Since the Presidential election on November 5, 2024, many are wondering how President-Elect Trump’s second term in office will affect education. It’s impossible to know at this point which policies discussed on the campaign trail will come to fruition. That said, it’s worth reviewing key policy issues that could directly or indirectly impact Wisconsin schools.
The U.S. Department of Education
The U.S. Department of Education (DoE) was created by Congress in 1979. During his campaign, President-Elect Trump proposed dismantling the DoE. Late last week, Senator Mike Rounds introduced the “Returning Education to Our States Act” – a bill that would “abolish” the DoE, transfer certain DoE programs and responsibilities to other federal agencies, and allocate funds for K-12 and higher education. The formula for calculating each state’s allocation for K-12 education is based on enrollment numbers.
Under the bill, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice would be responsible for enforcing Title IX (discrimination based on sex), Section 504 (discrimination based on disability), and Title VI (discrimination based on race). The DoE’s responsibilities under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) would be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services.
This is not the first time legislation dismantling the DoE has been introduced. In February 2023, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by U.S. Representative Thomas Massie from Kentucky. The bill, which is only one sentence long, states, “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2023.” The bill was never voted on by the House of Representatives. Sen. Massie recently told news outlets that he intends to introduce an identical bill (with the date updated) in the first few weeks of the next Congressional Session.
President-Elect Trump’s pick for Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, has not publicly addressed the proposal to abolish the DoE. Since her selection was announced, there has been speculation that reducing the federal government’s role in Education will be a priority, regardless of whether the DoE is dismantled.
Title IX
The Biden Administration’s changes to the Title IX regulations took effect on August 1, 2024. Under the new rules, sex discrimination under Title IX expressly includes discrimination on the basis of gender identity, sex characteristics, and sex stereotypes. In many school districts across the state, whether to adopt a policy complying with the new Title IX regulations was a controversial decision. Now, it is unclear if Title IX will change yet again under the Trump Administration.
It’s likely that President-Elect Trump will seek to change the 2024 Title IX regulations once he takes office, however, doing so is a lengthy process that includes a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) and a public comment period. When the Biden Administration took action to replace the regulations from the first Trump Administration, the NPRM was issued on July 12, 2022. The DoE received over 240,000 comments in response to the NPRM. The final regulations were not released by the DoE until April 29, 2024.
While we can try to predict the next round of changes to Title IX, what we know for certain is that the 2024 Title IX regulations are in effect for now, as are controlling federal court rulings regarding the scope of Title IX’s protections. Complaints alleging noncompliance with the 2024 Title IX regulations have been filed against a handful of Wisconsin School Districts.
The future of the DoE and Title IX will be of critical importance to school districts. Another topic that played a central role in President-Elect Trump’s election was immigration policy. A more in-depth discussion of immigration-related considerations of potential impact on Wisconsin’s schools will be Part Two of this update regarding what to expect with a new administration.
