When President Trump pledged to disrupt the status quo in the U.S. education system and turn around a bureaucracy that, for more than 50 years, has consistently produced worsening results, students and parents cheered. Democrats hemmed and hawed. Special interests dug in their heels. But few thought it could actually be done.
Now, just more than a year into his second term, President Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon have and are delivering in ways that exceed even the highest expectations.
The Trump administration has ended the left’s radical DEI indoctrination agenda on college campuses, with the President himself confronting some of the worst perpetrators that were once considered too elite to touch. It has begun to restore decision-making to families and reduced teachers’ unions to name-calling. And it has stopped Biden’s attack on Christian colleges and religious freedoms, even launching the “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias.”
Last month, Secretary McMahon delivered another, quieter but just as important, victory for hard-working families. The AHEAD negotiated rulemaking committee unanimously voted to repeal the Gainful Employment Rule. This Biden-era regulatory relic selectively targeted career colleges and faith-based schools to prop up failing public and private universities.
To borrow the vernacular of the WWE, McMahon’s incredibly successful former enterprise, the Trump-McMahon tag team, is putting the smackdown on a higher education system that, until now, prioritized partisan dogma ahead of student outcomes.
The Gainful Employment Rule perfectly embodied the Obama and Biden administrations’ weaponization of the federal rulebook. It required higher education programs to demonstrate that their graduates were expected to earn more than their peers without a degree. Not a bad idea so far, at least in theory.
However, regulators applied the rule narrowly, targeting only proprietary schools—Christian and career colleges that equip students with the skills for in-demand, sought-after careers. Public and private universities were left free to continue to peddle worthless degrees that often came with massive price tags.
An American Principles Project analysis found that nearly 70 percent of enforcement actions by the Biden Department of Education targeted Christian and career colleges. The average fine against Christians schools for “Clery Act” violations was more than three-times higher compared to public and private institutions. Not surprisingly, no Ivy League school was the recipient of a punitive action.
And why not? Conventional four-year schools were (and many still are) an indoctrination machine to steep America’s youth in liberal wokeism. Consider that two-thirds of recent graduates have a more positive opinion of socialism than Capitalism, or that more than 60 percent of college grads come out voting Democrat. Of course, the previous administrations wanted to make those schools students’ only option!
President Trump, Secretary McMahon, and their colleagues—unsung leaders like Education Undersecretary Nicholas Kent and Deputy Assistant Secretary Jeffrey Andrade, who headed this course correction—understand that competition and student choice foster innovation and produce better outcomes. That’s why they leveled the playing field, holding every type of school to a single high standard.
The AHEAD committee implemented a new “earnings premium” test—an unbiased, uniform metric to ensure post-secondary programs deliver a valuable education. Schools must now show that their graduates, on average, earn above fair and reasonable income benchmarks. Programs that fail to do so for consecutive years will lose eligibility for federal student aid.
This practical change better ensures that all colleges and universities are held accountable for how well prepared students are for careers after earning a degree. Not just some schools; all schools. And it renders Gainful Employment obsolete. With all colleges and universities held to the same high standard, there’s no need for selective enforcement.
President Trump and Secretary McMahon aren’t stopping to take a victory lap. Only weeks after concluding the AHEAD committee, the administration announced another rulemaking this spring to review college accreditors—a racket that, in Mr. Kent’s words, “has become a protectionist system” that drives up costs and bureaucratic waste.
President Trump and Secretary McMahon promised to refocus the U.S. education system back on what matters—preparing students to lead in an increasingly competitive global economy. They are delivering on that commitment above and beyond what even the most optimistic observers could have imagined, and they are just warming up. LGBTQ+ Studies and History of Sexuality departments must be shaking in their boots.
Terry Schilling is President of the American Principles Project
Now, just more than a year into his second term, President Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon have and are delivering in ways that exceed even the highest expectations.
The Trump administration has ended the left’s radical DEI indoctrination agenda on college campuses, with the President himself confronting some of the worst perpetrators that were once considered too elite to touch. It has begun to restore decision-making to families and reduced teachers’ unions to name-calling. And it has stopped Biden’s attack on Christian colleges and religious freedoms, even launching the “Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias.”
Last month, Secretary McMahon delivered another, quieter but just as important, victory for hard-working families. The AHEAD negotiated rulemaking committee unanimously voted to repeal the Gainful Employment Rule. This Biden-era regulatory relic selectively targeted career colleges and faith-based schools to prop up failing public and private universities.
To borrow the vernacular of the WWE, McMahon’s incredibly successful former enterprise, the Trump-McMahon tag team, is putting the smackdown on a higher education system that, until now, prioritized partisan dogma ahead of student outcomes.
The Gainful Employment Rule perfectly embodied the Obama and Biden administrations’ weaponization of the federal rulebook. It required higher education programs to demonstrate that their graduates were expected to earn more than their peers without a degree. Not a bad idea so far, at least in theory.
However, regulators applied the rule narrowly, targeting only proprietary schools—Christian and career colleges that equip students with the skills for in-demand, sought-after careers. Public and private universities were left free to continue to peddle worthless degrees that often came with massive price tags.
An American Principles Project analysis found that nearly 70 percent of enforcement actions by the Biden Department of Education targeted Christian and career colleges. The average fine against Christians schools for “Clery Act” violations was more than three-times higher compared to public and private institutions. Not surprisingly, no Ivy League school was the recipient of a punitive action.
And why not? Conventional four-year schools were (and many still are) an indoctrination machine to steep America’s youth in liberal wokeism. Consider that two-thirds of recent graduates have a more positive opinion of socialism than Capitalism, or that more than 60 percent of college grads come out voting Democrat. Of course, the previous administrations wanted to make those schools students’ only option!
President Trump, Secretary McMahon, and their colleagues—unsung leaders like Education Undersecretary Nicholas Kent and Deputy Assistant Secretary Jeffrey Andrade, who headed this course correction—understand that competition and student choice foster innovation and produce better outcomes. That’s why they leveled the playing field, holding every type of school to a single high standard.
The AHEAD committee implemented a new “earnings premium” test—an unbiased, uniform metric to ensure post-secondary programs deliver a valuable education. Schools must now show that their graduates, on average, earn above fair and reasonable income benchmarks. Programs that fail to do so for consecutive years will lose eligibility for federal student aid.
This practical change better ensures that all colleges and universities are held accountable for how well prepared students are for careers after earning a degree. Not just some schools; all schools. And it renders Gainful Employment obsolete. With all colleges and universities held to the same high standard, there’s no need for selective enforcement.
President Trump and Secretary McMahon aren’t stopping to take a victory lap. Only weeks after concluding the AHEAD committee, the administration announced another rulemaking this spring to review college accreditors—a racket that, in Mr. Kent’s words, “has become a protectionist system” that drives up costs and bureaucratic waste.
President Trump and Secretary McMahon promised to refocus the U.S. education system back on what matters—preparing students to lead in an increasingly competitive global economy. They are delivering on that commitment above and beyond what even the most optimistic observers could have imagined, and they are just warming up. LGBTQ+ Studies and History of Sexuality departments must be shaking in their boots.
Terry Schilling is President of the American Principles Project
