Pass or fail: How Trump’s education plans could impact Michigan kids

• President-elect Donald Trump is vowing big changes to K-12 and college education policy
• Among his threats: Dismantling the US Department of Education and punishing universities for diversity, equity and inclusion programs
• The proposals have serious educational implications for Michigan kids and young adults

LANSING — President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t yet reentered the White House but has already promised massive changes to the national education system that could have extreme consequences for states like Michigan.

Some Michigan officials and policy experts are championing Trump’s proposals as a much-needed effort to remove bureaucratic bloat, while others fear broad repercussions to early education programs, anti-discrimination protections and university operations. 

But whether Trump will be able to follow through on his promises is an open question — particularly his pledge to dismantle the US Department of Education entirely, which other Republican presidents have also vowed to do since it was first established in 1979. 

“Ronald Reagan promised to eliminate the DOE, too, and he got elected just after it was created,” said Michael Van Beek, director of research at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “The opportunity was ripe then … and he didn't."

Trump has yet to tap a new education secretary but has made several policy ideas clear on the campaign trail — from how special education services are administered, to who qualifies for free preschool to how universities receive accreditation.

Here’s what those plans, if enacted, might mean for Michigan, where K-12 students have struggled to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and have consistently performed worse on standardized tests than peers in other states. 

Targeting bureaucracy

It would take an act of Congress to completely dissolve the federal Department of Education, a promise that not only Trump has made, but one that’s highlighted in the national Republican Party's 2024 platform.

While its a politically complicated proposal, Trump is reentering Washington with a Republican-led US House and US Senate, which could make the push easier. 

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Still, experts are split on if Trump will actually eliminate the department, which is responsible for distributing school funding to states, administering federal student loan programs and enforcing students’ civil rights protections.

“They don’t want a lot of these programs actually cut,” said Josh Cowen, a professor of education policy in Michigan State University’s College of Education. “But what they do want is to get rid of the oversight.”

To him, that means things like special education programming and the early childhood education program Head Start will likely be spared from the financial chopping block. But others — like diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives or funding for LGBTQ services — likely aren’t as safe. 

The administration isn’t “worried about being mistaken for being anti-LGBTQ,” Cowen said, but is instead worried about “being mistaken for cutting programs that help rural communities for Republican members.”

Proponents of abolishing the department say the federal government could still fund schools, but do so more efficiently with fewer bureaucratic requirements for schools and state agencies that do compliance work. 

Beth DeShone, executive director of the Great Lakes Education Project, which advocates for school choice policies, said block grants would give states more flexibility on how to spend the federal money. 

If the department was actually eliminated, “I think it’s going to make nothing but a positive difference for folks at the state and local level,” DeShone said.

Former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who served under Trump but resigned over his "rhetoric" during Capitol riots, has long advocated for abolishing the department as part of a push to let funding to follow students to any school of their choice, including private schools, which Michigan voters previously rejected.

Once Trump names a new education secretary, it should become more clear how serious he is in moving to dismantle the agency, or if his pick will be “a headhunter” responsible for cutting costs where they can, Cowen said.

Some state officials are skeptical of Trump’s plan as well. 

State Superintendent Michael Rice called it an “unserious idea that fails to recognize” the federal department’s already limited role. “States and local school districts are largely responsible for public education in the country,” Rice said in a statement to Bridge. 

Early childhood, preschool programs in limbo?

Eliminating the federal Head Start preschool program — which provides educational services to low-income families with children age 5 and under — is a core component of the conservative policy blueprint Project 2025. 

Trump disavowed Project 2025 on the campaign trail but has continued to keep architects of the proposal close.

It’s unclear what ending the federal program would mean for Michigan, which has its own Great Start Readiness Program that allows most 4-year-olds throughout the state to attend preschool for free. 

The Michigan program uses state funding, but it also interacts with Head Start, which includes preschool and other services for families with low incomes. 

Van Beek, director of research at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, is skeptical that an elimination of Head Start would have a large impact on Michigan families. 

Michigan’s most recent state budget expanded the number of pre-K spots available in Great Start to just under 60,000 kids statewide, something Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer touted as providing “access to free pre-K for every 4-year-old.”

Speaking with Bridge on Wednesday, Van Beek noted that if a family is eligible for Head Start, “then they are also eligible for Great Start … so they wouldn’t necessarily lose free preschool.” 

An estimated 9,700 Michigan students were enrolled in the federal Head Start program in the 2022-23 academic year, though that data is skewed slightly because some children can be enrolled in multiple programs simultaneously.

When pushed on if Michigan has the infrastructure to move all Head Start students to the Great Start program, Van Beek paused before acknowledging that “it would be a challenge.” 

Cowen, the MSU education professor, believes that members of Congress who may not have spent a lot of time thinking about Head Start will push back when they realize their districts would lose funds. 

Like other education overhaul proposals, Cowen is not convinced Trump would simply eliminate Head Start funding, suggesting the administration would be more likely to “put it all in grant form and send it to the states.”

LGBTQ anti-discrimination protections at risk

Trump has vowed to end what he’s called “transgender insanity” in schools, suggesting his administration will choose to remove anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ students — who in Michigan would still be covered by the state’s civil rights law. 

Previous administrations have changed rules related to the federal Title IX law, which offers protection from sex discrimination in K-12 schools and colleges. President Joe Biden’s administration expanded the guidance to include protections for sexual orientation and gender identity.

It’s likely the Biden-era guidance will be rolled back once Trump takes office, said Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan’s LGBTQ+ Project. 

What that meant moving forward, Kaplan didn’t know, “and that’s what’s so unsettling about all of this.” 

“No one really knows,” Kaplan said, whether Trump will make good on threats to slash federal funding for schools that teach — in Trump’s words —“critical race theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.”

Several states are already unable to enforce the new version of Title IX because of court decisions. Michigan is not categorically stopped from using the new Title IX rules, but many schools in the state cannot because of court rulings. 

Liz Abdnour, a Michigan-based education lawyer, said it’s unlikely that those states will ever be allowed to enforce the Biden-era rules, and it’s possible that under Trump, the remaining states won’t have to either. 

Trump will have control over judicial appointments to federal courts. But Abdnour said it’s important to remember that just because a judge is appointed by Trump doesn’t mean they’ll side with him in every case.

If the Department of Education is dissolved completely, Abdnour said she is unsure what government body would even be in charge of rewriting Title IX rules. 

Special education protections uncertain

Calls to abolish the US Department of Education have also prompted some concern among special education advocates, who fear what losing the federal agency could mean for state services. 

There are nearly 207,000 students in Michigan who receive special education services. 

Students with disabilities have protections under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Families who believe their rights were violated have various options for where to file their complaints: the Michigan Department of Education, federal court or the federal Department of Education. 

Abdnour said she thinks it’s unlikely that Congress will change those laws ahead of the 2026 midterms. 

“None of this has anything to do with the executive branch of the government,” Abdnour said. “Or really, in any short term way with the legislative branch. It’s all going to go through either the state administrative agency or ultimately if a due process hearing decision is appealed, through federal court.” 

School districts receive federal funds for special education. Abdnour said if the federal department is dissolved, she does not know where the funding would go or how the money would be distributed to schools. 

Heather Martinez, executive director of Boldli, formerly the Detroit Institute for Children, which provides therapists and educators to schools, told Bridge she expects reduced state and federal funding for special education over the next few years — in part because federal pandemic relief funds have run out. 

She said she also anticipates funds being divested away from traditional public schools. 

Fighting the ‘radical left’ at colleges

While higher education did not receive much policy attention in Trump’s first term, the President-elect has since signaled he plans to move on the subject once back in office.

One possible plan, Trump said in July, is to remove those currently tasked with approving academic standards at universities — a process known as accreditation —and replace them with people “who will impose real standards on colleges … once and for all.”

“The time has come to reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical Left, and we will do that,” Trump, an Ivy League graduate himself, said, vowing to crack down on “Marxist maniacs infecting” colleges. 

The Justice Department could also pursue schools engaging in “unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity,” and those schools would have their endowments taxed and fined “up to the entire amount of their endowment” if found in violation, according to Trump.

That may not hurt some of Michigan’s largest institutions too badly, because schools like the University of Michigan and Michigan State University take in enough money that they could theoretically survive a hefty endowment tax due to revenue they take in elsewhere. 

But smaller schools are likely looking at some pain should Trump follow through, said Cowen, the MSU education professor. 

He pointed to Central Michigan University, which boasts the second-largest in-state teacher preparation program, as an example of an institution that might be at the mercy of following a Trump-back policy change should the president-elect weaponize accreditation.

The university, which financially benefits from its teacher training program, has struggled with enrollment for several years but has recently seen an uptick in first-year student attendance. 

If the Trump administration decides to institute mandatory policies and strip funding if they are not followed, schools like Central “are not going to be able to just throw all that progress away on a principled stand on, say, interventions against social justice curriculum,” Cowen said.

Michigan received roughly $3,950 in federal funding per student for its public postsecondary institutions in 2024, according to Education Data Initiative researchers who compile and statistics on the US education system. 

Per that same data, the state’s public colleges and universities spend about $32,200 per student — one quarter of which goes toward instruction.

Doing away with the federal education department could impact schools receiving those dollars, especially when it comes to grant funding. 

But Cowen is again skeptical Republicans will actually follow through on the proposal, noting that regardless of party affiliation, politicians “love to trumpet funding that goes to universities in their districts.”

“I don’t see that dynamic going away,” said Cowen, adding that while he believes the Trump administration “is going to be constrained” when it comes to taking on public universities and what they can teach, “certainly, a chill has been cast in the air surrounding issues of inclusion.”