Teacher's unions protest Trump’s executive orders on education while school choice advocates cheer
School choice advocates call Trump's education executive orders "extremely welcome" while unions say the orders help "unaccountable private operators—a tax cut for the rich."
President Donald Trump's recent executive orders on education have caused celebration among school choice advocates, while teacher unions are shouting in protest.
Last week, President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on education, one to support school choice, and another to remove federal funding from K-12 schools that teach critical race theory (CRT).
Fox News Digital reached out to the National Educators Association, the nation's largest teachers union, for comment, but were referred to the union’s press releases.
Becky Pringle, president of the NEA, said in the press release that "educators won’t be silent as anti-public education politicians try to steal opportunities from our students, our families, and our communities across America."
Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.6 million-member American Federation of Teachers, said in a press release on Wednesday that "vouchers go mostly to wealthy families whose kids are already in private school."
"This order hijacks federal money used to level the playing field for poor and disadvantaged kids and hands it directly to unaccountable private operators—a tax cut for the rich. It diminishes community schools and the services they provide," Weingarten added. "It dilutes crucial literacy and arts education grants. It takes an ax to the Department of Defense schools that are a global model for student success. It weakens Bureau of Indian Education schools already struggling due to underfunding and neglect."
AFT was reached for additional comment, but did not respond.
In an interview with CNN on Tuesday, Weingarten said Trump's talk of dismantling the Department of Education is "not legal."
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However, school choice groups and advocates were celebrating Trump's executive orders.
Corey DeAngelis, senior fellow at the American Culture Project and executive director of the Educational Freedom Institute, told Fox News Digital that "President Trump’s executive order puts wind at the sails of the school choice movement. He is showing the American people that he is the leader of the Parents' Party."
"The school choice executive order is a step in the right direction, but there's only so much that can be done through an executive order. It's now up to Republicans in Congress to follow Trump’s lead on school choice by passing the Educational Choice for Children Act," he added. "The bill would supercharge the school choice revolution already happening in red states while expanding education opportunities to families in blue states. Speaker Mike Johnson is a supporter of the legislation, and President Trump said that he would sign it."
Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, told Fox News Digital that schools shouldn't try to "rebrand" DEI.
"Schools better comply with this order, and let's be clear, moms are going to be watching closely to make sure teachers don’t try to rebrand DEI and sneak it back into the curriculum under another name," Justice said. "The enforcement and interpretation of what constitutes 'teaching critical race theory' will lead to different responses across districts."
Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told Fox News Digital that she believes American parents want the reform Trump is bringing to the education space.
"President Trump’s Executive Orders on DEI, CRT, gender ideology, and school choice are extremely welcome news to parental rights advocates across the country," Neily said. "We have been waiting for an administration that treats parents as allies rather than enemies and works to curb the proliferation of leftist political ideology in the classroom, while helping to reorient schools towards their original purpose of teaching students the fundamentals necessary to succeed and thrive."
She said her organization "has spent the last four years documenting and exposing districts poisoning our children’s minds with CRT and other harmful ideologies," and added that she is "extremely hopeful that President Trump and incoming Secretary McMahon will work diligently and expeditiously to rescind federal funding from schools that continue to push these radical ideologies instead of helping students overcome generational learning loss. Districts who push this quackery should be put on notice that their reign of terror is over, and the American public will not be forced to fund the radical indoctrination of students."
Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress Changes (NAEP) show that 40% of 4th graders and 33% of 8th graders are reading below the basic level, and only 40% of 4th graders and 28% of 8th graders are achieving a proficient or advanced level for math. These scores come as Trump is expected to issue an executive order dismantling the Department of Education.
