Art by Izzy Alva.
Jan. 20, 2025 President Donald Trump was inaugurated, bringing with him a new wave of policies. According to Forbes, only nine days after taking office, Trump signed an executive order that could strip federal funding from K-12 schools that promoted gender ideology and the critical race theory. LACES has an Ethnic Studies class that falls under the category Trump has attacked. The content of the class ranges from race and racial injustices to ethnic identity to cultural studies.
“Well, I think the intent behind ethnic studies, the original movement in colleges, and the efforts to spread it to K-12 is to help students understand and appreciate the experiences of diverse groups of people who are often left out of histories and whose contributions to American society are overlooked,” said Ethnic Studies teacher Dr. Ingrid Fey.
The knowledge LACES freshman obtain from the class begs the question of what our campus would look like without it.
“I think that our school thrives on celebrating the rich complexity of American society and history, and we also encourage critical thinking,” said Fey.
Not being able to teach topics like gender ideology, which refers to the different beliefs and ideas that are associated with gender, worries many K-12 teachers about their academic freedom as educators, and takes away their ability to be able to teach kids an honest, authentic representation of their ethnic history.
“We encourage the accuracy in what we teach, whether it’s science or math or social studies or whatever and so if teachers at the school are going to be asked to teach an inaccurate interpretation of history, I think we’re not going to do it,” said Fey.
According to The White House, the order argues that schools are teaching their students to question their background based on the ideologies they are learning in school.
Trump has repeatedly expressed his desires to close the Department of Education. This desire has been evident for years among the Republican party with the administration continuously trying to follow through with it. While American education might be lacking in some areas, the termination of the Department of Education will cause serious threats to the next generation. According to Education Data Initiative, with debt companies exploiting more than 42 million Amercians across the nation, federal funds and student aid provide necessary funding, amounting to over 1.7 trillion dollars in student loans, with FAFSA alone distributing 115 billion dollars annually in federal grants, loans, and work-study opportunities.
SCHOOLS:
According to The Texas Tribune, 85% of public school funding is supported by state, local governments and taxes, which supports many important educational aspects. Previously underfunded programs and classes will be hit the hardest with these new policies. The department funds programs for disadvantaged students with dyslexia, autism, ADHD, and other hindering conditions in educational spaces.
“Some students have illnesses. Families aren’t in a position to find a private service to accommodate their child privately. There will be families and students who have legitimate needs that will not have the support when those programs are stripped [of funds],” said LACES Assistant Principal Melissa Shelton.
Programs that help these students such as the 504 plan and other helpful systems will continue to lose funds, along with art, theater, music, and other extracurricular classes.
FEDERAL AID / FAFSA:
Since the government’s priority of federal funding is continuing to decline, the support will likely diminish significantly. While federal aid might just turn into an independent agency or be transferred over to another department, losing federal support would force colleges to distribute this funding on their own, which would further narrow the availability of support.
Because of the lack of support from the government, college tuition on top of living expenses will get that much harder to accommodate.
“There’s so much involved. The tuition is great, but there’s so many other things that go with paying for tuition, like your housing, your transportation, your clothing. God forbid you’re in a different state. I just see this really affecting the people that actually need the loans and the grants that we get through the federal government,” said LACES middle school counselor, Che Grant.
Because of the lack of funds, colleges will have to take matters into their own hands and give out funds out of their own budgets. This would significantly limit the amount of students who receive help, as colleges have other priorities to take into account other than student aid.
“I think they’ll (colleges/schools) be afraid to offer scholarships specifically for certain groups of students because they don’t want to lose that funding,” said LACES High School Counselor Lillian Reyes.
Relying solely on Colleges will just cause less and less students to be able to get the external support they need to succeed.
COLLEGE ADMISSIONS
With students already nervous to apply to college due to documentation and immigration fears, Grant predicts that student participation and college enrollments will continue to decline due to Trump’s policies.
“I see a huge decline in college enrollment for students like myself who couldn’t afford, or whose parents couldn’t afford outright to pay for college. I feel like enrollment is going to drop significantly at certain schools, like our public state schools, our HBCUs that are down south, and our community colleges,” said Grant.
Even students of class of ‘25 are struggling with this doubt of the stability of the government, with Reyes claiming that students are already not seeing the point to fill out FAFSA since they think there might not be federal funding in the future. This, along with college preparation programs might be the first things to be affected.
“I think a lot of college prep programs like EOP and TRIO and some of the other ones that we don’t have at LACES, but that exists at other high schools depend on federal money for [aid]e, so I think that’s where we’re gonna see a huge hit first, maybe even before the schools,” said Reyes.
While education might look different in the near future, there is still hope for the American education system. Teachers and students alike continue to fight for equality among all students. Educators all around just like our own are united in the fight and this is just another hurdle to get to that goal. Despite Trump’s status, America’s rights and liberties will always remain, even if they’re being limited or restricted. The policies have yet to be finalized. Hope is not lost, and teachers advise students to utilize their resources while they’re available even if they become unstable.