Though President Trump’s new executive order “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” contains many elements that resonate with me philosophically and educationally, I’m having trouble reconciling it with the longstanding statutory prohibition on Uncle Sam mucking with curriculum.
These words, or words like them, have been in Title 20, Chapter 31, of the U.S. Code for as long as I can remember:
§1232a. Prohibition against Federal control of education
No provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, or over the selection of library resources, textbooks, or other printed or published instructional materials by any educational institution or school system.
I wonder if anyone on Capitol Hill remembers that they’re there—and I fear that, within the White House, nobody much cares.
I certainly agree with this part of the EO: “Imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our Nation’s children not only violates longstanding anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases, but usurps basic parental authority.”
And this: “[D]emanding acquiescence to ‘White Privilege’ or ‘unconscious bias,’ actually promotes racial discrimination and undermines national unity.”
I’d definitely favor a “‘Presidential 1776 Award’ to recognize student knowledge of the American founding, including knowledge about the Founders, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitutional Convention, and the great soldiers and battles of the American Revolutionary War.”
And I’d welcome “bi-weekly lectures regarding the 250th anniversary of American Independence that are grounded in patriotic education principles, which shall be broadcast to the Nation throughout calendar year 2026.”
Nor did I think the “1776 Commission” that was hastily assembled at the end of Trump I and rushed out a report—and is being revived via the executive order—was such a bad thing. The original group had some able members and with more time and thought a new assemblage might do better. (Well, it’s possible!)
Still and all, what kids learn in school is not supposed to be Uncle Sam’s business. It’s the work of states, districts, public and private schools, teachers, and parents. It’s no more the job of Washington than prescribing what kids should eat or wear or which programs they should and shouldn’t watch on those interminable screens.
I wrote a few weeks back that that the entering team was schizophrenic as between minimizing the federal role in education or weaponizing it, and that it wasn’t clear which would prevail. That’s still true today. Rumor has it the new Education Secretary, once confirmed, will be tasked with developing a plan to abolish the agency. Meanwhile, however, this executive order is as vivid a specimen of weaponizing as we’re likely to see—well, maybe.
I can name several realms where I’d love to see Uncle Sam getting more aggressive—pushing states, for example, to elevate their academic standards and get serious about results-based accountability. I’d love to see Title I and IDEA get reworked to be compatible with state and local school-choice initiatives (which would mean making their dollars portable in ways they’re not today). And there are a host of education regulations that should be undone. All good.
But school curriculum? The law says that’s a no-no. I’m old-fashioned enough to think that laws should generally be obeyed. Advice and admonition are fine—the bully pulpit can do a lot, and we did plenty back in the late Middle Ages when I worked at ED—but this new executive order appears to cross the line into control. Not a good thing.
