Donald Trump Will Be President of the United States…Again

Here's what he’s said about students and education

After months of campaigning, former US President Donald J. Trump is once again the President-elect of the United States of America.

He beat Democratic nominee and current Vice-President Kamala Harris to become the 47^th President of USA.

It might feel like the US elections are really far removed for us Aussies. But we asked 1000 Gen Z’s how they felt about reading about it coming up to the event.

While 33.7 per cent said they were either not interested or don’t want to hear about it, 28.4 per cent felt neutral, and 37.9 per cent felt somewhat interested or interested.

Here’s where he stands on education and student loans.

US student loans.

Trump has previously called Biden’s student-loan-forgiveness-plan an “unconstitutional student loan gimmick”.  

And according to reports released in 2019, the Education department denied debt release to 99 per cent of applications to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

However, during his first tenure as President, they did enact a student-loan payment pause during the height of COVID-19. Trump also extended this pause and waived interest.

He wants to abolish the Education Department.

He has tried to do this before, and he’s once again said he wants to abolish the Department of Education or limit their authority.

Trump previously tried to combine the US Department of Education and Labor into one single agency but this did not happen.

“We will have one person plus a secretary, and all the person has to do is [ask schools], are you teaching English?” Trump said at an October campaign stop in Milwaukee.

“Are you teaching arithmetic? What are you doing? Reading, writing and arithmetic, and are you not teaching woke?

“Not teaching woke is a very big factor, but we’ll have a very small staff.”

Former President Ronald Reagan also wanted to abolish the Education Dept so this is not a new idea from Republican lawmakers.

Title IX.

Trump has previously said he plans to roll back transgender student protections part of Title IX if he was elected President again.

Title IX is a federal civil rights law enacted as part of the Education Amendments of 1972.

It aims to eliminate sex-based discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive US federal funding. 

In 2021, President Joe Biden in an executive order, wrote that “all students should be guaranteed an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, including discrimination in the form of sexual harassment, which encompasses sexual violence, and including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.”

On an appearance on Kayal and Company, a talk radio show in Philadelphia in May 2024, Trump said “we’re gonna end it on day one,”

“Don’t forget, that was done as an order from the president.

“That came down as an executive order. And we’re gonna change it — on day one it’s gonna be changed.”

Header Image: REUTERS