By Christian Collins

Throughout the 2024 campaign cycle, post-election messaging, and proposed administrative appointments, the incoming Trump Administration has sent a clear message that undermining educational access for marginalized populations will be a priority. These pledges include loosening protections placed by the outgoing Biden Administration against sex and gender identity discrimination at federally funded schools, weakening educational accessibility for immigrant students, and decreasing the racial diversity of the postsecondary system. The most direct threat has been the repeated promise of closing the federal Department of Education (ED) in its entirety, a move that has been attempted multiple times since the department was founded in 1979 but that has failed in every instance.

This brief details the threat that the new administration poses to ED and its impact on post-secondary institutions. It analyzes how there is little political will to close ED, but significant federal education funding cuts are a possibility. Next, the brief outlines how postsecondary institutions are looking to private equity firms to cover potential financial shortfalls and provides policy recommendations for institutions, policymakers, and advocates on pathways to fiscally protect the postsecondary system.

>> Read the brief here