When it comes to education policy, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris not only have a mostly clear vision, they also have a clear track record.
Harris is calling for an expanded role for the federal government and greater investment to improve educational opportunities. President Trump has focused on reducing the federal government’s role in education and relying on states, local governments, and parents to make education decisions and investments.
On the other hand, there are some commonalities, such as the increasing importance of career education and technical education. What follows is a look back at what both candidates have done in education during their tenure.
About higher education
The candidates share concerns about the high cost of higher education. But they have different visions on how to address those costs. As California’s attorney general, Harris won a $1.1 billion judgment against Corinthian University for false advertising. The ruling provides for refunds for students who were misled by claims about job placement rates, programs offered, military affiliation, and more.
While Ms. Harris has pursued misconduct at for-profit colleges, Mr. Trump has focused on fostering innovation by loosening regulations and expanding alternatives to traditional higher education. This includes facilitating the certification of online faith-based commercial organizations.
As part of the Biden administration, Harris has pushed for student loan debt forgiveness. She also voiced strong support for expanding access to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. This follows her co-sponsoring the debt-free college bill as a U.S. senator.
The administration faces a challenge to the constitutionality of the loan forgiveness initiative because under current law, the president does not have the authority to unilaterally cancel debt. Opponents also say debt forgiveness would require parliamentary approval. Critics further argue that loan forgiveness does not address the root causes of rising higher education costs. Loan forgiveness could lead to further price increases if institutions believe that students will care less about the cost of college in the hope that their debts will be forgiven.
President Trump created two organizations to advise the federal government on workforce development and training needs: a council of federal employees and an advisory council of business leaders.
In 2019, President Trump signed a bipartisan bill that permanently provides $250 million in annual federal funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), which had previously been subject to annual renewal.
Harris called for relaxing degree requirements for federal jobs. She also promoted job training programs as an alternative to incarceration in her Back on Track initiative as California Attorney General from 2011 to 2017.
As attorney general and then California senator, she called for greater oversight of advertising by for-profit colleges and debt forgiveness for former students of for-profit colleges. She also supported expanding federal aid to public and nonprofit colleges, including free community college and generous subsidies for HBCUs.
About K-12 Education
Trump’s 2024 campaign platform calls for fundamental changes to K-12 education policy. This includes universal school choice and increased parental control over schools, including the use of education funding to allow parents across the country to attend private schools through vouchers or tax credits if they choose. This includes allowing you to pay the costs of Another feature is that the federal government’s role in education will be significantly reduced. In fact, Trump wants to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Many of these plans, such as direct parent election of principals, are unlikely to come to fruition due to the fact that schools in the United States are primarily under the control of state and local governments.
Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, President Trump expanded the College Savings 529 plan to allow parents to save up to $10,000 a year tax-free for private K-12 school tuition.
President Trump made several other proposals during his presidency that may foreshadow future plans. These proposals include creating a $5 billion federal tax credit for private school tuition, reducing funding for the U.S. Department of Education in its annual budget request, and providing supplements for students in poverty, such as smaller classes and tutoring. This includes the conversion of Title I allocations to services. Block grants to states.
The Biden administration aims to expand federal funding for full-service community schools. Full-service community schools receive additional funding and staffing to address not only the academic needs of their students, but also factors outside of school that impact learning, such as access to health care and healthy food. It is a public school that receives
The Biden administration also expanded Title IX’s sex discrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
As a potential presidential candidate in 2019, Vice President Harris called for federal funding to give teachers an average raise of $13,500, but she has not made a similar call in this campaign.
As California’s attorney general, Ms. Harris led In School and On Track’s truancy prevention efforts, making reducing chronic absenteeism a priority. The initiative included additional funding for school districts and schools to use data to better understand and monitor absenteeism and communicate with parents about the importance of school attendance.
The data- and communication-focused approach evolved from her initial approach as San Francisco District Attorney, which focused on prosecuting truant parents.
About early childhood learning
Neither Trump nor Harris have a track record of concrete action on early childhood education. Although President Trump denies it, Project 2025, created by the former president’s aides, calls for the elimination of Head Start, a federally funded and locally run early childhood learning program that helps low-income families. are.
President Trump introduced several similar proposals to cut child care and development block grant funding by about 5%, but they failed to pass in Congress.
Harris has called for free, universal early childhood education for all 4-year-olds, but the Biden administration has been unable to pass early childhood education proposals through Congress.
Recent research on some universal preschool programs raises questions about how long academic gains from early childhood programs last. But online, evidence from high-quality research on early childhood programs in general and Head Start programs in particular suggests that they improve children’s cognitive skills.
