Trump expected to sign executive actions on school choice and school funding, and combating antisemitism
(CNN) — President Donald Trump is expected to sign several executive actions Wednesday that fulfill promises he made on the campaign trail, including on school choice, ending funding for schools that support critical race theory and combating antisemitism, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
In the week and a half since he’s been in office, Trump has signed a flurry of executive actions as he’s sought to remake the federal government and enact his sweeping “America First” agenda, with a particular target on so-called diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“He also will sign executive orders addressing school choice, ending funding for public schools that support critical race theory and other divisive measures in their curriculums. And as for antisemitism, the president will also be signing an executive order to address that as well,” Leavitt said on Fox News Wednesday morning.
CNN has obtained two of the three White House documents on the executive actions expected to be signed Wednesday — for school choice and combating antisemitism.
The action on school choice — an issue that Trump has been pushing for eight years — could be a huge win for conservative activists and politicians who have been advocating for decades to make it easier for families to spend taxpayer funds on private education.
According to the preview from the White House, the action would involve multiple agencies in the effort to provide taxpayer funds to parents to pay for private schools.
Among its directives, the Department of Education – which Trump has vowed to shut down – is ordered to issue guidance on using federal funding to support scholarship programs for grade school students. The Department of Defense is ordered to submit a plan to Trump directly on how military families can use DOD funds to send children to their preferred school. The secretary of interior is ordered to submit a plan to Trump on how families with students attending Bureau of Indian Education schools can use federal money to attend the school of their choice. And the Health and Human Services Department must issue guidance on how states can use HHS funds to attend private or faith-based schools.
Various red states across the country have already passed universal or near-universal school choice policies on the state level — either vouchers that directly send public dollars to private schools or “education savings account” programs that give parents more flexibility on where to spend the money. The Trump administration’s move to allow federal tax dollars to be directed to school choice could supercharge the movement.
But public school advocates and public school teachers’ unions have long been against redirecting taxpayer dollars from public schools to private schools, saying it would harm poorer public schools. Districts have already been dealing with budget shortfalls, in addition to a dramatic reduction in the public school population, which is often a factor in determining how much funding a school district will receive. Public school advocates believe eventually school choice will mean the end of public schools and an increase in education inequity.
As CNN has reported, some of Trump’s education proposals — like eliminating the Department of Education and slashing federal funding for public schools — could hit areas that voted for him the hardest. A CNN analysis found that all of the 15 states that relied most heavily on federal support for their public schools in 2022 voted for Trump, while all but two of the 15 states that received the least federal dollars as a percentage of their overall revenue voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.
But one source with a teachers’ union expressed some skepticism on the overall impact this order would have, pointing to how unpopular school choice has been with some voters who have rejected these policies on a state level.
An additional expected executive action will end funding for public schools that support critical race theory and “other divisive measures in their curriculums,” according to Leavitt. Republicans have seized on critical race theory — which seeks to understand and address inequality and racism in the US — as a political issue to argue that the left is out of touch with Americans’ priorities.
Combating antisemitism
The action to combat antisemitism will call on the federal government to cancel student visas for what the White House calls “Hamas sympathizers” on college campuses, according to a White House document.
On the campaign trail, Trump railed against pro-Palestinian student protests, which broke out in response to Israel’s military response in Gaza after Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
The Republican National Convention’s 2024 platform pledged to “Deport Pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again,” sparking uncertainty about the future among international students.
The-CNN-Wire
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