Here's the deal on Trump's EO to curb "radical indoctrination" in schools
Districts in NC like Wake County will need to act or see funds cut
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that will cut off federal dollars to districts who engage in "radical indoctrination" and reinstitutes "patriotic education."
Folks should go read the entire order, but the purpose and policy section alone is quite specific:
Section 1. Purpose and Policy.
Parents trust America’s schools to provide their children with a rigorous education and to instill a patriotic admiration for our incredible Nation and the values for which we stand.
In recent years, however, parents have witnessed schools indoctrinate their children in radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight. Such an environment operates as an echo chamber, in which students are forced to accept these ideologies without question or critical examination. In many cases, innocent children are compelled to adopt identities as either victims or oppressors solely based on their skin color and other immutable characteristics. In other instances, young men and women are made to question whether they were born in the wrong body and whether to view their parents and their reality as enemies to be blamed. These practices not only erode critical thinking but also sow division, confusion, and distrust, which undermine the very foundations of personal identity and family unity.Imprinting anti-American, subversive, harmful, and false ideologies on our Nation’s children not only violates longstanding anti-discrimination civil rights law in many cases, but usurps basic parental authority. For example, steering students toward surgical and chemical mutilation without parental consent or involvement or allowing males access to private spaces designated for females may contravene Federal laws that protect parental rights, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment (PPRA), and sex-based equality and opportunity, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX). Similarly, demanding acquiescence to “White Privilege” or “unconscious bias,” actually promotes racial discrimination and undermines national unity.
The purpose and policy section ends with:
My Administration will enforce the law to ensure that recipients of Federal funds providing K-12 education comply with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination in various contexts and protecting parental rights, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VI), 42 U.S.C. 2000d et seq.; Title IX, 20 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.; FERPA, 20 U.S.C. 1232g; and the PPRA, 20 U.S.C. 1232h.
So what does that all mean?
In short, the order aims to prevent federal funds from supporting "gender ideology" and "discriminatory equity ideology" in K-12 schools.
Equity should mean all kids get the same resources and opportunities, but that term has been high-jacked to mean minorities are given special treatment and resources to the detriment of other students.
The order also requires certain federal agencies involved in education, primarily the U.S. Dept. of Education (USDOE), to develop an "Ending Indoctrination Strategy" within 90 days to identify and potentially rescind federal funding that supports these teachings.
Translated, criteria will be created to evaluate state school agencies and districts to determine if they are in violation of this order.
Some of that criteria will cover schools facilitating student "social transition" without parental involvement or schools that interfere with parents' rights to information under FERPA and PPRA.
It also expressly means any school, district, or state education agency found to be violating Title VI or Title IX (See the USDOE press release and Dear Colleague letter issued Jan. 31, 2025) will get its funding withheld.
The USDOE and other agencies criteria won’t cut it by themselves. Parents will have to step up and file both an official complaint against the school/district as well as an official complaint with the USDOE's Office of Civil Rights.
All federal funding sources that directly or indirectly support "gender ideology" or "discriminatory equity ideology" in K-12 curriculum and activities are on the chopping block. So are teacher education, certification, licensing, and training related to these topics.
Per the order, the Trump administration isn't going to just let this order lie and forget about it.
The Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy is required to regularly convene agency heads to discuss all findings, areas that need to be investigated, implementation of the order, and recommendations.
Additionally, the Attorney General is specifically directed to coordinate with state and local prosecutors to take action against teachers and school officials who sexually exploit minors, practice medicine without a license and the big one - unlawfully facilitate student "social transition," which means gender identity and pronouns but does not include "chemical or surgical mutilation."
There is also a real focus on protecting parental rights regarding curriculum oversight and student information included in the order. This language is similar in theme and purpose to the Parents' Bill of Rights (SB 49) passed by the North Carolina General Assembly during the 2023-24 session.
The order also covers educators who facilitate things like transitioning students to a different gender and it dovetails with another order issued on ending on Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and contracts. Additionally, it reestablishes the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission and Promoting Patriotic Education which was set up during Trump's first term.
Most folks read Trump's order to generally mean an end to Critical Race Theory (CRT), but the order doesn't specifically mention CRT by name but the order definitely describes it's key tenets in the definitions section. Again, the definitions in the order are similar to the language in NC's Parents' Bill of Rights.
As mentioned earlier, Trump's order hits a key factor in ending ideologies like CRT and DEI in schools: Training.
For years, teachers and education staff have been forced by their school districts or individual schools to take CRT and DEI themed training. This kind of training is going on in some form in every state, whether it be top down from a state's department of public instruction or required by an individual district.
More To The Story
In North Carolina education, Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS) is the largest consumer of CRT/DEI training. Such training has also been found in other districts in the state such as Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Chatham, Chapel Hill/Carrboro, Cumberland, Durham, New Hanover, and Orange, to name a few.
WCPSS has all angles covered, from alleged "unofficial" training events like EdCamp Equity to formal district provided CRT/DEI training by its Office of Equity Affairs, and leadership level training by The Equity Collaborative, a CRT training outfit founded and run by NC state Sen. Graig Meyer (D-Orange).
The WCPSS board of education is included in district CRT/DEI training too. In 2023 members did "implicit bias training" during a board retreat. The training was provided by Ronda Taylor Bullock and her company WE ARE, which stands for "Working to Extend Anti-Racist Education."
One division within WCPSS has been responsible for all DEI and CRT training; The Office of Equity Affairs (OEA). The district formed the OEA as part of a settlement agreement to a complaint filed by activist groups with the USDOE Office of Civil Rights during former President Obama's second term.
Since its inception in 2014-15, OEA has cost Wake County taxpayers millions. Through records requests, $12.135 million has been spent on or by the OEA. Records show the OEA spent more than $1.8 million on salaries, travel, workshops and other expenses during fiscal year 2023-24.
WCPSS has at least one anti-discrimination policy in place that includes "gender identity," in a manner that violates both Trump's order on indoctrination, but also the Trump administration's rescinding of the Biden administration's attempted Title IX rewrite.
WCPSS School Board member Cheryl Caulfield has issued a statement calling on the board to address Trump's orders or risk losing federal funding.
Today President Trump issued an Executive Order which would revoke federal funding from school districts which allow gender and "discriminatory equity ideology" in their K-12 schools. Because some Wake schools may provide such materials and policies, our federal funding is at risk if we do not promptly comply.
Along with many members of the community I have been calling for an end to politics in the classroom and a return to the basics in Wake County Public Schools.
I applaud this Executive Order because it requires school boards to put students first, not adult agendas. Considering that Wake County School Board rushed to implement Biden’s extreme Title IX changes because they were so concerned about losing federal funding, I expect the same swift action to comply with President Trump’s Executive Order.
Caulfield isn't off base here.
The USDOE already launched an investigation into Denver Public Schools converting a girls bathroom into an "all gender restroom." That happened the day before Trump's latest order on indoctrination was issued. WCPSS could easily be next should complaints be filed or if the district does not rescind its policies and end its CRT/DEI training.
And the threat of withholding federal funding isn't chump change for WCPSS either.
The NC Dept. of Public Instruction's statistical data profile shows the district received and spent $195,438,628 during 2023-24. Here's the breakdown of where those dollars went:
WCPSS could also be in hot water over its book challenge policy after the USDOE's recent action of dropping all complaints lodged against schools or districts that removed books with violent and pornographic content from K-12 library shelves.
WCPSS’ adopted book challenge policy says that if a title is challenged and the challenge fails, no one else can challenge that same title for a two year period. The challenge process itself is arguably designed to discourage parents from attempting a challenge at all because it can take up to 9 months of passing through a series of board-picked review panels before a judgement is actually rendered.
We’ll have to see what criteria the UDOE comes out with related to Trump’s school radicalization executive order, but given the tone and items already in that order, the WCPSS book challenge policy could also be a candidate for a complaint.
Before you head out, here’s a piece of related news following President Trump ordering the dismantling of all DEI programs and contracts across the federal government.
On Friday, Trump's new federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) headed up by Elon Musk announced the elimination of 104 diversity, equity and inclusion-related (DEI) contracts, which will save taxpayers over $1 billion.
