Storylines to Follow As Trump Overhauls K-12 and Higher Ed

The federal government’s influence over schools and colleges is growing as President Donald Trump tests the limits of the White House’s power. Though school policy has, historically, fallen mostly to state and local leaders, the Trump administration has made seismic shifts that have reverberated to schools across the country, increasingly demanding the attention of education beat reporters.

Over the summer, school administrators were left scrambling when the federal government froze – ultimately temporarily – roughly $7 billion dedicated for English learner programs, enrichment activities, adult education and more. An unprecedented number of schools and colleges have become the subjects of “directed investigations,” ordered by the Trump administration, often aimed at rooting out alleged antisemitism and preventing the participation of transgender girls in women’s sports, among other focuses. And deep cuts to the U.S. Department of Education have left state and district leaders unsure whether relied-upon federal funds will remain available.

The Trump administration did not respond to a list of questions for this reporting resource, but it has largely cast the moves as overdue efforts to trim federal bloat and combat diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that it views as unfair to white people. Meanwhile, many educators and school leaders have described the rapid changes as destabilizing — and often politically motivated.

“Even if you’re a local reporter, it makes sense to pay attention to the federal level right now because that’s where all this uncertainty is coming from,” said Linda Jacobson, senior reporter for The 74.

Between board meetings and back-to-school stories, it can be tough to track all the federal developments. This reporting guide will provide tips to help simplify the process. It includes interviews with education leaders, researchers and a former high-ranking U.S. Department of Education official about the key storylines journalists should follow. Here’s what they said.

Covering Federal Cuts to K-12 Funding, Research, Staffing

Experts advised that the impacts of reductions in staffing and funding at the federal level are trickling down to many school districts.

Soon after returning to the White House in January, Trump pledged his administration would close the U.S. Department of Education “as quickly as possible” — thrusting programs supporting multilingual learners, special education students, students experiencing homelessness and others into uncertainty.

As of July, the department was about half its size compared to when Trump took office, with cuts affecting nearly every part of the agency, The New York Times reported. And officials were looking to slim down or eliminate grants dedicated to a variety of initiatives as part of the Trump administration’s 2026 budget.

In some cases, federal cuts have also led to reductions in the workforce at state agencies, said Scott Marion, who works directly with state-level administrators as executive director of the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment. Marion’s nonprofit organization supports states with student assessment and accountability. Some state administrators overseeing testing are funded through federal dollars, he said — and cuts could complicate the rollout of state exams.

Here are a few storylines to watch:

• Programs on the chopping block: Education Week published a helpful list of 40 federal programs slated for reallocation, consolidation or elimination. The initiatives range from supporting rural students to unhoused students to students with disabilities. Reporters can ask their state and local leaders which, if any, of these grants their local agencies tap into. Track the fate of the funds to see if the changes will impact students locally.
• Mental health grant lawsuit: In June, several states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration for canceling $1 billion in mental health grants that were delivered to schools under a 2022 gun violence bill signed by former President Joe Biden. Schools used the money for counselors, psychologists and more — potentially setting the stage for layoffs depending on the outcome of the lawsuit.
• Special education research and training: In early September, the Trump administration sent cancellation notices to about a dozen grants fueling research related to training special education teachers. Reporters can follow how this change will impact a school staffing area that has long faced high turnover and shortages.
• Impact of uncertainty: Dale Chu, an independent education consultant and senior visiting fellow with the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, predicted the back-and-forth over funding could lead some local programs — such as reading interventions or after-school enrichment — to be axed. Most schools and districts create their budgets once a year, and they can’t always adjust nimbly to sudden changes.
  
  “If you can’t count on those dollars being there, then you might say, ‘Well, we’ll just do something else,’” Chu said.

A quick fairness reminder: When covering cuts, journalists should note how much money the federal government will save as a result. If 200 employee positions were eliminated, what are the projected annual costs recouped?  On the other hand, will staffing cuts produce inefficiencies that will ultimately cost more for taxpayers?

Changes may produce significant savings. However, in most cases, according to Chu, the changes are saving “pennies, if anything, on the dollar,” compared to what’s needed to address the national budget deficit. The 2025 deficit stood at nearly $2 trillion in August, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, and the Trump administration’s proposed changes to the U.S. Department of Education would save roughly $12 billion.

Journalists can also ask the federal government: How much savings will these changes produce? Are the funds being reallocated elsewhere, and, if so, where? How will the cuts change agency operations? Do the cuts threaten the agency’s essential functions?

How Office for Civil Rights Staffing, DEI Restrictions Affect K-12 and Higher Ed

The Office for Civil Rights (OCR), an agency meant to enforce federal civil rights law in schools, is among the branches of the Department of Education most affected by changes under the Trump administration. In March, seven of the Office’s 12 regional bureaus were instructed to close their doors. And the agency has largely shifted its focus away from investigations spurred by complaints — which often come from students, parents and educators — toward those directly ordered by the Trump administration.

The new approaches are completely inappropriate, argued Catherine Lhamon, who served as OCR chief under Biden. She is now executive director of the Edley Center on Law & Democracy at University of California, Berkeley School of Law. 

The Trump administration puts a “thumb on the scale” by issuing press releases when new investigations are launched, Lhamon said, moving away from an innocent-until-proven-guilty approach of waiting until the investigation is complete to announce findings. She added that the narrowed focus on race in school admissions, antisemitism and transgender athletes signals “they care only about a small subset of the issues of their jurisdiction.”

“One thing I think is really important is not to cover the investigations as if they’re civil rights investigations – because they’re not,” Lhamon said. “What they’re actually doing is … attacking what can be thought, learned and understood in the university setting.”

Here are some ways to report on the local impacts:

• Special education probes: Historically, more than half of the complaints coming to the OCR have dealt with how schools serve students with disabilities, Lhamon said. What recourse do those families have now that complaint-based investigations opened by Trump’s OCR have largely ground to a halt? A few journalists have taken up this question, but there’s room for more coverage, especially in the cities where regional OCR offices have closed: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco.
• Research, reconsidered: Academic researchers often depend on federal grants to fund their projects. Reporters widely covered the fallout as the Trump administration cut research funding — totalling at least $6.9 billion across more than 600 colleges and universities, according to the Center for American Progress, a liberal-leaning think tank. With universities now squarely in the middle of Trump’s culture wars, how has that impacted the new projects academics propose and pursue? Reporters can interview local professors to learn whether political changes have prompted a shift away from certain research topics. 
• DEI in court: Some culturally responsive curriculums, same-race mentorship programs and race-based affinity groups are in legal jeopardy. After the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funds from districts that did not eliminate race-based programs, a collection of plaintiffs, led by the American Federation of Teachers, sued in February. Reporters can follow the lawsuit as it moves through the courts to see whether schools in their coverage areas will be allowed to operate such programs.

Following How the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Shapes Education 

The July passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a wide-ranging piece of legislation that advanced many of the Trump administration’s policy priorities, produced multiple changes education reporters may want to follow. 

Perhaps most notably, the legislation created the nation’s first federal voucher program, which is set to go into effect in January 2027. Many of the program’s details must still be determined by the U.S. Treasury Department, said Chu of the Fordham Institute, and participation will be  optional for states. 

He thinks Democratic states may still be interested in participating if regulators allow the vouchers to cover enrichment opportunities like tutoring, rather than costs exclusively related to private school tuition.

“I’ve seen some left-leaning groups say, ‘If it works out to be something like that, then why wouldn’t a blue state want to take advantage of some additional resources?’” Chu said.

The bill also changed the borrowing caps on several types of federal loans, which may have big impacts on certain graduate and professional programs.

Here’s what to watch for:

• Fundraising for vouchers: Journalists can track the size and scope of vouchers under the new federal plan by zoning in on donations to their state’s scholarship granting organization (SGO), a nonprofit group that will collect funds for the scholarships. It’s a little wonky, but under the bill, the vouchers are designed such that SGOs in each state must solicit tax-deductible donations of up to $1,700 per individual to fund the programs. The more they raise, the larger the voucher program can be in their state. In some cases, think tanks and political action committees may also support the SGOs’ fundraising efforts. “There’s got to be a lot of advocacy and ground game,” Chu said.
• Borrowing limits blocking doctors-to-be: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes a provision capping federal borrowing for graduate and professional degrees. The new limits are especially restrictive for individuals seeking medical or dentistry degrees, said Mark Kantrowitz, author of multiple books such as, “How to Appeal for More College Financial Aid.” More than a quarter of medical students and over half of dentistry students historically have borrowed at levels above the new caps, Kantrowitz said. Students from low-income backgrounds may now be forced to seek higher-interest private loans, or they may have more difficulty getting loans at all — potentially blocking some prospective doctors and dentists from the field.