In the future, many students may lose access to school buses and reliable school transportation. Students with special needs may be neglected and even ignored. And classes will be run-down due to severe budget cuts and staff layoffs. How does this happen? The hostile rhetoric being spread by those in power. The current administration is cracking down on public schools and universities, calling them “woke, liberal, indoctrination” and “Anti-American”. A new pattern has arisen with current political pressures: by silencing dissent and altering school curriculum, educational institutions are gradually reverting to and adopting conservative and discriminatory practices.
The Trump Administration claims that colleges have been “infested with radicalism like never before.” A campaign by the current administration also placed many universities across the country under investigation, threatening cuts in federal funding unless they comply with new government standards for protests, DEI, and other inclusion policies. Nicholas Kent, an undersecretary for the Education Department, said: “The new tactic has the power to affect 6,000 institutions.” The current administration also recently signed an executive order to begin shutting down the Department of Education, though this would need action from Congress. The intention is clear: President Trump calls the institution a “big con job.”
Federal rhetoric eventually led to heightened pressure and the shutting down of dissenters, enabling a right-wing ideology. In May of 2024, four graduating UChicago students were denied diplomas because the University suspected them of involvement in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment. Another student whose degree was withheld was also reportedly followed by UChicago surveillance and its private police, UCPD, using off-campus security footage. Recently, students at university graduation ceremonies have been silenced while expressing dissent. A striking example came from New York University, when student Logan Rozo used a graduation speech to condemn Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Then, he was denied his diploma after criticizing the university’s stance on the war in Gaza.
Red states have been adopting a new conservative-based school curriculum to replace humanities and sociology courses that offer diverse perspectives. The University of Florida is a prominent example of this, with its Civil Discourse and Intro to Sociology class being deemed as “woke liberal indoctrination.” Similarly, as of 2023, Florida’s State Board of Education added standards that will teach students that African Americans in “some way” benefited from slavery because it taught them “useful skills” Dr. William Allen and Dr. Frances Presley Rice, who are members of Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup, said that “This particular benchmark clarification intends to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefitted. This is factual and well documented.”
When public education is stripped of diverse stories and lessons, it isn’t just a change in curriculum but the narrowing of public thought. We are already in an empathy crisis. Our world is being desensitized as we speak. Without thorough education, new generations will miss out on learning critical thinking skills, empathy, and civic engagement. By letting political pressure dictate what is to be taught and who deserves a platform, our society will readily conform to whatever and whoever without a backwards glance. Defending open, inclusive, and rigorous courses not only protects classrooms but the future of democracy.
