President Donald Trump’s issuance of a flurry of executive orders during the first few weeks of his second term addressed education in a big way. One of these EOs strikes down radical woke indoctrination in America’s school system, including anti-Americanism, racial propaganda, and gender ideology.

Among the many pro-family groups cheering Trump’s actions, Libs of TikTok enthused: “For far too long, woke activists have been allowed to infect our school systems.... Trump aims to dismantle anti-American propaganda being fed to your children and to provide them with a rigorous education.”

The Libs expressed hope that the Trump Administration will restore the teaching of “patriotism and admiration for our country and the values for which we stand,” adding that this EO “also eliminates race-based discrimination including the promotion of CRT and DEI principles which divide people into groups by labeling them as ‘the oppressed’ or ‘the oppressors.’” The EO further “seeks to eradicate the dangerous gender ideology which has led to the destruction of girls’ sports, the sexual grooming of children, and the mutilation of healthy bodies [and] genitalia....”

As an example of the racist instruction currently in vogue, Libs of TikTok exposed a lesson promoted by the California teachers’ union (CTA), which encourages teachers to instruct white children that they are all racists and white supremacists.

The lesson uses a pyramid structure to divide alleged white racism into two parts. A small top section of the pyramid lists various examples of “Overt White Supremacy” that would universally be deemed “Socially Unacceptable.” These include “lynching, hate crimes, neo Nazis, burning crosses, racial slurs and jokes,” among other provocative and extreme examples. The much larger portion of the pyramid addresses what the lesson calls “Covert White Supremacy,” which it claims is considered “Socially Acceptable” in our racist society. This section includes almost anything CRT agitators might dream up: “White Silence, Color blindness, Make America Great Again, School-to-Prison Pipeline, Denial of Racism, Police Brutality,” and several dozen more examples, one or more of which allegedly apply to all white people.

In ordering the removal of such indoctrination, this executive order “also reinstates the 1776 Commission, which was implemented during Trump’s previous term but was removed under an executive order by President Joe Biden,” according to a report by The Epoch Times.

The 1776 Project was created in 2018 by the 1776 Commission “to help RESTORE our constitutional republic.” During the first Trump Administration, the Commission created The-1776-Commission-Report, the purpose of which, in its own words, was “to enable a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in 1776” ... This requires a restoration of American education, which can only be grounded on a history of those principles that is “accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling.” (See Education Reporter Email Edition, February 2021.)

The 1776 Commission’s report was “a direct response to the 1619 Project,” which portrayed the United States as an inherently racist nation and claimed that the main reason for the American Revolution was to preserve slavery. The 1619 Project was a product created by activists in partnership with the New York Times, and much of its content was later debunked by actual scholars of American history. Nevertheless, it stimulated the proliferation of CRT, and has been widely used as credible history in many U.S. schools.

Hiding CRT and DEI

Many observers agree the Trump EO is just the beginning, and much work needs to be done. The Libs of TikTok pointed out that “schools and organizations across the nation will attempt to challenge or defy this major change. Some will attempt to hide their intentions while others will openly oppose and violate it.”

Their concern is well founded. The University of Michigan, for example, plans to continue its DEI programs under the new title of “Office of ‘Community Culture.’” The Washington Free Beacon reports that after the president issued his executive order, the university’s school of nursing “began quietly revamping its website.” A tab with links to DEI resources was removed, and the acronym was expunged from pages that previously included it. The Beacon provided screen shots of the newly revamped web pages.

The news source further found that, rather than downsizing “a bureaucracy that employs more than 200 officials and has cost the university nearly $250 million since 2016,” the new web pages simply “link to the same DEI materials as the old ones, including a ‘DEI 2.0’ strategic plan that is in effect through 2028.” The renamed office of “‘Community Culture’ employs all the same staff as the former diversity office.”

The university’s plan whines: “[W]e are aware that we are up against many forms of oppression. Given this context, and during this next DEI 2.0 period, the [School of Nursing] remains committed to mobilizing the incredible strength and potential of our School.”

Although the new administration appears to be cognizant that many schools will attempt to implement what the Beacon called “such switcheroos,” the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) “created a tip line to report efforts to ‘disguise these programs by using coded or imprecise language,’ adding that ‘failure to report this information ... may result in adverse consequences.’”

Promotion of school choice

President Trump’s second education executive order titled Educational Opportunities for American Families prioritizes “educational freedom” across all areas of the government, including the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Defense (on behalf of military families), and the Department of the Interior (on behalf of native Americans). The goal is to expand choice programs for all American children.

The EO “directs the Department of Education to issue guidance on how the States can use federal funding formulas to support their K-12 scholarship programs.” This order would appear to dovetail with the president’s intent to return the responsibility for education to the states.

But some observers worry that Trump’s EOs may be flirting with violation of the U.S. Constitution. FEE’s Kerry McDonald noted in a recent email to supporters that “the Constitution gives the feds no authority to govern education,” a point that the president himself has repeatedly made. She adds: “Congress has not enacted national school choice. At the very least, it would seem a violation of the spirit of separation of powers if the president were to decide that choice could be delivered by Washington....” It is well to note here that both McDonald and FEE support school choice.

A January 30 article on the Cato Institute’s Liberty Blog made the salient point that “the only concrete way to avoid government indoctrination is to let families decide for themselves where the money to educate their children will be used. That means school choice, the subject of [Trump’s] second EO. But even though expanding freedom for families is highly desirable, the Constitution must come first.”

Many believe the president has no intention of “making law” through his education EOs, but that, in the short term, his purpose is to counteract the far-left indoctrination that has permeated the U.S. school system for decades, funded in large part by the federal government. It’s the president’s much emphasized wish to end this unconstitutional intrusion.

As Cato concluded: “Indoctrination is a major concern with public schooling because public schooling is ‘government’ schooling—government-funded and run schools. The solution is choice for families.”

FEE’s McDonald put it this way:

• The key is to reduce the size and scope of the federal government’s role in education—not to enlarge it. Even when we support certain programs or policies—such as school choice—we should speak out against the implementation of these policies at the federal level. Instead, we need to focus on championing such policies in every state.

It’s doubtful that President Trump and his education secretary, Linda McMahon, would disagree.

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