President-elect Donald Trump enlisted a star-powered new staffer to mastermind his bid to abolish the U.S. Department of Education: Billionaire tech magnate Elon Musk.
Musk鈥檚 new role as a chief architect of Trump鈥檚 plan to slash and remake the federal government may also have big implications for schools use of technology, treatment of transgender students, work related to kids鈥� social media use, and what schools鈥� STEM and career and technical education programs might look like.
Trump on Nov. 12 tapped Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and the owner of X (the social media company formerly known as Twitter) to head up a new federal 鈥淒epartment of Government Efficiency,鈥� alongside former Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Their mission: To 鈥渄ismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,鈥� Trump said in a statement.
The job鈥攁nd Musk鈥檚 role as a key Trump adviser鈥攁lso gives him a platform to promote his own, dim view of K-12 schools.
鈥淐onventional education is massively overwhelmed,鈥� Musk argued in a. He likened schools鈥� efforts to educate students to what it might look like if local community theater companies tried to stage 鈥淭he Dark Knight,鈥� a Batman movie directed by Christopher Nolan, with 鈥渉omemade costumes鈥� and 鈥渘o special effects.鈥�
That would 鈥渟uck,鈥� Musk said in
Instead, Musk believes, education should be 鈥渁s close to a video game as possible. You do not need to tell your kid to play video games. They will play video games on autopilot all day,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o if you can make it interactive and engaging, then you can make education far more compelling and far easier to do.鈥�
A spokesman for Trump鈥檚 transition team did not respond to questions about Musk鈥檚 role and its impact on K-12 policy.
Trump, a longtime CEO himself before being elected president in 2016, has often pointed to his own business background as an asset for governing.
But Jonathan Collins, an assistant professor of political science and education at Columbia University鈥檚 Teachers College, is wary of bringing a tech entrepreneur鈥檚 sensibility to the challenges facing K-12 schools.
In the tech industry, the focus is on efficiency and growth, Collins said. Efficiency is a good idea to bring into education and education reform, but 鈥渆ducation isn鈥檛 an industry [whose impact] we can judge by immediate growth outputs,鈥� he said.
Education is 鈥渁bout ensuring that students are equipped with the academic and durable skills needed to confront the world鈥檚 most pressing problems,鈥� Collins said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be different for different students of different backgrounds and different capabilities.鈥�
Here鈥檚 how Musk鈥檚 new role might affect areas key to how K-12 educators do their jobs, according to a review of comments he鈥檚 made on schools in the public sphere and actions he鈥檚 taken.
Musk shares Trump鈥檚 wish to get rid of the Education Department
Musk鈥攚hose new role focuses on slimming down the federal bureaucracy 鈥攈as made it clear he鈥檚 in full agreement with Trump鈥檚 contention that the U.S. Department of Education has got to go.
Just a day before Trump announced Musk鈥檚 new gig, the tech billionaire shared who signed the legislation that created the department. The text on the meme Musk shared on X says: 鈥淚n 1979, I created the Education Department. Since then, America went from 1st to 24th in education.鈥� (It is unclear where the data cited in that post comes from or whether it is accurate.)
Musk added in his own commentary above the photo: 鈥淣ot exactly great value for money!鈥�
Scrapping the education department has been a perennial conservative priority since the agency鈥檚 inception more than four decades ago. But repealing the legislation that created the agency would likely require overcoming a Democratic filibuster. That means garnering 60 votes in the U.S. Senate, where Republicans will hold a 53-seat majority during the first two years of Trump鈥檚 new term.
But Max Eden, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said Musk has a ready-made argument for, at the very least, getting rid of a significant portion of the department鈥檚 career staff. Musk 鈥渉as a business history of dramatically downsizing while focusing on the core bottom line,鈥� Eden said.
Case in point: Musk reported that he laid off about 80 percent of Twitter鈥檚 workforce when he took over the company in the fall of 2022. Replacing career staff鈥攚ho serve in agencies regardless of which party controls the White House in part to maintain institutional knowledge and expertise on particular programs and policies鈥攊s something recommended by Project 2025, a sweeping policy document crafted by the Heritage Foundation which includes the views of some of Trump鈥檚 former aides as well as politically conservative advocates. Trump hasn鈥檛 endorsed the recommendations of Project 2025.
The role of technology and AI in schools could loom large
The tech CEO鈥檚 appointment comes as schools are wrestling with big questions around the use of artificial intelligence in teaching and learning鈥攊ncluding whether to ban the technology or allow teachers to harness it to grade and lesson plan more efficiently, and permit students to use it to complete their assignments.
Musk hasn鈥檛 addressed those questions in detail. But he responded swiftly when New York City schools initially banned ChatGPT, amid fears students would use the tool to cheat. He essentially told the district it needed to adjust to a shifting technological landscape. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a new world! Goodbye homework!鈥� on X on Jan. 4 of last year. (New York City public schools has since reversed course on its AI ban).
Under President Joe Biden, the education department advised schools to cautiously embrace the technology, while ensuring that a teacher or school administrator carefully reviews any recommendations made by AI tools, particularly if they have a direct impact on students. It鈥檚 unclear if the Trump team will encourage a similar approach.
Many experts argue that AI powered-tech tools can鈥檛 replace educators鈥� judgment or ability to relate to students. But that is a message that could get lost now that a big tech leader is set to play such an influential role in the incoming administration, said Torrey Trust, a professor of learning technology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
鈥淚鈥檓 worried about the push from tech company CEOs who think that AI can replace teachers and tutors,鈥� Trust said in an email. 鈥淭here seems to be a sense that AI can offer personalization for all students at a level that teachers with so many students cannot. However, has shown that empathy and relationships are significantly more influential in a student鈥檚 learning gains than personalization. I am concerned that we will lose the humanity and the human intelligence in education with Tech CEOs in governmental positions.鈥�
Musk鈥檚 role may also have implications for tech companies who market their products to educators and students.
Musk, an early investor in OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, is now suing the company.
ChatGPT is the foundation of a number of AI-powered ed-tech products, including Khan Academy鈥檚 Khanmigo chatbot.
Why Musk created a school that focuses on STEM learning
Musk created his own school, , a private school focused on science, technology, engineering, and math for children between ages 3 and 9.
Different iterations of the school have been located in Los Angeles and on SpaceX鈥檚 former headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. Most of its students are the children of SpaceX employees, including Musk himself.
Regular schools 鈥渨eren鈥檛 doing the things I thought should be done,鈥� Musk said with Futurism. 鈥淚 thought, well let鈥檚 see what we can do. Maybe creating a school will be better.鈥�
Musk that the school doesn鈥檛 have typical grade levels, a concept popular in Montessori. It emphasizes critical thinking and hands-on or project-based learning, according to its website.
The school rejects the traditional 鈥渁ssembly line approach to education,鈥� Musk said in the 2021 video. 鈥淚t makes more sense to cater education to match [students鈥橾 aptitudes and abilities.鈥�
A new Ad Astra school that could enroll up to 50 students, was set to open in October in Bastrop, Texas, near SpaceX鈥檚 launch site. It鈥檚 unclear if that happened.
Musk, like big tech CEOs Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerburg, has also participated in K-12 philanthropy. The goal, according to his foundation鈥檚 : To support science and engineering education.
He money to several school districts, mostly in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where much of his business operations are now located. In 2021, the Musk Foundation awarded more than $3 million to , including Brownsville, Los Fresnos, Harlingen, and Point. In 2022, another $2.53 million.
The districts planned to use the money to expand career and technical education programs and purchase computer hardware and software to support math and science instruction, according to local news reports.
Transgender issues are personal for Musk
Musk is also likely to be in lockstep with Trump鈥檚 push to withhold funding from schools that teach 鈥渃ritical race theory,鈥� promote policies that seek to make schools more supportive of transgender students, or teach American history in a way that some describe as unpatriotic.
Musk and Ramaswamy suggested in an X forum last year that the Education Department was threatening to withhold money from school districts that refused to adopt what Ramaswamy described as 鈥渢oxic, self-hating racial and gender ideologies,鈥� .
鈥淪o we鈥檙e basically paying people to hate America,鈥� Musk responded,
The two seem to have been referring in part to the Biden administration鈥檚 Title IX rule, which requires schools to support transgender students鈥� rights, including by allowing them to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice. Trump is expected to rescind the rule shortly after taking office.
This issue is personal for Musk. He said he was 鈥渢ricked鈥� into providing gender- affirming care for his daughter, Vivian Jenna Musk, who was assigned male at birth. He said that his child was 鈥渄ead鈥� and that she was 鈥渒illed by the woke mind virus,鈥� .
Musk moved the headquarters of his company, SpaceX, and social media company X from California to Texas after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that from requiring staff to notify parents of their child鈥檚 gender identification change.
It鈥檚 an open question whether a Trump education department could withhold money from schools that adopt policies or teach curricula that the administration doesn鈥檛 like.
Experts say the CEO of X is unlikely to crack down on social media鈥檚 ills
Educators have been raising alarm bells for years about the impact of social media on young people鈥檚 mental health, with some school districts going as far as to file lawsuits against the platforms.
It is also an open question what having the CEO of a major social media company will mean for efforts to mitigate those problems through federal regulation.
Given his financial stake in the issue, it seems unlikely that Musk would be a 鈥渃hampion of effective regulation of the whole industry that would prioritize limiting its harms to young people,鈥� said Jeff Carpenter, a professor of education at Elon University and former high school teacher who studies the impact of social media on K-12 schools.
