{"id":2479848,"date":"2025-08-28T08:30:59","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T12:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/back-to-school-looks-different-with-trump-in-the-white-house\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T08:32:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T12:32:37","slug":"back-to-school-looks-different-with-trump-in-the-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/back-to-school-looks-different-with-trump-in-the-white-house\/","title":{"rendered":"Back-To-School Looks Different With Trump In The White House"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fback-to-school-looks-different-with-trump-in-the-white-house%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2479848&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>This summary discusses recent changes in U.S. education policies under President Trump, focusing on the removal of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in schools. Trump&#8217;s administration ordered public schools and universities to eliminate DEI initiatives or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-administration-wants-to-force-public-charter-schools-to-select-students-by-race\/\" title=\"Biden Administration Wants To Force Public Charter ...s To Select ... By Race\">risk losing federal funding<\/a>, prompting some institutions to shut down or scale back their programs. Several states, especially those with Republican leadership like Texas, Florida, and Kansas, have complied by banning DEI in schools and implementing related laws, including parental notification requirements for pronoun use and banning clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Texas has also introduced a large school voucher program to promote private and homeschooling options.<\/p>\n<p>The article contrasts these actions with Democrat-governed states like Illinois, which are lowering academic proficiency standards despite criticism. Additionally, Missouri enacted a ban on personal electronic devices for public school students.<\/p>\n<p>Trump is also restoring the presidential fitness test in schools, which had been discontinued during the Obama administration. This shift aims to emphasize physical fitness and merit in education, addressing growing concerns about childhood obesity and youth unfitness for military service.<\/p>\n<p>the changes reflect a broader cultural and political battle over education priorities, with conservatives pushing for a focus on basic skills and physical fitness, while opposing what they see as liberal ideological influence in schools.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>&ldquo;Back-to-school&rdquo; feels different this year, thanks to President Trump&rsquo;s executive orders that remove diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Trump is also restoring the presidential fitness test that Democrats had removed.<\/p>\n<p>Big-name colleges, <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/education\/5458050-dei-colleges-students-trump-diversity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">including<\/a> the University of Michigan and Columbia University, have shut down or scaled back their DEI centers due to concerns about Trump pulling federal funding from the school. Meanwhile, under Trump&rsquo;s leadership, colleges in red states like Texas, Florida, and Kansas have ended their DEI programs to comply with state laws.<\/p>\n<p>Five months ago, Trump&rsquo;s Department of Education <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/education\/5458050-dei-colleges-students-trump-diversity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ordered<\/a> public schools to eliminate their DEI programs or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/california-city-declares-itself-sanctuary-city-from-federal-overreach\/\" title=\"California City Declares Itself Sanctuary City From Federal Overreach\">lose federal funding<\/a>. School districts for the K-12 level were told to certify that they no longer have DEI programs, while universities were informed they would lose federal funding if they refused to terminate their DEI.<\/p>\n<p>Trump officials gave public schools two weeks to comply. Instead, many blue states ran to federal court to seek an injunction against Trump, and on Aug. 14 federal judge Stephanie Gallagher invalidated and blocked the anti-DEI letters by Trump&rsquo;s Education Department.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Gallagher was initially nominated by President Obama to the federal bench and, possibly as part of an unfortunate compromise, subsequently renominated by Trump in 2018. Her 76-page decision in <em>AFT v. Dept. of Education <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.casemine.com\/judgement\/us\/68a02eba60d7f3b2439877e7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">complained<\/a> that Trump had &ldquo;initiated a sea change in how the Department of Education regulates educational practices and classroom conduct.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>A &ldquo;sea change&rdquo; in education is exactly what Americans wanted when they returned Trump to the White House to focus on teaching basic skills rather than indoctrinating children with a liberal ideology. An appeal of this decision in favor of Randi Weingarten&rsquo;s teachers union is likely.<\/p>\n<p>The percentage of students who are in traditional public schools has declined to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/short-reads\/2024\/06\/06\/us-public-private-and-charter-schools-in-5-charts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">83 percent<\/a>, or about 50 million kids, as parents flee from school failures. <a href=\"https:\/\/edreporteronline.org\/documents\/november2023_article_1.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Homeschooling is growing<\/a> and may increase further with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve online learning.<\/p>\n<p>Effective Sept. 1, a new law in Texas (<a href=\"https:\/\/capitol.texas.gov\/tlodocs\/89R\/billtext\/pdf\/SB00012F.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">SB 12<\/a>) prohibits DEI in public schools there and requires parents to be notified if their child requests to be referred to by a different pronoun. Texas bans school clubs &ldquo;based on sexual orientation or gender identity.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>In May Texas also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2025\/05\/03\/texas-school-vouchers-greg-abbott-signs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">enacted<\/a> an immense school voucher program, which provides $10,000 per student to attend an accredited private school instead of a public school, and up to $2,000 a piece for homeschooled children.<\/p>\n<p>But this program does not begin until fall 2026, and is initially capped at $1 billion. Some conservative legislators from rural Texas who opposed splintering their school system with this were defeated by Gov. Greg Abbott in order to enact this voucher program.<\/p>\n<p>Democrat-controlled Illinois goes in the opposite direction by lowering its proficiency standards without giving families enough options. Trump has threatened to take over Chicago to end the crime epidemic there, and it would be tantalizing if he could take over the Chicago public schools, too.<\/p>\n<p>Even the editorial board of the liberal Chicago Tribune is complaining now about how Democrat politicians are lowering the proficiency standards there. Its Aug. 22 headline shouted, &ldquo;Illinois moves the goalposts on reading, math and science.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Now, scoring an 18 in English language arts and a 19 in math on the ACT will count as &lsquo;proficient&rsquo; for high school juniors.&rdquo; But an 18 is below the national average and far below the score of 30 to 34 that most freshmen at the University of Illinois attain.<\/p>\n<p>Missouri enacted a statewide ban on all personal cell phones, smart watches, headphones, and tablets by public school students, with limited exceptions such as emergencies. School districts and teachers are welcoming this law and its implementation for this school year.<\/p>\n<p>Trump is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.empr.com\/news\/presidential-fitness-test-returns-to-us-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">restoring<\/a> the public school physical fitness testing President Barack Obama ended in 2012, so that students can again be asked to run a mile or do sit-ups and push-ups. For nearly 50 years this test was given to <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >public school students annually<\/a> in gymnasiums.<\/p>\n<p>Obama&rsquo;s termination of the fitness test was part of the harmful shift away from competition and individual merit in education. The Democrat Party has abandoned the vision of President John F. Kennedy, who sought a stronger America and even wrote an essay for Sports Illustrated <a href=\"https:\/\/theleanberets.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/1960-JFK-The-Soft-American-SI-VAULT.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">titled<\/a> &ldquo;The Soft American.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Still, Trump inherits a nation of children who are badly out of shape, obese, and plagued by health problems. At least 20 percent of schoolchildren are obese, according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/nchs\/fastats\/obesity-overweight.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CDC<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.military.com\/daily-news\/2022\/09\/28\/new-pentagon-study-shows-77-of-young-americans-are-ineligible-military-service.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">77 percent<\/a> of young adults are unfit to serve in the United States Armed Forces.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump&#8217;s orders end DEI and restore fitness tests in schools<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3946,"featured_media":2479849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Copy-of-Untitled-2025-08-27T170521.703.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[60311,35136,62159,33800,32127],"class_list":["post-2479848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-back-to-school","tag-education-policy","tag-school-year-changes","tag-trump-presidency","tag-white-house"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Copy-of-Untitled-2025-08-27T170521.703.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3946"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2479848"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2479852,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479848\/revisions\/2479852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2479849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2479848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2479848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2479848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}