College presidents brace for Trump 2.0

Nov 25, 2024

Michael Crow | Getty

Arizona State University President Michael Crow last week hosted a media dinner with about a group of college leaders. | Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Concordia Summit

A POST-ELECTION TEMPERATURE CHECK — College presidents are bracing for uncertainty. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to address everything from their accreditation to dismantling the Education Department, but has yet to fill in the details on just how he’ll do it.

— Arizona State University President Michael Crow last week hosted his 37th Annual Higher Education-News Media Dinner-Discussion at the University of Pennsylvania Club of New York City.

Attendees included: University of California Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons; Lewis and Clark College President Robin Holmes-Sullivan; University of Maryland System Chancellor Jay A. Perman; University of Utah President Taylor Randall; College of William and Mary President Katherine A. Rowe; University of Colorado Boulder Chancellor Justin Schwartz; Fordham University President Tania Tetlow; Boise State University President Marlene Tromp; University of California Riverside Chancellor Kim Wilcox; and S. David Wu, president of Baruch College, The City University of New York

Here’s what some of them had to say …

On Trump’s promise to abolish the Education Department:

— University of Colorado Boulder President Justin Schwartz said there is still a lot of uncertainty about the president-elect’s proposal.

“To me, the question on the Department of Education is what happens to all its contents?” he said. “Because so many things in there — even if you didn't have a Department of Education — would still exist in some other form. Like what would happen to the Office of Civil Rights, for example, that has such a big impact on many things that we do?”

— Arizona State University President Michael Crow said the agency is overdue for a revamp.

“The Department of Education is a mismatch of bank feeds that have been cobbled together over 50 years of congressional history or more,” Crow said. “If you look at the United States and our success, we have almost three quarters of a trillion dollars being spent on Pell Grants in the last few decades, and more than half of those individuals have never graduated from college.”

“Most of the people that have loans supported by the government of the United States have no diplomas, no certificates, no degrees of any kind,” Crow added. “Clearly, something is not yet perfected and so what we need is new designs, new models, new ways of doing things.”

On issuing statements on current events:

— Institutional neutrality seems to still be the trend. Fordham University President Tania Tetlow said while she issued a statement to encourage her students to vote, she's not going to issue “any partisan statements at risk of further dividing us” or weigh in on other events that don’t immediately affect her campus community or university mission.

“On the one hand, we have a lot more cover not to issue such statements,” she said. “On the other hand, a lot of what happens is our community — in a sense of vulnerability — wants us as the parent to comfort them and make it all better. And we don't have that power. We have to admit to them that actually no one in Israel is waiting for my foreign policy declarations on cease-fire. They actually don't care.”

On which Trump education proposals have them concerned:

— “My nightmare is linking federal financial aid funding to what we can and cannot teach about diversity, equity and inclusion,” Tetlow said.

“As I look at some of the statutes in the states which are aimed at publics — but there's no reason they couldn't link funding to privates — it has vague language, like the banning of that which inspires collective guilt, which, as a Catholic university, is core to our beliefs,” she said jokingly. “They're so vague in statutes that it would make it impossible to comply, even if you were willing to.”

—”My biggest concern is that they use the accreditation process to manipulate curriculum,” Schwartz said. “Manipulate what we can teach and what we can't teach.”

IT’S MONDAY, NOV. 25. WELCOME TO WEEKLY EDUCATION. Let’s grab coffee. Drop me a line at bquilantan@politico.com. Send tips to my colleagues Rebecca Carballo at rcarballo@politico.com, Mackenzie Wilkes at mwilkes@politico.com and Juan Perez Jr. at jperez@politico.com. And follow us: @Morning_Edu and @POLITICOPro.

Congress

Mike Rounds speaks during a press conference.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 25, 2024. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

ROUNDS UNVEILS BLUEPRINT TO ABOLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT — Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) introduced the Returning Education to Our States Act, S. 5384, to eliminate the agency and redistribute its key functions across the federal government.

Rounds said the department has been ineffective and he is ready to work with Trump and the Republican majorities in Congress to push this proposal forward.

— “The federal Department of Education has never educated a single student, and it’s long past time to end this bureaucratic Department that causes more harm than good,” Rounds said. “This legislation is a roadmap to eliminating the federal Department of Education by practically rehoming these federal programs in the departments where they belong, which will be critical as we move into next year.”

— The legislation would house several programs within the Departments of Interior, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Labor and State.

Programs like the Pell Grant and other federal student aid would be under the Treasury’s purview, and tribal and Native American education programs would move to the Interior. HHS would oversee special education programs, Labor would direct career and technical education programs and the State Department would take on the Fulbright-Hays Program under the bill.

ELSEWHERE IN THE SENATE — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday announced that he will serve as the ranking member on Senate HELP to continue "to fight for a health care system that guarantees that every American can see a doctor, an education system that is affordable to all, and a country in which all seniors can retire with dignity.”

The only thing is … Senate committee rosters haven’t been finalized yet, according to Punchbowl’s Andrew Desiderio.

APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE — When the House and Senate reconvene after Thanksgiving, lawmakers will have less than three weeks before government funding runs out, and the odds of avoiding another fiscal 2025 funding patch are diminishing by the day, POLITICO’s Jennifer Scholtes and Caitlin Emma report.

“I would still love an approps deal. That's probably not possible,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said about striking a final fiscal 2025 agreement before the Dec. 20 deadline.

Want to know what's really happening with Congress's make-or-break spending fights? Get daily insider analysis of Hill negotiations, funding deadlines, and breaking developments - free in your inbox with Inside Congress. Subscribe now.

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STUDENT DEBT

SCOTT PRESSES EDUCATION DEPARTMENT ON DEBT RELIEF — Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) urged Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to finish canceling student debt for those eligible through the Borrower Defense and Public Service Loan Forgiveness programs before the Trump administration takes office.

— “As the Administration winds down its work, I am deeply concerned about the future and whether much of this progress will be undone, ultimately harming student borrowers, particularly those who have already been promised debt relief through Borrower Defense and through Public Service Loan Forgiveness,” Scott wrote. “It is imperative that the Department of Education work to provide relief to borrowers who already received notification of relief under these two programs and work to further provide relief to those who qualify.”

— More than 400,000 Borrowers Defense applications are pending, according to the Government Accountability Office. And, as Scott notes, the federal courts have complicated the path to forgiveness under PSLF for borrowers enrolled in the SAVE Plan.

He also emphasized that the Education Department under the first Trump administration did not continue Obama-era Borrower Defense work and fewer public servants received loan forgiveness under PSLF.

PK-12

TEXAS APPROVES BIBLE-INFUSED LESSONS — The Texas State Board of Education last week voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, the Associated Press reported. The curriculum is optional for schools, but they will receive more funding to implement it. Classroom materials could appear as early as next school year.

— Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has supported the plans and other proponents of the lessons say the Bible is important in American history. Parents and teachers who opposed the curriculum argue that students with other religious views will feel alienated in the classroom.

— The Republican-controlled board’s move is the latest in a trend among red states pressing for some religious presence in public schools. Oklahoma’s education chief Ryan Walters has ordered Bibles to be used in Advanced Placement government classrooms, and Louisiana wants classrooms to display the Ten Commandments beginning next year.

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