‘Then we don’t send them money’: Donald Trump says he’ll defund schools that teach about slavery

During a live appearance on Fox & Friends, Donald Trump promised to get rid of the Department of Education and defund schools that teach about America’s history of slavery or other topics that go against right-wing ideology.

Despite denying any ties to Project 2025, Trump has repeatedly confirmed he will adhere to its plans to shut down the U.S. Department of Education. For decades, the Department of Education has aided in funding public education, including allocating money to high-poverty schools and students with disabilities and working to promote educational excellence and access to education. However, conservatives have long targeted it because they believe it’s funding the teaching of “woke” ideology in schools. Trump previously stated on the matter, “We will drain the government education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth with all sorts of things that you don’t want to have our youth hearing.”

There are many obstacles to abolishing the Department of Education, as federal funding only makes up a small portion of school funds, and it may be difficult to get Congress to approve such an act. However, the Trump administration is still determined to control federal funding of schools, with Trump himself admitting he will abuse this power to defund any schools that don’t teach the curriculum Republicans want to be taught.

Donald Trump wants conservatives to control public school curriculum

During an appearance on Fox & Friends, the topic of education arose. Trump once again confirmed his plans to abolish the Department of Education, stating, “We’re going to take the Department of Education and close it. I’m gonna close it.” He then starts saying something about how the Department of Education will be replaced with “one person” to take up its duties. However, one of the hosts interrupts him, asking, “So, let’s say you have a liberal city … and they just decide, ‘Oh, we’re going to get rid of that history. We have ‘new history’ that this is America built off the backs of slaves on stolen land.'”

What the host is really asking is what Trump will do if schools teach American history. As much as conservatives want to deny it, slavery and Indigenous people are a part of American history. It’s not “new history.” It’s simply history that doesn’t erase Black and Indigenous people as conservatives want. However, Trump confirmed that schools that teach these topics will be defunded. He says, “Then we don’t send them money.”

It’s interesting how Trump and Republicans claim to be so against federal funding but now want the government to pick and choose which schools get funds based on how well they bend to the conservative agenda. Regardless of whether the Trump administration can actually do this, it’s alarming that it openly intends to try to do it. Conservative attacks on public education have been rising recently, with conservative states pushing to censor the teaching of African American history and ban any mention of LGBTQ+ topics in schools. Florida has even pushed to ban the teaching or mention of menstruation in schools. Meanwhile, a book-banning movement has spread nationwide, causing thousands of books to be pulled from shelves. Most often, books are banned for merely acknowledging LGBTQ+ topics, race, American history, BIPOC individuals, disabilities, and women’s issues.

Now, we have a man running for President who vows to defund any school that teaches uncensored American history. Sadly, it’s not entirely surprising. Conservatives have been pushing censorship in schools for years, even going so far as to redact entire chapters of textbooks and send police officers into classrooms to see if banned books are being taught. Their end goal is to force every public school in America to teach their religious and political ideals while raising the next generation to genuinely believe that racism, slavery, and genocide never happened or existed in America.