Donald Trump doesn’t have a detailed plan when it comes to education policy, but the Republican has spent some time in recent months letting voters know about some of his priorities related to schools.
We know, for example, that the former president has repeatedly vowed to cut off public funds “to any school that has a vaccine mandate.” We also know that he plans to shut down the Department of Education if given a second term.
While we’re at it, we also know that Trump continues to champion school vouchers — what conservatives refer to as “school choice” — and he even briefly endorsed the idea of forcing public school principals to get elected to their positions.
What voters might not know, however, is that Trump is the first major-party presidential nominee in recent history to call for slashing federal investments in education.
In June, for example, the GOP nominee vowed to cut federal spending on education “in half,” conceding at the time that schools in some states “won’t do as well” once he has implemented his agenda. Last week, in an interview with Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow — his former White House employee — Trump went a little further, announcing his intention to cut federal education investments by more than half.
Trump on his education plan: "We want to move education back to the states. We'll spend less than half…if you take a state – Iowa or Indiana or Idaho – states that really run well…35 states, maybe even a little more than that, will be great. Now, Newscum won't do a good job." pic.twitter.com/WQR6256mDY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 4, 2024
As part of the same pitch, Trump added that, by his estimation, schools in 35 states will be fine. Of course, in a nation with 50 states, the Republican seemed to imply that education in roughly 30% of the country would experience some troubles.
To be sure, school budgets mostly rely on local and state spending, the federal government does make some investments that benefit public school districts nationwide, and no major-party presidential nominee in recent history has run on a platform of slashing those investments.
And yet, here we are, watching Trump talk about cutting education spending at least in half while conceding that some parts of his own country would be worse off as a consequence.
If the GOP candidate is under the impression that such an idea will be popular with the American mainstream, he might be in for a surprise.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
