Trump exec order requires government overreach study by Ed Dept

Dive Brief:

President Donald Trump signed an executive order requesting the U.S. Department of Education to study areas where the federal government may have overstepped its bounds of education control over local schools and districts, according to the U.S. News and World Report.
The order parallels Trump’s pushes for school choice and deregulation he espoused during the campaign, and comes as the federal government begins to enact the Every Student Succeeds Act, which will also revert more control back to states.
DeVos has 300 days to complete the report, though details are scarce on how the study will be conducted or what other actions could follow once its conclusions are revealed.

Dive Insight:

The new executive order could embolden DeVos’ critics who argue that she has remained vague about what types of policies she will enact and how much autonomy she has in her role serving under Trump, who has not spoken much about education in comparison to other issues.

But with ESSA implementation already underway, state and local autonomy will increase anyway, so it is uncertain if DeVos and Trump would view the legislation’s successful rollout as achievement enough, or if their policies will go further. It is also uncertain what effect, if any, this new study could have on federal involvement in schools. The clearest indication of Trump’s intentions thus far has actually been the suggested $9 billion cut to the Education Department from his budget proposal last month.

The American Federation of Teachers noted in a statement that many of the issues raised in Trump's executive order have already been addressed by ESSA, and the lines of debate have coalesced similarly to arguments concerning school choice and privatization. The AFT strongly opposed the order, while pro-charter school advocacy groups like the Center for Education Reform came out in favor of it shortly after it was announced.

Since her confirmation, DeVos revisited some Obama-era guidelines on civil rights protections for transgender students, though there is confusion as to whether DeVos supported the move. Critics of the new administration worry that this is where they can have the greatest immediate effect. Such actions require no studies or legislation to entirely revoke.