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November 6, 2024
The re-election of Donald Trump is certain to bring a period of conflict, tension and litigation between the White House and California’s political and education leaders whose policies and values the president castigates. It also could potentially have major implications for California schools.
Trump, whose position on education has focused more on cultural ideology than on policies to improve education, has threatened to cut school funding to states, such as California, that protect transgender students and promote diversity, equity and inclusion programs in its schools. He also has pledged to deport undocumented immigrants en masse, a move that would impact millions of California families and their children.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has been a formidable foil to the president in the past, has not released a comment on Trump’s election. An Oct. 18 tweet by Newsom foreshadows the coming tensions between the president-elect and a leading progressive governor and self-appointed provocateur from the nation’s largest and, by some measures, bluest state.
“Donald Trump just said he will take away $7.9 BILLION in school funding from California’s kids if we don’t do whatever he wants. This man is unhinged and unfit to be President,” wrote Newsom.
The $7.9 billion represents the total annual federal K-12 funding for California, about 7% of the total California spending on education in 2024-25, according to the state Department of Finance figures.
California officials preparing
Attorney General Rob Bonta has said that his team has been preparing for possible litigation to stop many of President Trump’s expected policies, including attacking rights and protections for transgender children and youth, mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and ending protections for immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
California has sued the federal government over 100 times over Trump’s past rules and regulatory rollbacks, according to CalMatters.
Bruce Fuller, professor of education and public policy at UC Berkeley, worries that Trump will give tax cuts to the rich paid for by budget cuts in public education.
“The president-elect’s commitment to cutting taxes for affluent Americans means there will be no new funding for public schools,” Fuller said. “Watch out for efforts to expand vouchers and tax credits for well-off parents who opt for private schools.”
Trump proposals often contradict policy
Michael Kirst, former president of the State Board of Education and chief advisor to former Governor Jerry Brown, said there is a contradiction in what Trump proposes and in federal education policy.
“He says he wants to turn control back to locals, but his campaign platform and statements indicate a deep interest in getting involved in local decision-making: having parents elect principals, cutting back teacher tenure and instituting merit pay,” Kirst said. “He wants to examine the curriculum of schools for ‘woke’ ideology.”
The Every Student Succeeds Act, the primary law governing federal education policy, limits federal involvement in education, Kirst said. ESSA bans federal intervention in setting curriculum and federal involvement with teacher evaluations, which will affect Trump’s plan to offer merit pay.
“Some of his aides talk about slashing K-12 spending, but who knows what will happen?” Kirst said. Congress could transfer some funding for schools to create incentives for school choice, but that would require changes in school law, he said.
Student debt relief at risk
Another Trump administration could have far-reaching consequences for Americans with student debt, said Mike Pierce, the executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center, in a statement.
“President-elect Trump’s dark vision for millions of American families with student debt is as extreme as it is unpopular—dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, undoing hard-fought protections for student loan borrowers, driving millions into the open arms of predatory for-profit schools and private lenders, and leaving millions drowning in student debt,” Pierce said. “The threat posed by these plans is real and will imperil the financial stability of millions of working families.”
Deportation promise causing fear
One of the Trump proclamations that has evoked the most fear for Californians is his pledge to deport undocumented immigrants en masse. An estimated 1 million California children – about 1 in 10 – have an undocumented immigrant parent. About 165,000 California students are recent immigrants themselves. In 2016, after Trump’s first election, attendance at schools dropped.
In a call with reporters last week, Newsom said that Trump’s promise to deport undocumented immigrants would be devastating to California’s economy, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“No state has more to lose or more to gain in this election in November,” he said.
Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas said the state would be ready to forcefully protect its immigrant population, which could face major upheaval under Trump’s proposed mass deportation program.
“We’ll do everything we can to ensure that people feel protected and they feel welcomed,” he said, though he declined to discuss specific preparations.
Manuel Rustin, American History teacher at John Muir High School, an early college magnet program in Pasadena Unified said his students have expressed a great deal of concern and angst over what a second Trump presidency might be like, considering the intense anti-immigrant sentiment of his campaign and his promise of mass deportations.
“I expect students today will be very quiet, melancholy, confused, and worried like I witnessed of them back in 2016,” Rustin said. “My plan: Similar to 2016, I plan to hold space for students to safely express their thoughts, reactions, and questions.”
Scott Moore, head of Kidango, a nonprofit that runs many Bay Area child care centers, fears that many of the families he works with will be terrified today.
“What is sad is that today, children will come to Kidango, and some of them will be crying and scared that their parents or a close relative will be taken away from them,” Moore said. “This is what happened in 2016.”
Teachers in the crosshairs
A Trump presidency also could have a big impact on how educators teach and on whether they choose to stay in the profession. Trump has claimed teachers have been indoctrinating children with anti-American ideologies. His solution: create a new credentialing agency to certify teachers “who embrace patriotic values and understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children, but to educate them.”
He also wants to abolish teacher tenure and to give preference in federal funding to states and school districts that support his efforts to do so.
“He will go after teacher associations, backing Democrats, with a vengeance,” Fuller predicts.
Public education and the labor movement are more important than ever, said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers in a statement today. “I do know one thing: Educators, healthcare professionals and public employees will be doing everything they can to make a difference in the lives of the people they serve. And our guiding principle will be to continue to do the work to improve people’s lives: to fight for our children’s future and the promise of America.”
