President Donald Trump signed two executive orders this week directing federal agencies to end “radical, anti-American” ideologies in schools that receive federal funding and also ordered them to expand school choice freedom for parents.
President Trump’s executive order for “Ending Radical Indoctrination In K-12 Schooling” is a sweeping move to help fulfill his campaign promise to “save American education.” The order bars federal funding for public schools that teach “discriminatory equity ideology,” which the administration defines as “an ideology that treats individuals as members of preferred or disfavored groups, rather than as individuals, and minimizes agency, merit, and capability in favor of immoral generalizations.”
The order reads, “In recent years … parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight. Such an environment operates as an echo chamber, in which students are forced to accept these ideologies without question or critical examination.”
The order is designed to restore critical thinking and root out divisive topics like critical race theory and gender ideology.
“In many cases, innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics. In other instances, young men and women are made to question whether they were born in the wrong body and whether to view their parents and their reality as enemies to be blamed,” the order stated.
“These practices not only erode critical thinking but also sow division, confusion, and distrust, which undermine the very foundations of personal identity and family unity,” the order continued.
The order further illustrated America’s need for educational reform because the status quo demands “acquiescence” to ‘white privilege’ or ‘unconscious bias,’ steers children toward surgical and chemical mutilation without parental consent or involvement, and allows males access to private female spaces.
“Imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our nation’s children not only violates long-standing anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases, but usurps basic parental authority,” the order stated.
As such, the order directs the Secretaries of Education, Defense, and Health and Human Services to consult with the Attorney General to provide an “Ending Indoctrination Strategy” in the next 90 days with the goal of eliminating federal funding for schools that teach “discriminatory equity ideology.”
The order also reinstates President Trump’s 1776 Commission established during his first term, which had been rescinded by Joe Biden. The order aims to create a “patriotic admiration” for the nation among students through American History and civics instruction as part of a “patriotic education,” which it defines as “an accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling characterization of America’s founding and foundational principles.”
President Trump signed another executive order this week in line with his education agenda that expands school choice and strengthens parental authority. The order, titled “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families,” declares it is United States policy to “support parents in choosing and directing the upbringing and education of their children.”
The order directs the Secretary of Education to make “education freedom a priority” when distributing federal grant money to K–12 schools to open up more educational choice opportunities. The order also proposes enabling low-income and working families, military families, and children eligible for the Bureau of Indian Education Schools to use federal funding to attend “the private, faith-based, or charter school” of their choice.
“When our public education system fails such a large segment of society, it hinders our national competitiveness and devastates families and communities,” the order reads. “For this reason, more than a dozen States have enacted universal K-12 scholarship programs, allowing families — rather than the government — to choose the best educational setting for their children. These States have highlighted the most promising avenue for education reform: educational choice for families and competition for residentially assigned, government-run public schools. The growing body of rigorous research demonstrates that well-designed education-freedom programs improve student achievement and cause nearby public schools to improve their performance.”
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “President Donald Trump’s executive orders recognize that corrosive ideologies have no place in schools and that parents have the right to direct the education of their children. This is another major and welcomed policy shift that reorients the nation back to protecting and properly nurturing its young generation.”
