Where Donald Trump stands on education

Where Donald Trump stands on education

Broadly speaking, Donald Trump favors school vouchers and has denounced the involvement of the federal government in the nation’s schools. 

The GOP nominee and founder of the now-defunct Trump University-- tackled education reform in a recent September speech.

“As your president, I will be the biggest cheerleader for school choice you’ve ever seen,” he said, promising that in his White House “parents can home school their children.” Trump’s website does not appear to specifically address education, though in September, he unveiled a proposal on education vouchers. Here are the components of Trump’s educational platform so far:

School choice:

Donald Trump slams Clinton's foreign policies during education speech by CBS News on YouTube
  • Like most Republicans, Trump supports education vouchers that allow students to attend private rather than public schools--arguing that they create healthy competition in the education market. “I will establish the national goal of providing school choice to every American child living in poverty,” Trump said in September. He recently unveiled plans to create a $20 billion block grant that would expand charter and private school options for low-income children. Trump would divert federal funding from schools to pay for the block grants.

  • He also has expressed an interest in eliminating the Department of Education because it has “been taken over by the bureaucrats in Washington.”

  • Trump has called Common Core a “disaster.” “Education has to be local,” he declared during his June 2015 presidential announcement.

College affordability:

  • “There’s no such thing as free education,” Trump said during a town hall with Chris Matthews. “You know, ultimately, somebody is going to be paying for that education, and it’s the taxpayers.” He acknowledged that students are “up to their neck in debt” and has suggested he would remove the federal government from the student loan system and privatize it, though doing this isn’t likely to reduce the cost of a degree, says John Wasik, author of “The Debt-Free Degree.”

  • Trump’s education policy surrogate, Sam Clovis, has suggested the colleges should screen their students more closely to accept those who are likely to graduate on time, which he seemed to suggest would effectively reduce the student debt burden.

John Wasik contributed to this article

With the upcoming election, CBS News is bringing you a new feature series on the two major party nominees and their positions on important policy issues. Check out our list of stories and videos below:

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