Schools, colleges brace for 'a much more threatening political environment'

Educators and university leaders are on the edge of their seats as President-elect Trump makes his return to office with an aggressive posture toward K-12 and higher education.

Trump has threatened multiple times to take away funding from schools if they do not align with his views on subjects such as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and transgender rights.

That threat has left institutions holding their breath as they try to prepare with how to deal the hostility they could face for the next four years.  

Trump has threatened to “tax endowments, impose budget reconciliation, and fine institutions 'up to the entire amount of their endowment' if they are perceived as having promoted 'wokeism,' [which] risks eroding academic freedom, institutional autonomy and the democratic purposes of higher education,” said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities. 

The federal government gives billions of dollars to colleges and universities every year, from grants to research funding to direct financial aid.  

K-12 institutions receive a majority of their funding from state and local governments, while 7.6 percent came from the federal government in the 2019-2020 school year.  

Congress controls the power of the purse, and next year's GOP-majority House and Senate could be amenable to Trump's goals.

“The first Trump administration failed in its repeated attempts to cut student aid and academic research, largely because they were disorganized and poorly educated in the workings of the federal government, but also because of resistance from Congress,” said John Aubrey Douglass, senior research fellow and research professor at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley. 

“Trump and his allies are exploring various ways to withhold federal funding for individual colleges and universities that would be punitive. That could come from a much expanded concept of presidential authority and bills passed by Congress, like the Stop Woke Act already passed by the House,” Douglass added.  

At a campaign rally this cycle, Trump went after multiple elite universities he accused of stifling free speech on campus, saying he would "take away their endowments, and they will pay us billions and billions of dollars for the terror they have unleashed into our once-great country."

The president-elect has also said he would tax the endowments of schools that spend money on racial equity, and a “portion of the seized funds will then be used as restitution for victims of these illegal and unjust policies, policies that hurt our country so badly.” 

He said K-12 schools that teach “critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children” would also see a cut in federal funding.  

With a GOP trifecta in Washington, "there will be a much more accommodating Congress, at least until the midterms," Douglass said. "Democrats can muster filibusters in the Senate, but fights over the budget and bills and procedures meant to accommodate Trump, along with the assumption of unprecedented executive authority, provide a much more threatening political environment for America’s colleges and universities."

And there are some ways to get around Congress when restricting federal money. 

Trump’s Department of Education is likely to change the definition of Title IX as it stands under President Biden and remove language regarding discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. If the department creates rules against allowing transgender students in certain locker rooms or sports teams and schools refuse to comply, one of the punishments for violating the rule could be a restriction in federal funds. 

“I think you'll see an effort to define sex in Title IX as binary and biological," said Bob Eitel, co-founder and president at the Defense of Freedom Institute, adding there could be efforts by the Trump administration "to investigate those school districts and colleges and universities that" go against the mandate.

And there are specific threats to research funding under the second Trump White House, too.

“Although it is speculative, the 'unitary executive theory' offers a path for withholding or impounding federal funds for research in areas thought by the Trump administrators to be antithetical to their political agenda, like climate change. That would likely be a nationwide restriction that, along with threats to drastically reduce funding for infrastructure costs of doing federal research, would create a huge hole in the financial model for research universities.” Douglass said. 

The fluid situation leaves schools in a position of trying to figure out how to prepare without fully knowing what comes next. 

“Institutional leaders are holding their breath but are also doubling down on seeking protections for DACA students, international students, and those most impacted by the removal of DEI offices and programs designed to ensure that campuses are places of welcome and belonging for all students — from first-generation students, LGBTQ students and students of color to veterans and students with disabilities,” said Pasquerella.