How are Trump’s education actions affecting your school?

Students look up at their teacher and the lesson projection on the screen. The words “EVERYONE HAS A STORY” hang high on the classroom wall.
President Donald Trump's executive actions on education include efforts to change how some schools approach American history, race, gender, and other complex topics. (Jamie Kelter Davis for Chalkbeat)

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President Donald Trump has taken a series of executive actions in his first two weeks in office that aim to change how schools deal with politically and socially sensitive topics.

Trump wants to end practices associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion and root out what he considers “radical indoctrination” in schools. He has cleared the way for immigration enforcement near schools. He also has declared that there are only two genders, male and female, that cannot be changed, and his administration has said it will enforce Title IX through that lens.

Executive actions first and foremost direct federal agencies to make plans and interpret the law in certain ways. But they also send a message about the administration’s intentions, and in some cases, they include threats to withhold funds from states and school systems that don’t comply. Many of these executive orders are being challenged in court.

We want to better understand what teachers and parents think about Trump’s approach and whether any changes are happening at the school-level in response to executive orders. Has your school adopted a new policy or scaled back a practice that might run afoul of these executive orders? Or is everything business as usual?

Please take our short survey below — feel free to skip questions that don’t speak to you. If you prefer to communicate directly with us, you can send a regular text message to (908) 827-1448 or use the Signal app to send an encrypted message.

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Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.


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