The end result of the presidential and congressional elections on Nov. 5 might have large implications for Okay-12 coverage and funding on the federal degree — and for firms working within the training market.
As presidential candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on reverse ends of the political spectrum on many of the necessary faculty points which have emerged on the marketing campaign path.
About This Analyst
Reg Leichty is a co-founder of Foresight Legislation + Coverage, an training regulation agency in Washington D.C., the place he offers strategic recommendation, authorized counsel, and lobbying help to a broad vary of shoppers, together with training businesses and establishments, nonprofit organizations, and firms. Earlier in his profession, he served as telecommunications, know-how, and privateness counsel for former United States Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman Invoice Nelson of Florida, and as a senior legislative aide to former Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska.
And each chambers in Congress are up for grabs. Within the U.S. Home, the GOP controls 220 seats to Democrats’ 212 seats (with three vacancies), whereas within the Senate, Democrats have a slim majority.
A variety of large ticket federal gadgets — from funding for key Okay-12 packages comparable to Title I and Title II to the way forward for the U.S. Division of Training — might be decided by who’s elected in November.
“Each election issues lots for the training system,” stated Reg Leichty, who advises Okay-12 teams on federal price range and coverage as a founding companion at Foresight Legislation + Coverage. “This one is especially consequential on the presidential degree, given a number of the very divisive rhetoric concerning the public training system.”
The specter of cuts to federal funding for teaching programs — multibillion-dollar packages that college districts rely closely on for important providers — looms based mostly on the result of the election.
Many training firms rely on faculty methods having the ability to faucet into these funding streams to be able to pay for services and products in curriculum, evaluation, PD, ed tech, social-emotional studying, and plenty of different areas.
The implications from the election additionally prolong past budgetary points to the chance that the federal authorities might turn into extra concerned in divisive political-culture debates which have roiled many faculty districts.
Regardless of the prevailing divisions, Leichty stated he’s considerably optimistic that lawmakers will put apart political variations and work collectively on education-related points, not less than in some areas.
EdWeek Market Temporary spoke with Leichty about what training firms ought to count on from a Harris or Trump administration and shifting majorities in Congress, the prospect of bipartisanship on training matters, and the way this November’s election will form different areas of presidency necessary to the training trade.
This story is one in a sequence that may take a look at the influence of the November elections on the training sector.
How do Harris and Trump differ on spending on large federal packages which are necessary to colleges and training firms?
It’s protected to say {that a} Trump administration would probably considerably disinvest in public training — and we now have a way of what a Trump training price range appears like. For instance, the not too long ago handed Home Republican price range for the division of ed, the place we noticed an enormous minimize to Title I, full elimination of ESEA Title II, and flat funding for Title IV.
However, a Harris administration is more likely to proceed to be strongly dedicated to offering help for Title I for low-income communities, and in a number of the necessary digital studying packages like Title IV that guarantee all college students have entry to the connectivity and linked gadgets and different helps they should be taught.
Would you count on a Trump administration to enact main adjustments to the U.S. Division of Training?
Former President Trump himself has kind of plainly stated that his focus in training might be on dismantling the division of ed. We all know he has expressed a want to basically alter the federal position in Okay-12 training. I might count on, as they did throughout the Trump administration 4 years in the past, a heavy emphasis on selling entry to non-public training, a concentrate on charters and different kinds of alternative mechanisms. We’ve seen what their priorities are by the final administration and extra not too long ago out on the marketing campaign path.
And the way do you count on a Harris administration would method the division of training?
We’d probably see Vice President Harris champion lots of the similar forms of insurance policies that the Biden administration has targeted on the final 4 years. We’d see a continued dedication by a Harris crew to inexpensive school entry and completion.
We noticed on the Democratic Conference a spotlight and want to emphasise making certain that college students have the employability abilities they should be profitable. That features probably a concentrate on strengthening workforce packages, together with the federal apprenticeship packages that concentrate on abilities acquisition. And I do assume, as we’ve heard on the marketing campaign path, there can be a normal dedication to public training, and the children which are served by the general public faculty system.
Do you assume Trump would use his bully pulpit as president to stoke Okay-12 tradition wars over race and gender which have performed out in states and districts?
I do assume that President Trump’s rhetoric has gone all in on putting training on the middle of the tradition wars. If he have been elected, it’s probably that he’ll proceed to concentrate on the themes that divide slightly than carry individuals collectively as communities to enhance public training. [In 2020, then-President Trump signed an executive order that sought to ban the use of “divisive concepts” in federal contracting. Various of that term were used in many states in efforts to restrict lessons on race and gender.]
There’s additionally the query of how do members on each side of the aisle that need to transfer past a extra divisive debate about public training … come collectively to strengthen and higher serve the children in our communities that want probably the most assist?
It’s in all probability going to stay a particularly divided Congress, post-election. How probably is it that bipartisan dealmaking might happen on faculty points?
There are members on each side of the aisle who’re deeply dedicated to public training. They worth the general public faculties of their communities. Many, if not most of them, are graduates of public faculties, they usually see the worth of it.
Regardless of loads of powerful, decisive conversations on the contrary what we’ve seen is that individuals who help public training on each side of the aisle have come collectively during the last eight years. There’ve been some bumps within the street, however we’ve seen sturdy continued help for making certain that our public faculties stay sort of anchor elements of our communities.
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If Republicans win management of each chambers, what do you assume will occur with Okay-12 funding?
A Republican-controlled Congress is more likely to champion flat, or much less spending in public training. I feel the proof of that’s discovered within the U.S. Home Labor, Well being and Human Providers, Training and Associated businesses fiscal yr 2025 invoice that the committee authorized a number of weeks in the past, which cuts about $14 billion from Title I. That may be unprecedented.
May these deep cuts to Title I really occur?
It’s necessary to keep in mind that except Republicans obtain a super-majority within the Senate, that’s except they’ve 60 votes, it would proceed to be troublesome for these forms of excessive cuts to be adopted. And I feel there are additionally many Republicans within the Senate that disagree with the course that the Home Republicans have taken on training spending.
All that’s to say, whereas training spending would unlikely be on a trajectory to extend in an all Republican Congress subsequent yr, it’s in all probability almost certainly to be flat funded, as we’ve seen in recent times simply due to the issue of transferring deep cuts by a system that may undoubtedly nonetheless have a considerable variety of Senate Democrats and likewise Senate Republicans who aren’t pleasant to the sorts of deep cuts proposed by the Home Appropriations Committee this yr.
What do you count on to be a prime precedence for the following Home and Senate training committees?
The committees, actually in the event that they’re Republican or Democrat managed, will proceed to make progress on the substantive coverage problems with this Congress, which have been about modernizing the Workforce Innovation and Alternative Act, exploring updates to the Nationwide Apprenticeship Act, and trying to discover a path towards increasing Pell Grant entry for shorter time period, top quality packages.
That’s to say members on each side of the aisle are going to be in search of bipartisan victories in what’s more likely to be a really intently divided Congress. What we’ve discovered this yr and final yr is that there’s loads of curiosity amongst Republicans and Democrats, and among the many Senate and Home, to attempt to replace the federal workforce packages. They’ve made loads of progress … in the direction of that objective.
On what different areas do you see prospects for compromise, and motion?
Pondering from an ed-tech perspective, there’s some actually thrilling bipartisan provisions targeted on constructing out far more sturdy knowledge infrastructure designed to advertise higher transparency for college students and employers within the workforce system. There’s some thrilling issues occurring, even in a troublesome sort of political surroundings.
Are there different areas of Okay-12 that might turn into major points for the following Congress?
Proper after the election there’ll probably even be another points that will come up because of their prominence within the marketing campaign season. So there might be early conversations about proficiency challenges that children have skilled publish pandemic, and the steps which are being taken to get all college students again on monitor.
There might be, within the Senate, an enormous concentrate on literacy because of rating member Cassidy’s [U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La.] curiosity and management in that house. I simply actually count on workforce to proceed to be a central focus of whichever occasion is in energy.
Federal stimulus cash is expiring. To what diploma do you count on the following Congress to look at the extent to which these have been good investments?
We’ve already seen the Home Training and Workforce Committee maintain these forms of oversight hearings, which is a central a part of their position as a committee. That’s their job. It’s very potential that, for instance, if there’s a Republican majority within the Senate that we’d see some hearings about ESSER within the well being committee [U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions] as nicely.
However I feel we’ve had that dialog principally already because of the Republican majority within the Home. So sure, there might be some future hearings about ESSER, however I don’t count on it to be the dominant narrative of the following training committee’s work throughout the subsequent Congress.
A Republican-controlled Congress is more likely to champion flat, or much less spending in public training.
Outdoors of the White Home and Congress, what different methods might the federal election have an effect on ed tech or Okay-12?
There are additionally questions of who the following president might be which are linked to issues like judicial appointments. For instance, in the previous few weeks the Fifth Circuit Court docket of Appeals, which is closely populated by appointees of President Trump, has dominated that the income system for the Common Service Fund, together with E-Fee, is unconstitutional.
And we now have an actual query about the way forward for one of many —if not the largest — ed-tech program within the federal authorities, which is E-Fee. So this isn’t simply concerning the bully pulpit, and it’s not simply concerning the composition of the Congress and the way forward for laws. It’s additionally concerning the appointees of the president and the work they’re doing, and the appointment of judges which may have a dramatically completely different view concerning the constitutional relationship of a few of these packages.
On that word, the president appoints the chair of the Federal Communications Fee, which simply confirmed a fifth member final yr after a protracted partisan impasse. How might this election have an effect on the FCC?
If Trump wins, it would convert to a Republican majority they usually might need completely different views on issues like E-Fee, Wi-Fi on buses, or E-Fee help for cellular hotspots. There are coverage points {that a} Trump FCC might train that may be completely different and even dramatically completely different when it comes to how the E-Fee is used and what it’s used for and the way it’s funded.
