The Sandstorm: How Will Trump Handle Education Policy?

Published November 19, 2024

The education establishment is in a colossal snit over Donald Trump’s reelection.

On the college level, Berkeley’s official news outlet published a series of interview vignettes with nearly a dozen professors after the results were in, and they all suggested Trump’s “decisive” victory exposes sinister parts of America’s underbelly.

Additionally, some professors from at least three Ivy League schools—Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia—canceled classes.

According to The Free Press, Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy concocted a “self-care suite” available to students to provide an escape from anxiety about the presidential election. The school reportedly informed students that the suite would be available from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m., where they will have the opportunity to enjoy Legos, coloring, and milk and cookies while visiting the suite.

The response at the K-12 level has been no less unhinged.

Virginia Education Association president Carol Bauer commented that its members may feel grief over the election results. Bauer noted that educators will likely have students coming to them seeking support and answers to “the hard questions.” Bauer warned VEA members that their professions and schools will “come under attack as never before” under the incoming Trump administration.

Bauer also proclaimed, “I know today feels like a dark day for many of you. Questions and doubts are likely swirling through your head, and it will take time to digest what happened and why. That is understandable.”

In California, a high school teacher from Los Angeles County allegedly stormed out of her classroom at the sight of a student wearing a “Make America Great Again” shirt after the election. The teacher said that wearing merchandise supporting President-elect Donald Trump is “a hate crime when worn at school.”

According to several reports, an Advanced Placement history teacher at a California high school was recorded engaging in a profanity-laced anti-Trump rant after Tuesday’s presidential election. Valley View High School’s Maximiliano Perez told his students that “this sh*t [the election] is not a f**king game” as they could “end up in a concentration camp” and “with no human rights” within their lifetimes.

There is also mass hysteria over what many writers have deemed “Donald Trump’s Project 2025,” a  920-page blueprint for the next Republican presidency created by the Heritage Foundation. However, Trump disavowed any connection with Project 2025 in July, calling some of its notions “ridiculous and abysmal.” During his debate with Kamala Harris on Sept. 10, he asserted, “I haven’t read it. I’m not going to read it. This was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas. I guess some good, some bad. But it makes no difference.”

Freakouts aside, what will the effect of Trump 2.0 on education really be?

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