Trump to Sign Major School Choice Executive Order That Could Upend the Public School System

After an avalanche of executive orders to kick off his new term, President Donald Trump doesn’t plan on stopping as he puts education in his sights.

CBS News reported Tuesday that Trump is expected to sign an executive order Wednesday that will allow federal funding to go towards school choice.

CBS listed several aspects of the order, including directing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to submit a plan for how military families can use available funds to send their children to schools they choose.

It also directs the Department of Education to prioritize school choice with grant programs and instructs the Department of Human Services to help states determine how federal block grants can be used for faith-based schools.

In a post published on the social media platform on Tuesday, Trump saluted Tennessee lawmakers for passing supporting school choice legislation, and touted his own plans to improve education in the country.

“It is our goal to bring Education in the United States to the highest level, one that it has never attained before,” Trump wrote.

If the National Assessment of Education Progress for 2024 is any indicator, there is a lot of work to do here.

CBS stated this upcoming report will show 40 percent of fourth-graders aren’t meeting reading levels.

This is the highest percentage ever reported, according to CBS, while fourth-graders and eighth-graders are becoming less proficient in reading.

A massive 70 percent of eighth-graders were not proficient in reading and even more, 72 percent, were not proficient in math, according to CBS.

To provide a summary of the issue at play here, school choice is parental choice.

In an April 2023 primer on the issue, U.S. News and World Report quoted Amy Smith, interim dean of the school of education at Minnesota’s University of St. Thomas, as giving the following definition:

“At its core, school choice is really about parents and guardians having the ability to choose, regardless of how those options are funded.”

Parents — ideally — want the best for their children. Sometimes that isn’t what the state puts in front of them.

Clearly from the NAEP’s upcoming report, the next generation is not being equipped for the future.

If Trump actually wants to make America great again, the next generation needs the tools to achieve greatness.

Apprehension over school choice partly stems from a fear that the government will exert excessive influence over those schools wishing to receive funding, but funding should be tied to the student and what decision a family makes, not the school directly.

There are plenty of other considerations that fuel this debate, but the numbers don’t lie. What we’re doing now isn’t working.

“Every child deserves the best education available, regardless of their zip code,” the planned executive order states, according to CBS.

“However, for generations, our government-assigned education system has failed millions of parents, students and teachers. This executive order begins to rectify that wrong by opening up opportunities for students to attend the school that best fits their needs.”

Clearly, the public education system needs to be completely upended. Trump’s planned executive order is a step in that direction.

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