After years of unbridled government growth—which marginalized hard-working individuals and families while vesting more power with distant, unelected bureaucrats—voters across Wyoming and our country sent a clear message in 2024: They are tired of politics as usual that usurp local control, dip deeper and deeper into our wallets, and prioritize high-minded ideology ahead of kitchen-table issues.
President Trump, the Disruptor in Chief, has done what few politicians have the courage to do—exactly what he promised. In its second term, the Trump administration has once again upended the status quo. In education, the positive changes will reverberate.
As Wyoming's Superintendent of Public Instruction, I worked with President Trump and his administration during his first term. Together, we strengthened protections against sexual crimes and reaffirmed religious freedoms on college campuses. We began to reform the accreditation process, holding schools more accountable for student outcomes. And, we stopped federal funds from supporting radical curricula that belittled our country. Much of the good work was undone by the Biden auto-pen.
Trump 2.0 lands differently. From day one, President Trump and Secretary of Education McMahon asserted an unwavering commitment to improved student outcomes and returning education authority to states and school districts. This is good news for any education leader who is not beholden to teachers' unions.
In the first few months of the Trump administration, Secretary McMahon released new priorities, called supplemental priorities. Before I share them, let's step back to 2023 when priorities included promoting equity and diversifying the teacher workforce. The Trump administration found that four of 6 priorities advanced a discriminatory ideology.
Secretary McMahon's priorities give American education back to children. They are: (1) using scientific methods to teach children to read; (2) expanding school choice; (3) reducing bureaucracy and federal oversight; (4) using AI responsibly and innovatively; (5) teaching American history accurately; and (6) ensuring K-12 schools integrate workforce readiness into the curriculum.
These are priorities, not platitudes. States that align their reform efforts will have an advantage when competing for federal funds. Philanthropists will place billions to see successful reform in these areas. And as education transforms, researchers will study the work and scale it up so that even more students benefit.
I know Secretary McMahon to be sharp, focused, and resolute. She is very concerned about bureaucracy, compliance burdens, and other issues that distract teachers from teaching and students from learning. Recently, her pared-down U.S. Department of Education granted Iowa a waiver to combine four major federal funding streams into a single block grant that will minimize compliance, cut costs, and place dollars where they belong—the classroom. Iowa was first to act; others will follow. Spending power, once coveted by the feds, is now in the hands of states.
With President Trump's leadership in the White House and like-minded conservative leaders in Congress, there is a real opportunity to lock in lasting reform. Executive orders and regulations can be reversed, but laws endure. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act and other actions codified school choice and parental empowerment, ensuring these reforms will outlast any single administration. And, while not billed as education action, Trump Accounts will change the trajectory for millions of American children.
Congress should streamline the maze of individual federal education programs—many created for different purposes and at different times—and reduce the administrative burden they impose, converting them into flexible block grants that empower states to deploy resources more strategically and effectively. The education transformation underway today is massive and not temporary. America's children will benefit for generations to come.
Jillian Balow is the former Wyoming state superintendent of public instruction and current Republican candidate for Wyoming's lone, At-Large Congressional Seat.
