President Trump on Wednesday issued an executive order that prioritizes and frees up federal funding for school choice programs, directing the Secretaries of Education and Labor to “review their respective discretionary grant programs and each submit a plan” within 90 days on how to expand school choice.
The executive order also directs the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, to submit a plan to Mr. Trump for how military families can use Defense Department funds to send their kids to the school of their choosing.
More broadly, it directs the Department of Education to prioritize school choice programs through its discretionary grant programs, and orders the Department of Health and Human Services to issue guidance on how states receiving block grants for families and children can use those funds to support private and faith-based institutions.
CBS News reviewed details of the executive order on Tuesday night.
The executive order also directs the Department of Education to issue guidance to states on how to use federal funding formulas — which determine how much money to allocate to districts and schools — to support their K-12 scholarship programs.
The interior secretary, when confirmed, must also submit a plan to the president outlining how families with students at Bureau of Indian Education schools can use federal money to send those children to a school of their family’s choosing. About 47,000 American Indian and Alaska Native students are enrolled in Bureau of Indian Education schools.
It’s not yet clear how much the administration can do without Congress to prioritize money for school choice programs, or to allow military children to go to the school of their parents’ choosing.
It’s also not yet immediately clear if the Office of Management and Budget’s directive to temporarily pause federal assistance would affect educational grant programs. A federal judge has also issued a stay on the order.
Mr. Trump’s new executive action comes as the 2024 National Assessment of Education Progress shows that 40% of 4th graders did not meet basic reading levels, the highest percentage ever recorded.
The data, released Wednesday at midnight, also shows 4th and 8th grade average reading scores have continued a downward trend, each down two points from 2022. According to the NAEP, 70% of 8th graders weren’t proficient in reading and 72% weren’t proficient in math.
“Every child deserves the best education available, regardless of their zip code,” the White House document reads. “However, for generations, our government-assigned education system has failed millions of parents, students and teachers. This executive order begins to rectify that wrong by opening up opportunities for students to attend the school that best fits their needs.”
Federal funding represents a relatively small portion of funding for most public schools, about 14% of funding for public K-12 schools in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau. States account for about 44% of funding, and localities about 43%.
Mr. Trump championed school choice on the campaign trail, as well as during his first term in office.
But measures that would have shifted money away from public education to strengthen school choice and voucher programs failed in three states in 2024, including in two states Mr. Trump easily won — Kentucky and Nebraska.
Voters rejected efforts in Kentucky, Colorado and Nebraska to strengthen school choice and voucher programs, in which state funds help foot the bill for parents who choose to forgo their local public schools.
School choice advocates have also hoped for winning tax breaks to help pay for private tuition, something that would require congressional approval.
On the campaign trail, then-candidate Trump said he would abolish the Department of Education, but that decades-long pledge from Republican candidates may not come to fruition. The president has tapped former wrestling executive and former head of the Small Business Administration, Linda McMahon, to run the Department of Education. She has yet to have confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill. Denise Carter is the acting secretary of education until a permanent one is confirmed.