Former President Donald Trump stepped up his presidential campaign efforts on Jan. 26 by proposing several key changes to public education, asserting that “radical left maniacs” had overtaken the system.
Laying out his plans in a video posted to his Truth Social and Rumble accounts, Trump pledged to restore the authority of American parents over how their children are educated.
“First, we will cut federal funding for any school or program pushing critical race theory, gender ideology, or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto our children,” Trump vowed.
“We’re not going to allow it to happen,” he added, noting that he would instruct the Departments of Justice and Education to open civil rights investigations into school districts that had engaged in racial discrimination.
“The Marxism being preached in our schools is also totally hostile to Judeo-Christian teachings,” Trump said, “and in many ways, it’s resembling an established new religion. Can’t allow that to happen. For this reason, my administration will aggressively pursue potential violations of the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the Constitution.”
Also holding that the Education Department had been “infiltrated” by “radical zealots and Marxists,” the former president promised to begin rooting out such subversives on his first day in office.
“Joe Biden has given these lunatics unchecked power,” Trump said. “I will have them fired and escorted from the building, and I will tell Congress that any appropriations bill I sign must reaffirm the president’s ability to remove defiant employees from the job.
Other actions Trump vowed to take included vetoing efforts to weaponize civics education, upholding traditional gender divisions in sports, and creating a new credentialing body to certify teachers who “embrace patriotic values, support our way of life, and understand that their job is not to indoctrinate children but, very simply, to educate them.”