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 stage — and for corporations 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 college points which have emerged on the marketing campaign path.
About This Analyst
Reg Leichty is a co-founder of Foresight Regulation + 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 lot of large ticket federal gadgets — from funding for key Okay-12 packages akin to Title I and Title II to the way forward for the U.S. Division of Training — may very well be decided by who’s elected in November.
“Each election issues so much for the training system,” stated Reg Leichty, who advises Okay-12 teams on federal funds and coverage as a founding accomplice at Foresight Regulation + Coverage. “This one is especially consequential on the presidential stage, given among 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 primarily based on the end result of the election.
Many training corporations depend on college 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 results from the election additionally lengthen past budgetary points to the likelihood that the federal authorities might change into extra concerned in divisive political-culture debates which have roiled many college 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, a minimum of in some areas.
EdWeek Market Temporary spoke with Leichty about what training corporations 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 business.
This story is one in a sequence that may take a look at the impression of the November elections on the training sector.
How do Harris and Trump differ on spending on large federal packages which can be necessary to colleges and training corporations?
It’s secure to say {that a} Trump administration would probably considerably disinvest in public training — and we’ve got a way of what a Trump training funds appears like. For instance, the not too long ago handed Home Republican funds 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 prone to proceed to be strongly dedicated to offering help for Title I for low-income communities, and in among the necessary digital studying packages like Title IV that guarantee all college students have entry to the connectivity and linked units and different helps they should be taught.
Would you count on a Trump administration to enact main modifications to the U.S. Division of Training?
Former President Trump himself has form of plainly stated that his focus in training might be on dismantling the division of ed. We all know he has expressed a need to basically alter the federal position in Okay-12 training. I’d count on, as they did in the course of the Trump administration 4 years in the past, a heavy emphasis on selling entry to personal training, a give attention to charters and other forms of selection mechanisms. We’ve seen what their priorities are by means of 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 most of the identical sorts of insurance policies that the Biden administration has centered on the final 4 years. We’d see a continued dedication by a Harris workforce to reasonably priced school entry and completion.
We noticed on the Democratic Conference a spotlight and need to emphasise making certain that college students have the employability abilities they must be profitable. That features probably a give attention to strengthening workforce packages, together with the federal apprenticeship packages that target abilities acquisition. And I do suppose, as we’ve heard on the marketing campaign path, there can be a common dedication to public training, and the children which can be served by the general public college system.
Do you suppose 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 suppose that President Trump’s rhetoric has gone all in on inserting training on the heart of the tradition wars. If he have been elected, it’s probably that he’ll proceed to give attention to the themes that divide relatively than convey 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 an especially divided Congress, post-election. How probably is it that bipartisan dealmaking might happen on college points?
There are members on each side of the aisle who’re deeply dedicated to public training. They worth the general public colleges of their communities. Many, if not most of them, are graduates of public colleges, they usually see the worth of it.
Regardless of plenty 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 highway, however we’ve seen sturdy continued help for making certain that our public colleges stay type of anchor components of our communities.
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If Republicans win management of each chambers, what do you suppose will occur with Okay-12 funding?
A Republican-controlled Congress is prone to champion flat, or much less spending in public training. I believe 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 authorised a number of weeks in the past, which cuts about $14 billion from Title I. That will be unprecedented.
May these deep cuts to Title I really occur?
It’s necessary to do not forget that except Republicans obtain a super-majority within the Senate, that’s except they’ve 60 votes, it should proceed to be tough for these sorts of excessive cuts to be adopted. And I believe 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 most certainly to be flat funded, as we’ve seen lately simply due to the problem of shifting deep cuts by means of a system that may undoubtedly nonetheless have a considerable variety of Senate Democrats and likewise Senate Republicans who usually are not pleasant to the sorts of deep cuts proposed by the Home Appropriations Committee this yr.
What do you count on to be a high precedence for the following Home and Senate training committees?
The committees, truthfully 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 seeking 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 prone to be a really intently divided Congress. What we’ve discovered this yr and final yr is that there’s plenty of curiosity amongst Republicans and Democrats, and among the many Senate and Home, to attempt to replace the federal workforce packages. They’ve made plenty of progress … in direction of that purpose.
On what different areas do you see potentialities for compromise, and motion?
Pondering from an ed-tech perspective, there’s some actually thrilling bipartisan provisions centered on constructing out rather more sturdy information infrastructure designed to advertise larger transparency for college students and employers within the workforce system. There’s some thrilling issues occurring, even in a tough type of political atmosphere.
Are there different areas of Okay-12 that would change 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 may very well be early conversations about proficiency challenges that youngsters have skilled put up pandemic, and the steps which can be being taken to get all college students again on observe.
There may very well be, within the Senate, an enormous give attention to 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 get together 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 got already seen the Home Training and Workforce Committee maintain these sorts of oversight hearings, which is a central a part of their position as a committee. That’s their job. It’s very attainable 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 properly.
However I believe we’ve had that dialog principally already because of the Republican majority within the Home. So sure, there may very well 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 in the course of the subsequent Congress.
A Republican-controlled Congress is prone 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 can be linked to issues like judicial appointments. For instance, in the previous couple of 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-Price, 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-Price. 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 totally different view concerning the constitutional relationship of a few of these packages.
On that be aware, 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 should convert to a Republican majority they usually might need totally different views on issues like E-Price, Wi-Fi on buses, or E-Price help for cell hotspots. There are coverage points {that a} Trump FCC might train that is likely to be totally different and even dramatically totally different when it comes to how the E-Price is used and what it’s used for and the way it’s funded.
