Since former President Donald Trump won the November election, educators鈥� concerns have centered on his politically complicated pledges to cut federal education funding and dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, and what stamp former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon, whom he plans to nominate to lead the U.S. Department of Education, might put on the agency.
But Trump鈥檚 vision for disruptive change crosses all Cabinet agencies, with potentially broad implications for K-12 schools.
That鈥檚 because many agencies beyond the Education Department have a toehold in what schools do and the policies that affect their students.
Trump鈥檚 Cabinet picks could affect everything from the food that鈥檚 served in school cafeterias to what school safety strategies are prioritized in federal grant programs.
Here鈥檚 a breakdown of how nine key officials could influence education.
Click on a cabinet agency to jump to the relevant section:
- Agriculture
- Commerce
- Defense
- Health and Human Services
- Homeland Security
- Interior
- Justice
- Other relevant officials
Agriculture
Former Trump policy aide Brooke Rollins, his pick to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has not outlined public positions on one of the agency鈥檚 key K-12 responsibilities: overseeing federal school meal programs.
Rollins, a lawyer, served as the acting director of the Domestic Policy Council at the end of Trump鈥檚 first administration. She鈥檚 most recently served as president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, which was formed in 2021 to advance Trump鈥檚 political agenda, and which has advocated for using public funds to send students to private schools.
If confirmed, Rollins will oversee the Agriculture Department at a time when many of Trump鈥檚 political allies, including the authors of the conservative Project 2025 agenda, a list of recommendations for every federal agencies spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, have pushed for restricting or eliminating what鈥檚 known as the community eligibility program. (Trump sought to distance himself from Project 2025 during the campaign, but he has selected several of its contributors for positions inside his administration.)
Community Eligibility, created under the Obama administration, allows schools and districts to provide universal free school meals if at least 25 percent of students automatically qualify through participation in social safety-net programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps.
Anti-hunger advocates have credited community eligibility with driving down rates of child hunger and eliminating the stigma of eating free school meals. But conservative members of Congress have said it is too expansive, providing a free benefit to students whose families could afford to pay out of pocket.
The next agriculture secretary will also oversee implementation of new nutrition standards for school meal programs. Those rules, finalized by the Biden administration in April 2024, include a new, gradual limit on added sugars and phased-in sodium restrictions.
The first Trump administration criticized such heightened nutrition requirements. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump鈥檚 pick for Health and Human Services secretary, has called for an end to processed foods in school meals, but he would have limited influence over the program if confirmed to that role.
Commerce
Howard Lutnick, Trump鈥檚 transition co-chair and his pick to lead the U.S. Department of Commerce, would oversee as the leader of the agency.
The decennial population count has significant consequences for school districts. Census data are used to allot funding for more than 300 federal programs, including the National School Lunch Program, Title I grants for high-poverty schools, and Head Start early-education programs. Districts also use population data to set attendance boundaries and to plan for projected shifts in enrollment.
In his first term, Trump鈥檚 administration pushed unsuccessfully to add a question about citizenship status to the Census and to alter the population count to exclude undocumented people. Opponents of that plan argued it could have a chilling effect on responses from households afraid of federal immigration enforcement and threaten the accuracy of the final tally.
While Lutnick鈥斺�攈as not offered a public position on the Census, Project 2025 recommends that Trump should
Defense
Trump picked to serve as secretary of defense, a role that includes oversight of a network of schools that educate children on military installations around the world.
The Department of Defense Education Activity operates 160 schools in 11 countries with a combined enrollment of 66,000 students.
Hegseth is a long-time proponent of purging schools of what he sees as leftist ideology and promoting instruction asserting Christianity鈥檚 role in the nation鈥檚 history and promoting patriotism, in December. Leading the Defense Department would allow him to appoint a new director for the DODEA who could reshape things like teacher training and curriculum.
Project 2025 calls for a complete audit of the schools鈥� policies and curricula and legislation to create education savings accounts, which would allow military families to send their children to private schools.
The Pentagon is also currently collaborating with a group of state schools chiefs to make it easier for states to access data on students鈥� postsecondary enlistment. Including such information in college and career data could give states a clearer picture of graduates鈥� career paths.
Health and Human Services
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump鈥檚 pick to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has a long record of controversial positions on issues relevant to K-12 schools, including opposition to states鈥� school vaccine requirements and COVID-19 mitigation efforts.
If confirmed, the environmental lawyer would lead an agency that collects and reports data on student drug use, suicidal thoughts, exposure to violence, and other issues related to child well-being. In response to a parents鈥� rights movement that is frequently skeptical of student data collection, some states have withdrawn from that national Youth Risk Behavior Survey in recent years.
Kennedy鈥檚 vaccine criticism includes parroting debunked claims about the safety and efficacy of childhood vaccines. Leading the nation鈥檚 public health infrastructure would give him a new megaphone to share those ideas, even if he does not take any concrete policy actions.
The Health and Human Services Department includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which develops the immunization schedules that inform states鈥� school vaccination requirements. It also includes the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates the vaccines themselves.
HHS also oversees Head Start, an early-childhood education program for low-income children. Project 2025 calls for eliminating that program, calling it wasteful and ineffective, but Kennedy has not taken a public position on the matter.
The agency also oversees the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which has sought to make it easier for schools to seek Medicaid reimbursements for special education and mental health services.
As part of his 鈥淢ake America Healthy Again鈥� agenda, Kennedy has also called for removing processed foods from school meals. That program is largely the responsibility of the Agriculture Department, but Kennedy could influence it by rewriting a planned update of the national dietary guidelines that help shape nutrition requirements for school meals.
Homeland Security
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump鈥檚 , would be a key figure in the president-elect鈥檚 plans for a dramatic shift in immigration policy with strong implications for schools.
Noem, who once sent her state鈥檚 National Guard unit to Texas鈥� southern border, could help determine how immigration officials interact with schools, how mixed-status families are handled in deportation efforts, and public messaging about the administration鈥檚 plans. All of those choices would have consequences for undocumented students, and could affect school climate and student engagement in communities with large immigrant populations.
An estimated 5.5 million children lived with an unauthorized immigrant parent in 2019, representing about 7 percent of the U.S. child population, according to the . Of these children, 4.7 million, or 86 percent, were U.S. citizens; 726,000, or 13 percent, were themselves unauthorized.
Noem has said she supports aggressive immigration enforcement.
Trump plans to rescind a longstanding policy that has discouraged immigration agents from carrying out enforcement activities in places considered to be 鈥減rotected areas"鈥攕chools, hospitals, churches, and other places where children gather, such as bus stops, after-school programs, and child care facilities,
Trump鈥檚 aides have also pushed for a challenge Plyler v. Doe, a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision that made access to a free, public education a constitutional right regardless of a student鈥檚 immigration status.
Homeland Security also includes the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency, which coordinates a clearinghouse of school safety strategies and advises schools on security and preparation for natural disasters.
CISA also oversees federal efforts to help school and district administrators respond to the growing threat of cyber attacks.
Interior
Trump鈥檚 plans to appoint North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Interior were met with praise from tribal leaders in his state, .
In addition to overseeing public lands, the Interior Department operates the Bureau of Indian Education, which operates or supports 183 schools on 64 reservations in 23 states, serving approximately 40,000 Native American students.
The agency has been criticized for poor academic performance, , and failure to comply with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. Project 2025 suggests offering education savings accounts to families with children in BIE schools, which would they could use to send their children to private schools.
Current Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and the first Native American person to hold the position, launched an investigation into historical instances of abuse and neglect in federal Indian boarding schools from the early 1800s through the 1970s. An investigation Haaland released in July found that at least 973 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian while attending federally operated or supported schools.
Justice
Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general and Trump鈥檚 pick for U.S. attorney general, has sided with the president-elect on some of the most contentious issues that affect K-12 education, including school safety measures and opposition to protections for undocumented students.
If confirmed to lead the Justice Department, she will oversee programs related to student civil rights, school safety, and funding for school police.
The agency鈥檚 office for civil rights often works with the U.S. Department of Education to interpret and enforce civil rights laws related to disability rights, LGBTQ+ status, race, ethnicity, and students鈥� national origins.
Trump鈥檚 first administration scrapped guidance issued under the Obama administration on preventing racial disparities in school discipline and on the rights of transgender students to use restrooms and pronouns that align with their gender identity. Conservatives criticized Biden鈥檚 positions on transgender students and school sports, and reversing those policies is likely to be a priority for Trump鈥檚 second administration.
As state attorney general, Bondi joined a multi-state case challenging Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy former President Barack Obama created through executive action, which allowed undocumented people brought to the United States as children a pathway to remain in the country.
Bondi was Florida attorney general during the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in which a former student killed 17 people and wounded 17 others. Following that tragedy, she worked with victims鈥� families to pass a comprehensive school safety bill that included new funding for student mental health supports and security measures, like locks and cameras; required schools to establish threat-assessment teams to respond to concerning student conduct; and established a program that allowed trained, screened 鈥渟chool guardians鈥� to carry guns campus.
That law also raised the minimum gun purchase age from 18 to 21 and included a 鈥渞ed flag law,鈥� a policy supported by both Bondi and Trump that allows courts to suspend an individual鈥檚 access to firearms if they are deemed a threat to themselves or others. Those laws have faced some criticism from gun-rights organizations, but they鈥檝e also been supported by school safety researchers citing research that mass shooters often signal their intention to harm in advance.
While school safety is largely governed by state and local policy, the Justice Department administers several programs that affect it, including the Community Oriented Policing grants that can be used to hire school resource officers, and violence-prevention programs.
Other key officials
Some officials in positions that aren鈥檛 Cabinet-level could also have dramatic impacts on K-12 schools.
Office of Management and Budget: Trump selected Russell Vought, a co-author of Project 2025, to direct the Office on Management and Budget, which helps prepare budgets that align with the president鈥檚 priorities.
Project 2025 calls for reducing federal education spending and consolidating programs into broad block grants, which Trump proposed unsuccessfully in his first term.
Vought previously led the office at the end of Trump鈥檚 first term.
Federal Communications Commission: Trump chose Brendan Carr to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, an agency that oversees the $4 billion E-Rate program, which funds school technology, cybersecurity, and internet access.
E-Rate is funded through the $9 billion Universal Service Fund, which collects fees from telephone and cable companies. The Supreme Court is considering a lawsuit contending those fees are an illegal tax.
Carr wrote the Project 2025 chapter on the FCC. In it, he says Congress should require Big Tech companies, like Google and Amazon, to pay into the Universal Service Fund.
As a current commissioner, Carr has supported a push to roll back net neutrality regulations, which were recently struck down by a federal appeals court.
