Tipsheet

Trump Signs Multiple Executive Orders on Education, Including Against Accreditors Using DEI

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  April 23, 2025 9:00 PM

President Donald Trump signed numerous executive orders on Wednesday, including those touching upon education, specifically as it applies to getting rid of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). "Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education," read the title of one executive order. "Reinstating Common Sense School Discipline Policies," read another. 

That first executive order cracks down on federal accreditors with the higher education, starting off by highlighting how much they have failed in their role:

Section 1. Purpose. A group of higher education accreditors are the gatekeepers that decide which colleges and universities American students can spend the more than $100 billion in Federal student loans and Pell Grants dispersed each year. The accreditors’ job is to determine which institutions provide a quality education — and therefore merit accreditation. Unfortunately, accreditors have not only failed in this responsibility to students, families, and American taxpayers, but they have also abused their enormous authority.

Accreditors routinely approve institutions that are low-quality by the most important measures. The national six-year undergraduate graduation rate was an alarming 64 percent in 2020. Further, many accredited institutions offer undergraduate and graduate programs with a negative return on investment — almost 25 percent of bachelor’s degrees and more than 40 percent of master’s degrees — which may leave students financially worse off and in enormous debt by charging them exorbitant sums for a degree with very modest earnings potential.

The president's executive order references DEI. As the next paragraph goes on to read [emphasis added]:

Notwithstanding this slide in graduation rates and graduates’ performance in the labor market, the spike in debt obligations in relation to expected earnings, and repayment rates on student loans, accreditors have remained improperly focused on compelling adoption of discriminatory ideology, rather than on student outcomes. Some accreditors make the adoption of unlawfully discriminatory practices a formal standard of accreditation, and therefore a condition of accessing Federal aid, through “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or “DEI”-based standards of accreditation that require institutions to “share results on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the context of their mission by considering . . . demographics . . . and resource allocation.” Accreditors have also abused their governance standards to intrude on State and local authority.

"American students and taxpayers deserve better, and my Administration will reform our dysfunctional accreditation system so that colleges and universities focus on delivering high-quality academic programs at a reasonable price. Federal recognition will not be provided to accreditors engaging in unlawful discrimination in violation of Federal law," the order later goes on to read. 

As for what the order will actually do, the Secretary of Education and the Attorney General are tasked with holding these accreditors accountable, and will also consult with the Secretary of Health and Human Services [emphasis added]:

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Sec. 2. Holding Accreditors Accountable for Unlawful Actions. (a) The Secretary of Education shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, hold accountable, including through denial, monitoring, suspension, or termination of accreditation recognition, accreditors who fail to meet the applicable recognition criteria or otherwise violate Federal law, including by requiring institutions seeking accreditation to engage in unlawful discrimination in accreditation-related activity under the guise of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives.

(b) The Attorney General and the Secretary of Education shall, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, investigate and take appropriate action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American law schools that is advanced by the Council, including unlawful “diversity, equity, and inclusion” requirements under the guise of accreditation standards. The Secretary of Education shall also assess whether to suspend or terminate the Council’s status as an accrediting agency under Federal law.

(c) The Attorney General and the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, shall investigate and take appropriate action to terminate unlawful discrimination by American medical schools or graduate medical education entities that is advanced by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education or the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or other accreditors of graduate medical education, including unlawful “diversity, equity, and inclusion” requirements under the guise of accreditation standards. The Secretary of Education shall also assess whether to suspend or terminate the Committee’s or the Accreditation Council’s status as an accrediting agency under Federal law or take other appropriate action to ensure lawful conduct by medical schools, graduate medical education programs, and other entities that receive Federal funding for medical education.

There's also a section on "New Principles of Student-Oriented Accreditation," directing the Secretary of Education to take important steps. 

As was explained when the president was presented with the order, "many of those third party accreditors have relied on sort of woke ideology to accredit universities instead of accrediting based on merit and performance." It was also explained to Trump that "this executive order affects a number of changes to the university accreditation process." The order also applies to law schools and other graduate programs. "The basic idea is to force accreditation to be focused on the merit and the actual results that these universities are providing as opposed to how woke these universities have gotten." 

The idea behind the order involves "charging the Department of Education to look holistically at this accreditation mess and hopefully make it much better."

The president himself lamented how students are being accepted into universities "who can't do math and yet kids who worked really hard and [are] number one at their high school someplace in New Jersey or Mississippi, they can't get into the best schools," with Education Secretary Linda McMahon offered that this speaks to his policies of meritocracy, with a need "to look harder at those universities that aren't enforcing that" idea of merit.

That next executive order also had to do with DEI in education, as there was a policy from the Obama-Biden administration that focused on "equity" forfcritical disciplinary action in schools.

"The Federal Government will no longer tolerate known risks to children’s safety and well-being in the classroom that result from the application of school discipline based on discriminatory and unlawful 'equity' ideology," the order mentioned early on, also going on to cite harms of such a policy from 2014. 

As the Secretary of Education is tasked with doing:

Sec. 3. Ensuring Commonsense School Discipline Policies. (a)  Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Attorney General, shall issue new guidance to local educational agencies (LEAs) and State educational agencies (SEAs) regarding school discipline and their obligations not to engage in racial discrimination under Title VI in all contexts, including school discipline.
(b) The Secretary of Education shall take appropriate action with respect to LEAs and SEAs that fail to comply with Title VI protections against racial discrimination in the application of school discipline.
(c) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Education and the Attorney General shall initiate coordination with Governors and State Attorneys General regarding the prevention of racial discrimination in the application of school discipline.
(d) Within 90 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Defense shall issue a revised school discipline code that appropriately protects and enhances the education of the children of America’s military-service families.
(e) Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Education shall, in coordination with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, submit a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy, regarding the status of discriminatory-equity-ideology-based school discipline and behavior modification techniques in American public education .  The report shall include:
          (i)   an inventory and analysis of the nature and consequences of all Title VI discipline-related investigations since 2009;
          (ii)  an assessment of the role of non-profit organizations that are Federal grant recipients in promoting discriminatory-equity-ideology-based discipline and behavior modification techniques, and recommendations to ensure that Federal taxpayer funds do not flow to programs or activities, including those of non-profit organizations, that promote discriminatory-equity-ideology-based discipline and behavior modification techniques;
         (iii)  an assessment of discipline-related policies and curricular options that do not promote discriminatory equity ideology; and
          (iv) model school discipline policies that promote common sense, protect the safety and educational environment of students, do not promote unlawful discrimination, and are rooted in American values and traditional virtues.

As it was explained to the president, the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the Obama and Biden administrations "issued guidance that made it almost impossible for schools to enforce adequate disciplinary policies," which "created issues in the classroom, for teachers and students alike." 

Schools were focused "on [Critical Race Theory (CRT)] and sort of diversity ideology, instead of actually just enforcing the rules in classrooms to ensure a safe learning environment," but this order "revokes that prior guidance and puts us back in a place where hopefully the Department of Education can focus on education and teachers can focus on teaching in a safe environment." McMahon also spoke to how this was important to her. 

A teacher from North Carolina, Annette Albright, was present to thank the president for signing the order, as she spoke out against the violence in schools, and how this has been an "eight-year journey... to raise awareness to the violence that's in public schools and the critical need to address" it. 

Albright spoke to how this has been such a long journey because "most administrations like to keep the violence hidden," as Trump nodded. She also visited three students who "should have been here" but were instead killed, as she stressed how such an order "was very important and critical" when it comes to the need to have schools be "safe environments."