When I was a child, I looked at college thinking it was a place of knowledge, respect and prestige. Now, as a college student myself going into my third semester, I feel like nothing more than a target in President Donald Trump’s campaign for getting rid of “woke” academics — getting rid of people like me.
Ever since Trump’s presidency began in January, he has signed more executive orders than I can even hope to keep track of. However, one topic keeps reappearing on the list. According to the American Council on Education, 45 out of the 188 executive orders impact and relate to higher education. This includes anything from getting rid of the “woke” curriculum to “saving college sports” from transgender athletes.
The more orders that are signed, the more I fear for the future of academics. Already, education is still suffering from the aftereffects of COVID-19. The last thing this country needs is a president hellbent on destroying anything that isn’t supporting him and his ideology, therefore affecting the educational system and ruining it further.
Trump’s dislike of the Department of Education has been well documented. In an interview at the Oval Office, Trump called the Department of Education “a big con job.”
At a rally in Pennsylvania during his 2024 campaign, Trump said, “I’m going to close the Department of Education.”
And this is one promise he seems intent on keeping.
On March 20, 2025, Trump signed an executive order to dissolve the Department of Education under the title of “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities.”
This order was signed in the interest of returning authority over education to the states, but many states, such as Kansas, are not capable of handling everything left to them or funding aid.
Closing the education department could be catastrophic and ruin many people’s chances of going to college. Not only does the Department of Education help protect students and hold education policies accountable, it helps students find the means and the funding to attend college. FAFSA, where students can access grants, loans and work study opportunities, is a branch under the education department and helps students, like myself, attend college.
While not all American children plan or need to go to college to have a promising future, everyone should have the opportunity and means to access higher education if they want to put in the work to get there. Funding should not be what stops them. Removing the federal Department of Education removes some students’ only means of going to college and potentially jeopardizes their futures and the education of the next generation.
During Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, he called for certifying “patriotic” teachers in K-12 public schools and cutting funds for any schools teaching critical race theory. Critical race theory conceptualizes race as a social construct and racism as a result of the system as a whole, not one person’s prejudice. It is not the anti-white rhetoric Trump seems to believe it to be, and is barely taught in a K-12 setting.
And no, talking about Jim Crow laws and how they were systemically bad is not critical race theory.
These policy points are intended to eliminate any traces of liberal bias and what he considers radical zealots.
The Trump War Room posted a video to X on Jan. 26, 2023, titled “President Trump’s Plan to Save American Education and Give Power Back to Parents” where he laid out his plans.
“First, we will cut federal funding for any school or program pushing critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto our children,” Trump said in the video.
He also calls for firing Department of Education employees deemed “radicals, zealots and Marxists” and creating a new credentialing body that would be the gold standard anywhere in the world to certify teachers who embrace patriotic values support our way of life and understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children.
To sum that all up: abolishing any curriculum or people that don’t agree with him and his right-wing policies. Cutting critical race theory removes thoughtful discussions about race and how it is highly influential in American culture. Firing employees who are deemed different is a form of discrimination, and that doesn’t seem like merit-based hiring to me.
And what does Trump consider inappropriate to discuss sexuality? Would this policy ban husbands from talking about their wives or, a more likely scenario, banning husbands from talking about their husbands? If sexuality is truly considered inappropriate at a school, then all discussions of it should be banned instead of targeting the minority.
I would also go as far to say most teachers and professors understand their jobs are not to indoctrinate students. I grew up in a public school filled with teachers who held their own values and shared them occasionally, and I left high school thinking much differently than most of the faculty and I’m sure many college professors think differently than me.
With this new policy, Trump wouldn’t even be giving children the option to learn about other views, and that is truly terrifying. Keeping children, the future of America, from learning every side is not only wrong but could thoroughly damage the world. Having adults with differing perspectives is healthy and needed for society to progress.
Focusing unnecessarily on getting rid of people who don’t think like him ultimately harms the education students are receiving by removing important content and potentially removing a teacher based on something that doesn’t define their qualification and ability to teach.
Trump’s war on colleges and education is worrisome. He’s not only messing with the department itself, but the education of the people who will soon take over the workforce, the economy, the world itself. I would rather everyone be educated and accepted for their backgrounds and viewpoints than have a hive mind who all think the same.
So break free from Trump’s hive mind and call your congressmen. Show them that education is still important and shouldn’t be ruined because the topics in a classroom hurt one man’s feelings. And never, never stop learning.
