Jan. 29 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Wednesday aimed at expanding school choice programs as soon-to-be-released results show American students slowly failing.
The order is expected to impact several federal departments in an effort to free up federal money to prioritize funding to expand school programs and offer more choices to parents, CBS News, NBC News and The Hill reported.
It will direct the U.S. Department of Education to prioritize school choice programs via its discretionary grant programs, and to figure how much money to give districts and other schools for its K-12 scholarship programs.
Trump’s nominee for education secretary, former WWE CEO Linda McMahon, has yet to be confirmed to the post.
In his first term Trump called on Congress to open up school choice programs nationwide and campaigned on the issue during November’s election.
It’s expected Trump will further order newly sworn-in Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to form a plan how military families can divert Pentagon funds to send kids to a school of their own choice.
His new order also directs the soon-to-be confirmed interior secretary to likewise submit a plan to Trump on how it can be applied to the roughly 47,000 students in Native American and Native Alaskan students enrolled in Bureau of Indian Education schools.
Meanwhile, former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is awaiting a likely senate confirmation to head the U.S. Interior Department.
The presidential order will arrive on top of results slated to be released Wednesday by the National Assessment of Education Progress that will indicate how 40% of 4th grade students did not meet basic reading levels which was the highest percentage ever recorded.
On Sunday, the Education Department announced it was marking this week National School Choice Week. However, critics argue that school choice with its taxpayer-funded vouchers harm public schools.
The new NAEP data to released Wednesday showed that 70% of 8th-grade students were not proficient in reading and 72% were not proficient in math, and that 4th and 8th-grade average reading scores have continued a downward spiral two points each from 2022.
“Every child deserves the best education available, regardless of their zip code,” the White House said. “However, for generations, our government-assigned education system has failed millions of parents, students and teachers. This executive order begins to rectify that wrong by opening up opportunities for students to attend the school that best fits their needs.”
According to a senior administration official, Trump’s order will empower the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to issue guidance on how states will receive block grants to fund tuition at private and faith-based institutions.
“Today, vouchers subsidize wealthy families who already send their kids to private and religious schools,” Randi Weingarten, president of American Federation of Teachers, said last year.
But research shows, Weingarten added, that school vouchers “negatively affect achievement.”
“Privatizers fund those giveaways by defunding and destabilizing public schools,” she stated last year.
