Blog Viewer

What Do the 2016 Election Results Mean for K–12 Education?

By ASBO USA posted 11-09-2016 13:27

  

The 2016 election results are in, and the Republican Party has taken over the Oval Office while retaining control over the House and Senate. As of 1:00 p.m. this afternoon, President-elect Donald Trump won 279 Electoral College votes and 59,370,253 popular votes to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s 228 electoral votes and 59,595,237 popular votes. Although Clinton received more popular votes, the electoral votes determine the election outcome. While the last few percentages of results are still coming in from several states, the call has been made that Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States.

As for the House and Senate, while the GOP has maintained control of these chambers, their majority leads are slimmer than before. House Republicans managed to mitigate their losses to single digits, which POLITICO notes “was seen as unlikely only weeks ago, as Republicans in tough races rushed to break with Trump” after several scandals emerged. Still, Democrats managed to knock out several House Republicans from their seats. The final tally has 235 Republican seats (218 is needed for a majority) and 191 Democrat seats, with 9 races yet to be called. Meanwhile in the Senate, Democrats had a net gain of only one seat with 45 seats total, and Republicans barely held onto their majority with the minimum 51 seats, while two went to Independents and two have yet to be called.


So what does this all mean for K
–12 education?
How will a Trump Administration and Republican majorities in both the House and Senate affect education policy?

As we’ve noted before, Trump’s positions on education are vague. However, he has expressed interest in downsizing or eliminating the Department of Education’s (ED) role in education policy and expanding school choice programs, and has expressed distaste for teacher unions and Common Core State Standards, all of which may influence his K–12 policy platform. But, Trump has yet to say much on other issues like early education, educator accountability, or even the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), beyond supporting Congress’ intent to return education to local control.

Education Week does note that Trump supports merit pay for teacher performance if they improve student achievement, though. Aside from that, EdWeek says “There are even more unknowns when it comes to Trump and teachers.” Earlier in the year, Trump said he didn’t like the idea that bad teachers sometimes make more than good teachers, but whether he would push for merit pay programs at the federal or state level remains unclear. Center on Education Reform CEO Jeanne Allen told EdWeek that Trump “has made it clear that, except for routing money towards school choice, education needs to be happening locally. No action is good action.” For more information on Trump’s education views, see this infographic.

Also this morning, POLITICO said that Trump’s administration would likely focus on downsizing ED and promoting school choice. “On the campaign trail, Trump echoed many longstanding conservative talking points—all largely aimed at minimizing the federal government's role in education as much as possible,” ranging from “encouraging school choice through the use of federal block grants to transferring the student loan system back over to private lenders.” However some of his ideas, “like scrapping Common Core and ending political correctness on campus, are clearly outside the bounds of what a president can actually do.”

This brings us to the House and Senate election results. Trump would need congressional Republicans’ support to make any of his ideas reality, but many GOP officials also support expanding school choice programs and downsizing ED’s role. POLITICO says that North Carolina Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx, who could become the next chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, supports many of Trump’s views on education and previously said a Trump presidency would be “akin to Heaven on Earth.” POLITICO describes most of his K–12 proposals as “rehashed versions of policies that Republicans have been pushing for years.” That includes Trump’s $20 billion block grant to expand charter and private school options for low-income students and Title I portability, which would allow per-pupil spending to follow students to the school of their choice.

As for shutting down ED, while it’s been a “decades-old conservative talking point,” it is still unlikely. However, downsizing the agency is certainly plausible. Many Trump surrogates have said that he will downsize ED “to an entity that just allocates funding” but there will be no need to retain ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which oversees Title IX enforcement. If OCR is eliminated, there will certainly be major implications for the current administration’s interpretation of Title IX law as it pertains to campus sexual assault and LGBTQ students’ access to public bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identity. Nevertheless, K–12 schools should expect to see a further decline in ED’s and the federal government’s overall role in classrooms, for better or worse. While Trump has not chosen a Secretary of Education for his cabinet yet, some of the names floating around include Ben Carson, Gerard Robinson, Carl Paladino, and Chris Christie, but information is still forthcoming.

Regarding other K–12 issues, Donald Trump made a fleeting reference to building up education infrastructure in last night’s victory speech. He pledged to use his business experience as president, and vowed to “fix our inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, and hospitals.” Plus, his wife Melania Trump, said earlier that she would focus on protecting children from cyberbullying on social media as First Lady. Meanwhile, Trump’s daughter Ivanka has joined her father in highlighting issues about child care affordability. Many questions remain, and we will have to wait and see what’s in store for education in 2017.

0 comments
504 views

Permalink