WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is expected to sign a sweeping executive order Wednesday that would prioritize and free up federal funding to expand school choice programs, according to two sources familiar with his plans.
The order is expected to affect several federal departments, including the Department of Education, directing it to prioritize school choice programs through its discretionary grants and issue guidance to states about federal allocations to districts and schools, a senior White House official said
The Department of Health and Human Services would be directed to issue guidance that explains how states receiving block grants for families and children can use that money for faith-based and private institutions, the official said.
It would also direct Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to present a plan to Trump on how military families can use department funds to send their children to schools of their choosing, and it would direct the interior secretary to submit a plan on how students at Bureau of Indian Education schools can take advantage of federal funds for school choice.
CBS News first reported that Trump was expected to sign the order.
Frederick Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank, said the move is “clearly a stark shift in emphasis for Washington.”
“Given the dismal results on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, released today, I’m pleased to see the administration doing what it can to ensure families have access to more and better choices,” Hess said. “While there are significant limits to what’s possible, given statutory constraints and Washington’s modest role in K-12 schooling, it’s notable that the administration is doing what it can to extend the parental choice rather than stymie it — a pattern that was all too familiar during the past four years.”
Derrell Bradford, the president of 50CAN, a nonprofit that supports school choice, said the executive order “is timely, given many governors, families, students and educators across the nation, in all types of schools, are celebrating National School Choice Week right now. I, and I am sure many other advocates at the state level, look forward to seeing the recommendations put forth on this uniquely popular issue.”
The Department of Education announced Sunday that it was marking this week National School Choice Week, highlighting “education freedom” by sharing options for students and families, including public schools, charter schools, private schools and homeschooling.
“School choice empowers parents and guardians to pursue the best learning environment for their children,” the department said in a release. “It allows for innovative schooling models and methods that meet the unique needs of students across the nation.”
Critics of school choice, which provides vouchers to families allowing them to pick schools for their children, argue that it hurts public schools.
Randi Weingarten, president of American Federation of Teachers, said at the group’s annual convention last year that research shows vouchers “negatively affect achievement.”
“Today, vouchers subsidize wealthy families who already send their kids to private and religious schools,” she said. “Privatizers fund those giveaways by defunding and destabilizing public schools.”
Trump campaigned on expanding school choice programs, and during the transition period, his spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said he believed “that school choice is the civil rights issue of our time” and will “ensure all families have access to a great education, no matter their zip code.”
The Senate has not yet confirmed Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Education, Linda McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO and former head of the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first administration.
Source : NBC
