Expanding Educational Freedom

This order directs federal agencies to:

1)     give guidance on how formula-based Department of Education funds can be used by states “to support K-12 educational choice initiatives;”

2)     develop plans to use discretionary grant funds from various agencies to expand education choice and “support families who choose educational alternatives to governmental entities, including private and faith-based options;” and,

3)     develop a plan for children enrolled in Bureau of Indian Education Schools to use federal dollars for “private, faith-based, or public charter schools.”

 What to watch: States supportive of education choice will welcome these repurposed funds, and overall this rule promises to increase state and local authority compared to the Biden Administration, which threatened funding elimination to coerce school districts into complying with its gender identity, race equity, and curriculum demands. How federal agencies might err, from a federalism perspective, would be to go beyond offering additional resources for state choice programs to replace Biden-era funding strings with their own strings.

Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families – The White House

January 29, 2025