Education policy: How Harris and Trump differ on K-12, higher education and more

When it comes to education, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have vastly different views for the nation.

Several unions representing educators and administrators -- including the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and the American Federation of School Administrators -- have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president.

Former federal education leaders President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Education William Bennett and Reagan's Under Secretary of Education Gary Bauer have registered their support for Trump for President. Trump's Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has said she would work for Trump again but has stopped short of an endorsement.

Take a look at their record and what the two have said so far about their hopes and plans for both K-12 and higher education.

The Department of Education

Trump's Agenda47 campaign has proposed eliminating the U.S. Department of Education which, according to the DOE website, "establishes policy for, administers and coordinates most federal assistance to education." Trump, in a campaign video, has said he wants states, not the federal government, to have control over schools.

Throughout Trump's presidency, he proposed billions in cuts to the Department of Education's budget.

Harris' campaign as well as the Biden-Harris administration have criticized Trump for threatening to dismantle the department while expressing support for federal funding and policy initiatives from the agency.

Harris has been criticized for not putting forth many official policy positions, including education, since her campaign began roughly a month ago. Amid scrutiny, her campaign released an economic agenda with expectations of future policy rollouts to come in the final days on the campaign trail.

School choice

Trump has backed universal school choice programs, which allow a student's allotment of public education funds to be transferred to nonpublic schooling options -- including private and religious schools or homeschooling. Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act during his presidency, which his campaign states allowed parents to use up to $10,000 from a 529 education savings account to cover K-12 tuition costs at a school of their choice.

The Democratic 2025 platform opposes the use of private-school vouchers and tuition tax credits, opportunity scholarships, "and other schemes that divert taxpayer-funded resources away from public education."

Funding for low-income students and families

The Biden-Harris administration secured billions of dollars to increase federal funding for schools that largely serve low-income families, directing billions toward resources and funding for low-income schools but also increased funding to special education services, career and technical education and English-language learning programs.

In a 2019 bill, then-Sen. Harris proposed establishing “Family Friendly School” policies at 500 elementary schools to align the school day with the workday in support of working families.

Harris has spoken out in favor of 21st Century Community Learning Centers -- which host programs predominantly for students who are in high-poverty and low-performing schools and the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs which provides yearslong grants for services at high-poverty middle and high schools.

Trump proposed cuts to both programs in annual budget proposals under his administration.

Both the Biden-Harris and Trump-Pence administrations have seen increases to Head Start, a program that provides federally subsidized preschool for low-income children.

The Biden-Harris administration increased funding for Head Start by roughly $2 billion since the start of their term. Trump's administration saw a roughly $1.3 billion increase during his term.

Trump also sought to "expand K-12 educational options for disadvantaged children impacted by the pandemic," and signed an Executive Order to provide emergency K-12 scholarships using Federal Community Service Block Grants so students could access in-person learning opportunities in December 2020.

K-12 curriculum

Trump's campaign has detailed a plan centering on prayer in public schools, an expansion of parental rights in education, patriotism as a centerpiece of education and the "American Way of Life."

This includes a dismantling of so-called "woke" or diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in education and reinstating his administration's 1776 Commission which focuses education on the history and "values" of the founding of the United States of America. However, Trump has called for cutting federal funding for schools or programs that feature “critical race theory, gender ideology or other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content onto our children.”

Trump plans to "promote positive education about the nuclear family, the roles of mothers and fathers, and celebrating rather than erasing the things that make men and women different and unique."

Harris has spoken out against efforts to ban books and restrict classroom content regarding race.

She called controversial Black history guidelines in Florida in 2023 "revisionist history" for requiring middle schoolers to learn "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

Teacher pay

When Harris first ran for president in 2019, she proposed closing "the teacher pay gap" between teachers and other professions that require a college degree -- which Harris said would be a $13,500 salary bump for teachers as schools nationwide continue to report staffing shortages and poor funding.

According to the National Education Association (NEA), the national average for starting teacher salaries is $44,530 and the national average teacher salary is $69,544. The Department of Education also found that 94% of teachers paid out of pocket for school supplies for their classrooms in a 2018 study.

Trump's Agenda47 states that he will support teacher merit pay, which ties a teacher's compensation to student performance. Some studies have shown that merit pay programs could improve student outcomes, while some argue there is not enough evidence, and that there are various factors that impact student performance -- including funding and resource inequity.

Teacher tenure and hiring

Trump's Agenda47 states he plans to put an end to teacher tenure laws. These laws are described by the United Federation of Teachers as state laws that prevent a school district from dismissing a tenured teacher without due process. Most states have tenure laws in place, however at least 10 states have zero or limited tenure laws, according to the NEA.

In a campaign video, Trump states he wants to abolish these policies "to remove bad teachers."

Trump also plans to create a credentialing body to certify teachers who "embrace patriotic values and support the American Way of Life" and encourage schools to allow trained teachers to carry concealed weapons at school.

The Biden-Harris administration has touted the tens of billions of dollars it has invested in staffing through the American Rescue Plan, which filled gaps in employment stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Biden-Harris administration's American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act funded the hiring and training of more counselors, social workers and other staff in schools nationwide amid what has been called a mental health crisis.

Student loan forgiveness and free higher education

Harris has long been a proponent of free two-year college tuition for most students and for free four-year college and trade school tuition for students from lower- and middle-income families.

The Biden administration has touted student loan forgiveness as a central part of its education platform -- in July, the Department of Education laid out options for roughly 25 million borrowers to have some, or all, of their debt canceled.

This most recent proposal came after Biden and Harris' initial effort to cancel some or all debt for 43 million people was overturned by the Supreme Court. Despite the roadblock, the administration says it has forgiven more than $144 billion for millions of Americans through other programs.

More than 940,000 of these are public servants who have their federal student loans forgiven through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program -- up from the 7,000 recipients enrolled in the program before the Biden-Harris administration took office.

During Trump's time in office, he proposed eliminating the PSLF and making cuts to the Pell Grant program.

Trump's agenda for 2025 focuses on plans to create a new, free university called the "American Academy" and fund it by "taxing, fining and suing" private universities.

"Its mission will be to make a truly world-class education available to every American, free of charge, and do it without adding a single dime to the federal debt," said Trump. "This institution will gather an entire universe of the highest quality educational content, covering the full spectrum of human knowledge and skills, and make that material available to every American citizen online for free."

Recent Title IX changes

The Biden-Harris administration recently issued new rules that say Title IX protects students from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and expanded protections from sex-based harassment to include “sexual violence and unwelcome sex-based conduct that creates a hostile environment by limiting or denying a person’s ability to participate in or benefit from a school’s education program or activity.”

The regulations update also enhances protections for students, employees and applicants against discrimination "based on pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, lactation, related medical conditions, or recovery from these conditions." However, parts of it have been blocked from enforcement by conservative-led lawsuits.

Trump has said he would overturn the new regulations connected to what he has called "gender insanity."

Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Both Trump and Harris have invested in HBCUs, which have long been underfunded by the federal government, throughout the years.

During Trump's time in office, he signed into law the bipartisan FUTURE Act to permanently send $255 million in annual funding for HBCUs, forgave $322 million in disaster loans to four HBCUs in 2018, and signed legislation that included more than $100 million for scholarships, research and centers of excellence at HBCU land-grant institutions.

Harris proposed increased funding for HBCUs in her first presidential run -- particularly focusing on training for Black educators. The Biden-Harris administration sent more than $16 billion in funding and investments to these schools from 2021 to 2024.