Now that the election has ended, Donald Trump faces new challenges. He must assemble a team, choose a direction, and begin to govern. During his long campaign, he gave a few hints as to how he might change federal education policy.
On Wednesday, Trump announced his nomination of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education. Devos previously led the American Federation for Children, which promotes choice in K-12 education. It’s unclear, however, which higher education policies she will pursue.
Trump’s policy advisor mentioned a few ideas early on in the campaign. One would give “skin-in-the-game” to universities that accept students receiving tuition loans. Such a move would compel colleges to share some of the risks of such loans. The advisor also suggested moving the Office for Civil Rights from the Department of Education to the Justice Department.
And Trump—who has business experience with for-profit universities and the problems that can accompany them—may move to change the way the Education Department treats such entities. There may, perhaps, be a push to abolish some of the regulations that judge for-profits on their graduates’ employment rates and to reform the accreditation that such schools need to operate.
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