President Trump signed multiple executive orders on Wednesday targeting the country’s education system, from discipline in K-12 schools to how universities are accredited.
Regarding school discipline, Trump signed an order in the Oval Office intended to undo policies from former Presidents Obama and Biden that Will Scharf, White House staff secretary, said “created issues in the classroom for teachers and students alike.”
Behavioral issues have been on the rise since the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is unclear how much influence the federal government will be able to have over individual school policies on this issue.
“President Trump is taking historic and commonsense action to boost school safety standards. Disciplinary decisions should be based solely on students’ behavior and actions,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said.
Another Wednesday order seeks to further the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into American classrooms.
“The basic idea of this executive order is to ensure that we properly train the workforce of the future by ensuring that school children, young Americans, are adequately trained in AI tools, so that they can be competitive in the economy years from now into the future, as AI becomes a bigger and bigger deal,” said Scharf.