Trump Administration Will Continue Stripping Students of Civil Rights If Education Leaders Allow It

In Linda McMahon’s first week as Secretary of Education, the Trump administration’s dual agenda for education was thrown into sharp relief. Their plan is to degrade the federal government’s capacity to support vulnerable students while simultaneously weaponizing education law against the regime’s ideological enemies.

Secretary McMahon remains so woefully uninformed about the basic functions of the department she has been charged with leading that she pleaded ignorance when asked on national television about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Yet she still implemented an unprecedented and illegal mass firing of more than a thousand Department of Education employees. As 21 state attorneys general said in a federal lawsuit, those layoffs are “so severe and extreme that it incapacitates components of the Department responsible for performing functions mandated by statute, effectively nullifying those mandates.”

McMahon and her DOGE assistants have destroyed the federal government’s ability to collect vital statistics about the nation’s education system, a function it has faithfully carried out since the end of the Civil War. By firing scores of investigators and attorneys charged with enforcing federal civil rights laws, the Trump administration has effectively stripped students with disabilities, students of color, and others of the rights guaranteed to them by acts of Congress and the Constitution.

None of this should be mistaken for a principled reduction in the federal government’s role in education. To the contrary: This administration is now asserting federal control over schools, colleges, and students to a degree never seen before.

The White House issued an Executive Order excluding people from the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Program if they work for nonprofit organizations that support transgender rights, promote racial justice, participate in public protest, or otherwise disagree with Trump administration policies. Nothing in the PSLF statute, or any law, gives the president authority to do this.

Officials from the General Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Education sent Columbia University a letter outlining a lengthy series of conditions that the university must meet before the federal government will even discuss its recent decision to illegally cancel some $400 million in federal grants and contracts. Those conditions include Columbia eradicating an entire academic department and effectively ceding control of university policies on discipline, public protest, and undergraduate and graduate admission to the Trump administration, all under the guise of enforcing laws against antisemitism.

Jewish students at Columbia and elsewhere have rights under Title VI of the Higher Education Act that must be enforced, and there is no doubt that some recent protests on or near college campuses have crossed the line distinguishing protected speech from prohibited intimidation. But there is absolutely no reason to believe that the Trump regime acted in good faith when it presented Columbia with this astonishing list of demands, or when it published an enemies list of colleges and universities it plans to persecute next—particularly since the Department of Education just fired all of the people who might have carried out thorough, impartial investigations.

All of these actions are tied together by antipathy toward educational institutions that promote a pluralistic, welcoming vision of America’s future, and a deep-set desire for ideological control.

The same is true for the Department’s new hit list of colleges that have dared to promote academic opportunities for students of color. There is not even a pretense of fairness or grounding in law here. This is simply one part of the Trump administration’s larger agenda to roll back the great civil rights achievements of the 20th century, what Adam Serwer of The Atlantic has termed “The Great Resegregation.”

The Department of Education’s attempted ideological takeover of Columbia came days after federal agents disappeared a permanent U.S. resident who led anti-Israel protests on Columbia’s campus, despite the fact that he was charged with no crimes. As the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has been deeply critical of universities for hostility toward conservative speech, said, “This is America. We don't throw people in detention centers because of their politics. Doing so betrays our national commitment to freedom of speech.”

All of these actions are tied together by antipathy toward educational institutions that promote a pluralistic, welcoming vision of America’s future, and a deep-set desire for ideological control.

Federal judges are already ruling against many of the Trump administration’s egregious abuses of administrative power. But even the swiftest judicial action won’t prevent the damage currently being done. Future administrations will not be able to go back in time to assess the state of learning in 2025. The student who uses a wheelchair whose case was dropped this week by Linda McMahon’s ignorance and cruelty won’t be able to restore her lost chances for an accommodating public education.

Most presidents of wealthy and prestigious universities have been conspicuously silent as the Trump administration moves to bankrupt their finances and shatter their academic freedom. They seem to be hoping that by keeping their heads down and staying quiet, they can escape persecution. University historians can surely teach how that strategy has fared in the face of past authoritarians. The Trump regime is fragile, incompetent, and deeply unpopular. It will only succeed if education leaders refuse to stand up on behalf of the institutions and people they are sworn to serve.

For more on New America’s growing collection of posts and statements on defending the Department of Education, see here.