The result of the presidential and congressional elections on Nov. 5 might have enormous implications for Ok-12 coverage and funding on the federal stage — and for corporations working within the training market.
As presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on reverse ends of the political spectrum on many of the necessary faculty points which have emerged on the marketing campaign path.
About This Analyst
Reg Leichty is a co-founder of Foresight Regulation + Coverage, an training legislation agency in Washington D.C., the place he gives strategic recommendation, authorized counsel, and lobbying help to a broad vary of purchasers, together with training companies and establishments, nonprofit organizations, and corporations. Earlier in his profession, he served as telecommunications, expertise, and privateness counsel for former United States Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman Invoice Nelson of Florida, and as a senior legislative aide to former Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska.
And each chambers in Congress are up for grabs. Within the U.S. Home, the GOP controls 220 seats to Democrats’ 212 seats (with three vacancies), whereas within the Senate, Democrats have a slim majority.
Numerous massive ticket federal gadgets — from funding for key Ok-12 applications reminiscent of Title I and Title II to the way forward for the U.S. Division of Schooling — might be decided by who’s elected in November.
“Each election issues quite a bit for the training system,” stated Reg Leichty, who advises Ok-12 teams on federal funds and coverage as a founding companion at Foresight Regulation + Coverage. “This one is especially consequential on the presidential stage, given a few of the very divisive rhetoric in regards to the public training system.”
The specter of cuts to federal funding for teaching programs — multibillion-dollar applications that faculty districts rely closely on for important companies — looms primarily based on the result of the election.
Many training corporations depend on faculty techniques having the ability to faucet into these funding streams with a purpose to pay for services in curriculum, evaluation, PD, ed tech, social-emotional studying, and lots of different areas.
The implications from the election additionally lengthen past budgetary points to the likelihood that the federal authorities might turn out to be extra concerned in divisive political-culture debates which have roiled many faculty districts.
Regardless of the prevailing divisions, Leichty stated he’s considerably optimistic that lawmakers will put apart political variations and work collectively on education-related points, at the very least in some areas.
EdWeek Market Transient spoke with Leichty about what training corporations ought to anticipate from a Harris or Trump administration and shifting majorities in Congress, the prospect of bipartisanship on training subjects, and the way this November’s election will form different areas of presidency necessary to the training business.
This story is one in a collection that may take a look at the influence of the November elections on the training sector.
How do Harris and Trump differ on spending on massive federal applications which can be necessary to varsities and training corporations?
It’s protected to say {that a} Trump administration would possible considerably disinvest in public training — and we’ve got a way of what a Trump training funds seems to be like. For instance, the not too long ago handed Home Republican funds for the division of ed, the place we noticed a large lower to Title I, full elimination of ESEA Title II, and flat funding for Title IV.
Then again, a Harris administration is prone to proceed to be strongly dedicated to offering assist for Title I for low-income communities, and in a few of the necessary digital studying applications like Title IV that guarantee all college students have entry to the connectivity and related units and different helps they should study.
Would you anticipate a Trump administration to enact main adjustments to the U.S. Division of Schooling?
Former President Trump himself has kind of plainly stated that his focus in training will probably be on dismantling the division of ed. We all know he has expressed a want to essentially alter the federal function in Ok-12 training. I’d anticipate, as they did throughout the Trump administration 4 years in the past, a heavy emphasis on selling entry to personal training, a deal with charters and other forms of selection mechanisms. We’ve seen what their priorities are via the final administration and extra not too long ago out on the marketing campaign path.
And the way do you anticipate a Harris administration would strategy the division of training?
We might possible see Vice President Harris champion lots of the similar kinds of insurance policies that the Biden administration has targeted on the final 4 years. We might see a continued dedication by a Harris crew to reasonably priced faculty entry and completion.
We noticed on the Democratic Conference a spotlight and want to emphasise guaranteeing that college students have the employability abilities they must be profitable. That features probably a deal with strengthening workforce applications, together with the federal apprenticeship applications that target abilities acquisition. And I do suppose, as we’ve heard on the marketing campaign path, there could be a common dedication to public training, and the youngsters which can be served by the general public faculty system.
Do you suppose Trump would use his bully pulpit as president to stoke Ok-12 tradition wars over race and gender which have performed out in states and districts?
I do suppose that President Trump’s rhetoric has gone all in on inserting training on the middle of the tradition wars. If he have been elected, it’s possible that he’ll proceed to deal with the themes that divide moderately than deliver individuals collectively as communities to enhance public training. [In 2020, then-President Trump signed an executive order that sought to ban the use of “divisive concepts” in federal contracting. Various of that term were used in many states in efforts to restrict lessons on race and gender.]
There’s additionally the query of how do members on either side of the aisle that wish to transfer past a extra divisive debate about public training … come collectively to strengthen and higher serve the youngsters in our communities that want probably the most assist?
It’s in all probability going to stay a particularly divided Congress, post-election. How possible is it that bipartisan dealmaking might happen on faculty points?
There are members on either side of the aisle who’re deeply dedicated to public training. They worth the general public colleges of their communities. Many, if not most of them, are graduates of public colleges, and so they see the worth of it.
Regardless of loads of robust, decisive conversations on the contrary what we’ve seen is that individuals who assist public training on either side of the aisle have come collectively during the last eight years. There’ve been some bumps within the street, however we’ve seen sturdy continued assist for guaranteeing that our public colleges stay type of anchor elements of our communities.
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If Republicans win management of each chambers, what do you suppose will occur with Ok-12 funding?
A Republican-controlled Congress is prone to champion flat, or much less spending in public training. I believe the proof of that’s discovered within the U.S. Home Labor, Well being and Human Companies, Schooling and Associated companies fiscal 12 months 2025 invoice that the committee accepted just a few weeks in the past, which cuts about $14 billion from Title I. That may be unprecedented.
Might these deep cuts to Title I really occur?
It’s necessary to do not forget that except Republicans obtain a super-majority within the Senate, that’s except they’ve 60 votes, it can proceed to be troublesome for these kinds of excessive cuts to be adopted. And I believe there are additionally many Republicans within the Senate that disagree with the course that the Home Republicans have taken on training spending.
All that’s to say, whereas training spending would unlikely be on a trajectory to extend in an all Republican Congress subsequent 12 months, it’s in all probability almost definitely to be flat funded, as we’ve seen in recent times simply due to the issue of transferring deep cuts via a system that may undoubtedly nonetheless have a considerable variety of Senate Democrats and in addition Senate Republicans who will not be pleasant to the sorts of deep cuts proposed by the Home Appropriations Committee this 12 months.
What do you anticipate to be a high precedence for the following Home and Senate training committees?
The committees, actually in the event that they’re Republican or Democrat managed, will proceed to make progress on the substantive coverage problems with this Congress, which have been about modernizing the Workforce Innovation and Alternative Act, exploring updates to the Nationwide Apprenticeship Act, and trying to discover a path towards increasing Pell Grant entry for shorter time period, prime quality applications.
That’s to say members on either side of the aisle are going to be searching for bipartisan victories in what’s prone to be a really intently divided Congress. What we’ve discovered this 12 months and final 12 months is that there’s loads of curiosity amongst Republicans and Democrats, and among the many Senate and Home, to attempt to replace the federal workforce applications. They’ve made loads of progress … in direction of that objective.
On what different areas do you see potentialities for compromise, and motion?
Pondering from an ed-tech perspective, there’s some actually thrilling bipartisan provisions targeted on constructing out way more sturdy knowledge infrastructure designed to advertise better transparency for college students and employers within the workforce system. There’s some thrilling issues taking place, even in a troublesome type of political setting.
Are there different areas of Ok-12 that would turn out to be main points for the following Congress?
Proper after the election there’ll possible even be another points that will come up because of their prominence within the marketing campaign season. So there might be early conversations about proficiency challenges that youngsters have skilled put up pandemic, and the steps which can be being taken to get all college students again on monitor.
There might be, within the Senate, an enormous deal with literacy because of rating member Cassidy’s [U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.] curiosity and management in that area. I simply actually anticipate workforce to proceed to be a central focus of whichever social gathering is in energy.
Federal stimulus cash is expiring. To what diploma do you anticipate the following Congress to look at the extent to which these have been good investments?
Now we have already seen the Home Schooling and Workforce Committee maintain these kinds of oversight hearings, which is a central a part of their function as a committee. That’s their job. It’s very doable that, for instance, if there’s a Republican majority within the Senate that we’d see some hearings about ESSER within the well being committee [U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions] as properly.
However I believe we’ve had that dialog largely already because of the Republican majority within the Home. So sure, there might be some future hearings about ESSER, however I don’t anticipate it to be the dominant narrative of the following training committee’s work throughout the subsequent Congress.
A Republican-controlled Congress is prone to champion flat, or much less spending in public training.
Outdoors of the White Home and Congress, what different methods might the federal election have an effect on ed tech or Ok-12?
There are additionally questions of who the following president will probably be which can be related to issues like judicial appointments. For instance, in the previous couple of weeks the Fifth Circuit Court docket of Appeals, which is closely populated by appointees of President Trump, has dominated that the income system for the Common Service Fund, together with E-Charge, is unconstitutional.
And we now have an actual query about the way forward for one of many —if not the most important — ed-tech program within the federal authorities, which is E-Charge. So this isn’t simply in regards to the bully pulpit, and it’s not simply in regards to the composition of the Congress and the way forward for laws. It’s additionally in regards to the appointees of the president and the work they’re doing, and the appointment of judges which may have a dramatically completely different view in regards to the constitutional relationship of a few of these applications.
On that be aware, the president appoints the chair of the Federal Communications Fee, which simply confirmed a fifth member final 12 months after a protracted partisan impasse. How might this election have an effect on the FCC?
If Trump wins, it can convert to a Republican majority and so they may need completely different views on issues like E-Charge, Wi-Fi on buses, or E-Charge assist for cell hotspots. There are coverage points {that a} Trump FCC might train that is perhaps completely different and even dramatically completely different when it comes to how the E-Charge is used and what it’s used for and the way it’s funded.