What students believe is at stake in a second Trump presidency

How President-elect Donald Trump’s educational platform could affect students.

By Sheridan Hunter

November 19, 2024 at 7:27PM PST

President-elect Donald Trump vowed to abolish the Department of Education as part of his educational platform, raising questions for college students about the futures of their educational plans.

Trump has yet to make any specific guarantees about what would happen to the federal funding schools and students receive, or what would come of federal student loan assistance programs.

“This is going to be my last master’s degree if he does away with the Department of Education,” said Misa Narrates, a creative artist, consultant and graduate student documentarian at USC Annenberg. “How else am I going to be able to access [federal] loans until he figures out a plan?… Does he understand the plan himself? I don’t know. We don’t know. Find out on the next episode of Trump’s presidency.”

Michael Anderson, a sixth year doctoral candidate at the UCLA Department of Education, said the problem didn’t start with Trump.

“The Republican Party has been trying to destroy the Department of Education since we started the Department of Education,” said Anderson. “It’s also part of the centrist Democrats.”

Anderson said the Biden administration should have done more to keep student loan forgiveness in place after its first plan was struck down by the Supreme Court last year.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding college financial aid, Republicans’ newfound control over the House of Representatives and Senate could allow for substantial nationwide changes to the American education system.

Trump announced Tuesday that his long-time supporter Linda McMahon, the former administrator of the Small Business Administration and chair of America First Action, is expected to be nominated for secretary of the Department of Education. Her views on some of Trump’s promises to cut programs are still unknown.

Narrates warns that Trump’s specific plan to cut funding for schools described to “‘push’ critical race theory and gender ideology on children” will have grave impacts on future generations.

“Little Timmy should be allowed to engage the truth in ways that allow him to have hope for a future,” Narrates said. “So if you want to ban critical race theory, Little Timmy can never learn about hope for a future because he won’t understand race at all.”

“I believe now more than ever, the arts need to be protected because the arts are directly under threat,” Narrates continued. “You cannot study feminism, you cannot study women’s studies, you cannot [even study] history during a time where people are actively trying to rewrite it.”

For Anasazi Ochoa, a graduate journalism student at USC Annenberg, Trump’s plan to abolish the Department of Education hits close to home.

“I’m a product of the public school system,” said Ochoa. “Both of my parents are teachers. My grandmother is a retired administrator, teacher turned administrator, [and] I’m just really fearful for the future.”

In Ochoa’s eyes, a second Trump presidency means an end to the few resources that already exist for students.

“Talking about free lunch, you know, some kids, that’s their only meal of the day,” said Ochoa. “The resources that are needed for them to succeed are being taken away.”

When it comes to the future of education under Trump’s administration, Ochoa empathizes most with students who will be negatively affected.

“Parents should feel like their [children] are being taken care of when they drop them off at school,” said Ochoa. “It makes me sad to think that education for all students, in all the ways that they need to be supported, is not being supported by the incoming administration.”