Former President Donald Trump vowed that if elected to a second term in 2024 he would cut funding for educational programs that utilize Critical Race Theory (CRT) and gender ideology during an event this week in Philadelphia.
Trump spoke at the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors Summit Friday, in which he said that on the first day of a new term, he would “sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content on our children.”
The former president cited the 1619 Project, which argued that the United States was tethered to an original sin of slavery, saying that it, as well as “the ridiculous 87 different genders the left says there are out there” and “climate change extremists” would be removed from educational curricula.
He also said that under his leadership, education would “be pressing three basic things plus reading, writing and arithmetic.”
Trump said that the educational system is being used to advance “Marxism, fascism, communism and the radical left socialism” and cited left-wing thought as resembling an “established religion of its own.”
“Instead of teaching them to say their prayers, they teach them to recite their pronouns,” he said.
President Trump vows to end CRT:
"I will immediately sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory." pic.twitter.com/3HdEh0O8G4
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) June 26, 2023
Trump promised a number of policy initiatives, including having the Department of Justice (DOJ) target educational programs that use “these militant and country-destroying practices.” He also vowed to remove teacher tenure “so we can remove bad teachers” and to adopt “merit pay so we can reward the great teachers.”
The former president called for “complete curriculum transparency so that parents have the right to see 100% of the material their children are being taught in school.”
Trump further called for a system of “universal school choice,” as well as local elections for school principals.
“If you have a bad principal who’s not getting the job done, the parents will, under the Trump administration, be allowed to vote to fire that principal to select someone that will do a great job,” he said, describing such an action as “the ultimate form of local control and parental rights.”
