agencies. Enforcement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, she suggested, "may very well rest better" in the Department of Health and Human Services, an agency that already has oversight of disability issues. The agency's Office for Civil Rights, she said, could fit better at the Justice Department.
Responding to the hearing in a statement, Aissa Canchola Bañez, policy director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, said that "Linda McMahon's testimony was nothing more than two hours worth of gaslighting. McMahon had the opportunity to state clearly and unequivocally that she will protect students, borrowers, and working families across the nation from the chaos that has already ensued as a result of President Trump and Elon Musk's work to make their Project 2025 agenda the law of the land. She did not."
"When asked whether she would abide by a directive by President Trump that breaks a law, her nonanswer spoke volumes. It is clear that Linda McMahon's blind loyalty to President Trump will guide her decision-making should she be confirmed to serve as the nation's highest education official—and our students and communities will pay the price," she cautioned.
Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, an AFT affiliate, was a similarly critical, saying that "today's hearing made clear that Donald Trump is not trying to roll the country back to 1950, he is trying to roll us back to 1850. McMahon's dog whistles, her promotion of segregationist school choice policies, and her boss' commitment to converting civil rights protections into tools to police students are all reversals of what formerly enslaved Africans fought for and created during Reconstruction after the Civil War."
"Donald Trump and whoever becomes his secretary should think twice before dismantling the Department of Education," she continued. "As a social studies teacher, it's incumbent on me to provide a brief civics lesson: We have a system of checks and balances that prevents them from doing so. But more importantly, this isn't an obscure federal office. This is a backbone of the government that millions of families with children in our public schools rely on."
"By continuing to come for our public schools, they are further angering the Black families who count on civil rights protections, the families of children with disabilities who rely on federal standards, the families in poverty who rely on federal support, and anyone who is sickened to see queer and transgender students targeted and bullied by the federal government," she added. "Education is meant to be the great equalizer for our children, not a great investment opportunity for the billionaires ransacking our federal government."
A protester disrups of the Senate confirmation hearing for Linda McMahon, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be secretary of education, in Washington, D.C. on February 13, 2025. (Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
Several protesters interrupted Thursday's hearing, including to express concerns related to the Individual With Disabilities Education Act and the Trump administration's attacks on LGBTQ+ youth.
One lawmaker who took aim at Trump and McMahon during the event—and was publicly thanked by the AFT for doing so—was Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the committee's ranking member.
"In America, we must not allow our educational system to become a two-tier system," Sanders said, calling it "absurd" to provide vouchers for families to send their children to private schools rather than public ones—the focus of a recent Trump executive order.
Sanders also sounded the alarm about using taxpayer money for such vouchers in a four-minute video from his office stressing that "Donald Trump is dead set on destroying public education in this country."
Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog group Accountable.US, warned of the long-term consequences, saying after the hearing that "starving cash-strapped states of critical public education resources is a recipe for generational failure."
"The Trump-McMahon-Project 2025 agenda would leave millions of kids behind and further rig the system against low-income communities," he continued. "McMahon would be just the latest to join the Trump administration's billionaire club, which has made no allusions about its plans to let the wealthy cut to the head of the line while working people wait for the scraps."
Carrk also pointed to her time in the wrestling industry, declaring that "Linda McMahon puts on quite a show of confidence, but her alleged actions knowing about and mishandling the sexual abuse of children at her corporation should give no one confidence that she would enforce Title IX sex discrimination protections as education secretary."
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