In a recent address, president-elect Donald Trump announced a plan to tackle what he describes as “racial discrimination” within American schools and universities. Trump proposed using federal civil rights cases to penalize institutions that, in his view, promote discriminatory policies under the guise of equity (DEI). His approach would target schools that continue these practices, with a proposed tax on their endowments and fines that could reach the full amount of their endowments.
Trump explained that the funds gathered from these fines would be repurposed, with a portion allocated as restitution for individuals he says have been negatively affected by such policies. “Colleges have gotten hundreds of billions of dollars from hardworking taxpayers,” Trump stated, arguing that it’s time to “get this anti-American insanity out of our institutions once and for all.”
Trump’s stance on reforming higher education and removing policies he sees as divisive. He believes that shifting these funds will help restore what he calls “real education in America.”
