US universities prepare for educational policy overhaul under Trump | Education News

President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly spoken about closing the U.S. Department of Education. Vice President-elect JD Vance has called universities enemy and hostile institutions.

And while Trump's pick for education secretary, Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive, is notable primarily for her lack of apparent education experience, advocates are looking forward to what many believe will be an all-out war on universities under the new administration.

Although the federal Department of Education has been repeatedly threatened, the new Trump administration is unlikely to succeed in shutting it down, as doing so would require congressional approval, including a supermajority in the Senate, which the Republicans have not.

But the president-elect still has the ability to influence the education sector.

Trump has threatened to withdraw accreditation and federal funding from schools and colleges promoting critical race theory, transgender mania and other inappropriate racist, sexual or political content, as he has said. He also pledged to ensure that schools are free from political interference.

But some conservative groups are planning to do just that and hope to use Trump's second presidency to push for a sweeping overhaul of the higher education system, seeking to restrict college autonomy on several fronts, from selection students and faculty recruitment, to what can be done. be taught and how.

Trump is particularly expected to address diversity and inclusion, or DEI, an umbrella term encompassing a broad range of policies intended to ensure equitable access and opportunity for all, especially those who are historically excluded. Conservatives have long derided these policies as wokeism and have rallied around diversity-focused curricula and hiring practices that they say are part of a supposed liberal agenda to sow division and to discriminate against white Americans.

Renovating liberal education

Among the proposals put forward by Trump or his supporters are closing all diversity and equity offices in the federal government and removing chief diversity officers, targeting other offices that have traditionally served underserved groups. represented, repealing diversity and inclusion reporting requirements, and purging policies, regulations, and documents referencing a growing list of terms ranging from privilege to oppression.

President [-elect] Trump talks about entrance exams, exit exams, eliminating accrediting bodies, profit-seeking, deregulation. It goes on and on in terms of ways in which they're actually going to dismantle rather than reform higher education, Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association. of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), told Al Jazeera.

While wanting to get rid of the DEI bureaucracy, they want to create their own illiberal bureaucracy that controls curriculum in a way that would run counter to this uniquely American tradition of liberal education.

It remains to be seen what the new administration's priorities will be, and there appear to be opposing approaches among Trump's advisers, Isaac Kamola, a political science professor at Trinity College whose research focuses on conservative attacks, told Al Jazeera against higher education.

On the one hand, they say the federal government should get out of national education, he said. [On the other]they turn around and say the federal government should actively punish institutions that don't adopt the policies they prefer.

Worried about the prospect of a crackdown but unsure of exactly what form it will take, many university administrations are taking a wait-and-see attitude, says John Aubrey Douglass, a senior fellow at the University of California's Center for the Study of Higher Education. . , Berkeley, told Al Jazeera.

[But the university administrations may not have] a full appreciation of the potential tsunami that could arise amid an expansive redefinition of executive power and a cavalcade of political edicts and threats directed at American higher education, Douglass added.

Some states, like California, are preparing for the new administration by bringing in lawyers in hopes of mitigating attacks on institutional autonomy and threats of mass expulsion, Douglass continued.

But other Republican-led states, such as Texas, Florida and Alabama, have already implemented policies targeting higher education that analysts say will serve as a model for the Trump administration.

An anti-wake-up program

Trump's expected attacks on universities are part of a years-long organized effort by well-funded conservative groups to reshape American higher education, said Kamola, the political science professor.

It is not enough to control what teachers say, they want to fundamentally change institutions so that they teach what political actors prefer, he added.

For his part, Trump has already given a glimpse of what awaits him during his first term.

Following the movement for racial justice that began after the police killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a police officer in 2020, and the conservative backlash that followed, Trump signed an executive order at the end of his first term, seeking to combat racial and sexual stereotypes.

The order was blocked in the courts and President Joe Biden quickly withdrew it, but some conservative states have written similar directives into their laws, reducing classroom discussions about racism and sexism.

Copycat educational gag orders, as these measures are now known, have been introduced in 46 states. Texas led the charge against DEI last year with legislation that forced institutions to close their diversity offices and led to the removal of words like race, gender, class and equity from course names and descriptions .

In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has made tackling diversity and inclusion one of his top issues, signed a bill last year to block federal and state funding for programs promoting DEI in public universities.

DEI is best seen as an advocate against discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination, DeSantis said when he signed the bill. This has no place in our public institutions.

Pasquerella, of the AAC&U, said that when Trump lost the 2020 election, many state legislatures, governors and boards picked up where he left off in terms of intrusion into integrity academic and institutional autonomy.

A wave of state-level legislation has sought to restrict the ability of institutions to make decisions about curriculum, tenure and promotion, shared governance, she said, emphasizing that these prerogatives are fundamental for American higher education, which draws its strength in part from the fact that what is taught, who teaches it, how it is taught, who is admitted, are free from government intrusion and undue political influence.

Under Trump 2.0, the federal government will likely support and strengthen these efforts.

What we expect with the next administration is a resurgence of efforts to restrict training courses or teaching about racism or sexism, Leah Watson, senior counsel for the justice program, told Al Jazeera Racial Policy of the American Civil Liberties Unions (ACLU).

Already, the targeted terminology has expanded to include diversity and inclusion, as well as any references to privilege, oppression, intersectionality, sexual orientation and gender identity, noted Watson.

There's just a large-scale effort to completely censor them in various ways, she added. Once you focus on eliminating these so-called woke ideologies, it really becomes a global thing.

Hold the line

Because diversity and inclusion is a broad term that encompasses a wide range of initiatives, and because its terminology and approaches have been adopted in an equally wide range of contexts, Trump's anti-DEI agenda risks swallow up all kinds of university programs, its defenders warn.

Colleges and universities in the United States have swept up a wide range of student support services under the DEI name, Douglass said, citing services for transfer students from community colleges as an example. Many programs once bore the simple title of educational opportunity programs without the language of equity that seems to indicate an equal distribution of a highly sought-after good, such as admission to a selective college or a professorship, regardless on merit.

Rather than capitulating to conservative demands to dismantle DEI, or overcorrect by cutting programs and policies before they are legally required to do so, universities should not back down, said Watson, of the ACLU.

It is important for them to stay the course on preserving academic freedom that allows professors to teach without government interference, she added, emphasizing that legal precedent is in favor of universities. Students have the right to learn information and they have the right to learn information even when the government disagrees.

This is a very scary time for universities, Watson added. But universities must continue to preserve academic freedom and the right to learn, which are essential to fulfilling their mission.

As universities prepare to fight back, some education advocates have expressed hope that cutting education will not be the first item on the agenda of the new government, which has also pledged to launch a mass eviction campaign on day one and has a long list of actions to take. other policies and agencies that Trump has pledged to target.

Others hoped that the new administration would be too dysfunctional to carry out its ambitious, if destructive, plans for higher education.

It will take time to launch attacks from Washington, Douglass said. And we can expect a lot of chaos in the first year of Trump's return.

What Are The Main Benefits Of Comparing Car Insurance Quotes Online

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / June 24, 2020, / Compare-autoinsurance.Org has launched a new blog post that presents the main benefits of comparing multiple car insurance quotes. For more info and free online quotes, please visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/the-advantages-of-comparing-prices-with-car-insurance-quotes-online/ The modern society has numerous technological advantages. One important advantage is the speed at which information is sent and received. With the help of the internet, the shopping habits of many persons have drastically changed. The car insurance industry hasn't remained untouched by these changes. On the internet, drivers can compare insurance prices and find out which sellers have the best offers. View photos The advantages of comparing online car insurance quotes are the following: Online quotes can be obtained from anywhere and at any time. Unlike physical insurance agencies, websites don't have a specific schedule and they are available at any time. Drivers that have busy working schedules, can compare quotes from anywhere and at any time, even at midnight. Multiple choices. Almost all insurance providers, no matter if they are well-known brands or just local insurers, have an online presence. Online quotes will allow policyholders the chance to discover multiple insurance companies and check their prices. Drivers are no longer required to get quotes from just a few known insurance companies. Also, local and regional insurers can provide lower insurance rates for the same services. Accurate insurance estimates. Online quotes can only be accurate if the customers provide accurate and real info about their car models and driving history. Lying about past driving incidents can make the price estimates to be lower, but when dealing with an insurance company lying to them is useless. Usually, insurance companies will do research about a potential customer before granting him coverage. Online quotes can be sorted easily. Although drivers are recommended to not choose a policy just based on its price, drivers can easily sort quotes by insurance price. Using brokerage websites will allow drivers to get quotes from multiple insurers, thus making the comparison faster and easier. For additional info, money-saving tips, and free car insurance quotes, visit https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ Compare-autoinsurance.Org is an online provider of life, home, health, and auto insurance quotes. This website is unique because it does not simply stick to one kind of insurance provider, but brings the clients the best deals from many different online insurance carriers. In this way, clients have access to offers from multiple carriers all in one place: this website. On this site, customers have access to quotes for insurance plans from various agencies, such as local or nationwide agencies, brand names insurance companies, etc. "Online quotes can easily help drivers obtain better car insurance deals. All they have to do is to complete an online form with accurate and real info, then compare prices", said Russell Rabichev, Marketing Director of Internet Marketing Company. CONTACT: Company Name: Internet Marketing CompanyPerson for contact Name: Gurgu CPhone Number: (818) 359-3898Email: [email protected]: https://compare-autoinsurance.Org/ SOURCE: Compare-autoinsurance.Org View source version on accesswire.Com:https://www.Accesswire.Com/595055/What-Are-The-Main-Benefits-Of-Comparing-Car-Insurance-Quotes-Online View photos