[Read our story on who could serve as education secretary under Kamala Harris.]
If former President Donald Trump wins the White House, educators will again ask a question they pondered eight years ago: Who could a president who wants to scrap the U.S. Department of Education pick to lead it?
Despite the lack of talk about K-12 policy from either candidate this election cycle, the broad policy strokes of a potential second Trump administration seem fairly apparent.
Trump’s secretary will likely support slimming down if not dismantling the Education Department; expanding school choice; slashing K-12 spending; and attacking school districts’ diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
Plenty of GOP lawmakers, state education chiefs, and advocates could get on board with that agenda.
But a future secretary’s ability to communicate and champion Trump’s education policies may help determine their success.
Trump will have to decide whether he wants someone who has a “proven track record” of managing education complex systems, or a “culture warrior,” said David Cleary, who served as an aide to Republicans on the House and Senate education committees between 2002 and 2023, including as the Republican staff director for the Senate education committee.
For education secretary, Trump says: ‘We’ll get somebody great.’
At a recent campaign stop, Trump himself floated two potential candidates who he said could oversee the dismantlement of the education department: Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who ran for the GOP nomination before dropping out and endorsing Trump, and former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, who left Congress last year after an unsuccessful bid for governor.
“I’m going to close the Department of Education and move education back to the states. And we’re going to do it fast. We’ll get somebody great,” Trump said Sept. 23 in Indiana, Pa. “Lee Zeldin is here with us tonight. I think that’s a job for Lee or Vivek, or we’ll get somebody. We like Vivek. We need somebody with a lot of energy, a lot of strength, energy, and intelligence.”
It’s uncertain if Trump really sees Ramaswamy or Zeldin as potential education secretaries, or if he was simply giving the two of them a shout-out because they happened to be on the scene. (Ramaswamy has been a warm-up act for Trump at other campaign events, though it’s not clear if he was present that evening.)
Trump has also mentioned Ramaswamy for other key roles in his administration, including suggesting this month at a campaign stop in Scranton, Pa., that he’d be great at negotiating trade issues with French President Emmanuel Macron.
It’s too early to say who is under serious consideration for the education secretary job, said Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director.
“President Trump announced a Trump Vance transition leadership group to initiate the process of preparing for what comes after the election,” Cheung said in an emailed response. “But formal discussions of who will serve in a second Trump Administration is premature. President Trump will choose the best people for his Cabinet to undo all the damage dangerously liberal Kamala Harris has done to our country.”
Both Zeldin and Ramaswamy share aspects of Trump’s vision for K-12 schools.
During his brief presidential run, Ramaswamy pledged to abolish the education department and enhance civics education. He supports banning “addictive social media” for those under 16, and getting rid of what he calls “gender confusion ‘care’ for minors,” according to his website.
The site also calls for ending DEI programs and dismantling former President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” programs, which could include Title I grants to educate disadvantaged K-12 students and Head Start, an early childhood program for low-income families.
Zeldin, meanwhile, campaigned for governor on getting rid of “divisive curriculum that pits children against one another based on race and other factors” and expanding school choice.
A conservative-led war on ‘woke’ political indoctrination in schools
Another possible contender who has appeared with Trump: Tiffany Justice, the co-founder of Moms For Liberty, a parents rights organization.
Justice, who interviewed Trump on stage at her group’s annual convention in August, told Education Week recently she’d be “honored to serve” as his education secretary—or in another role in a potential second Trump term.
Members of Moms for Liberty focus on fighting what they often characterize as “woke” indoctrination in public schools. They have advocated for the removal of books from classrooms and school libraries, including many featuring people of color and LGBTQ+ characters and themes.
Justice demurred when asked if she’d been in direct talks with the Trump team about the education secretary gig.
In response to a question about who else she’d like to see in the position if she isn’t chosen, she named Cade Brumley, the Louisiana state superintendent of education.
An potential education secretary with ‘an extremely folksy, pleasant demeanor’
Brumley’s name also surfaces as a possible Trump education secretary in conversations with Republicans in Washington who work on education policy.
During his four-year tenure in Louisiana, he’s pushed for what he describes as a “back to basics” approach to education, focusing on math, reading, and science rather than cultural issues, and for expanding school choice.
He’s also worked to stop identifying schools for intervention based on student suspensions and to make it easier for teachers to remove disruptive students from their classrooms.
Both policies fit into Brumley’s “Let Teachers Teach Initiative,” which also includes a move to streamline professional development requirements. While Brumley has framed this agenda as “pro-teacher,” parts of it could rankle civil rights advocates who argue exclusionary discipline hinders student learning.
Brumley is also a defendant named in a lawsuit against a newly enacted state law requiring all classrooms to display a copy of the Ten Commandments.
Brumley, who has also served as a teacher, principal, and superintendent of two local districts, was reappointed to his job earlier this year.
In tapping him to remain at the helm of the Pelican State’s K-12 schools, the Louisiana State Board of Education cited significant year-over-year gains in student test scores.
“I think he’s the most administratively effective and politically talented state superintendent on the right in America right now,” said Max Eden, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “And he has an extremely folksy, pleasant, positive demeanor.”
Also potentially helpful to his cause: Brumley’s home state senator, Bill Cassidy, a Republican, would be in line to chair the Senate education committee if the GOP takes the chamber, meaning he’d play a key role in shepherding Brumley through the confirmation process.
Oklahoma’s vigorous culture warrior
Another state education chief on Republicans’ radar: Ryan Walters of Oklahoma.
Walters, a former social studies teacher and one-time finalist for state teacher of the year, was elected to the position of superintendent of public instruction in 2022. Before that, he served as the Sooner State’s secretary of education in Gov. Kevin Stitt’s Cabinet.
Walters, who endorsed Trump, has developed a national reputation as one of the right’s most vigorous culture warriors, particularly when it comes to education.
“I’m happy to help President Trump in any way that I can,” Walters told Education Week in response to questions about whether he’d be interested in the secretary gig. “My focus is to help him get elected. His Cabinet selections, that’s up to him.”
Walters does believe Trump can accomplish what’s become something of a holy grail for the GOP: Getting rid of the Education Department.
“It’s going to be gone,” he said. “I truly believe that President Trump will be the president to truly do away with the Department of Education.”
One of Walters’ own first acts in office was to attempt to revoke the license of a teacher who protested a new state law against teaching divisive concepts related to race and sex by sending her students a link to the Brooklyn Library, where they could access banned books. He’s required school districts to report on any spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
More recently, he’s pushed to put 55,000 Bibles in Oklahoma classrooms and direct teachers to teach from them. Only two versions of the Bible met the state’s original procurement requirements—both personally endorsed by Trump. Oklahoma ultimately broadened the criteria for the bibles to include other versions.
One potential impediment: Walters’ tenure as state superintendent in Oklahoma—and his earlier gig as the head of an education nonprofit—has been plagued with investigations into his integrity and managerial abilities.
For instance, shortly before becoming secretary of education, Walters reportedly helped a Florida-based tech company secure a no-bid contract to quickly distribute funding for school supplies to families during the pandemic. Some bought Christmas trees, gaming consoles, and outdoor grills, according to a joint investigation by Oklahoma Watch and The Frontier. Similar findings were later cited in a state audit.
And just last month, a grand jury began looking into Walters in relation to misspending of pandemic relief funds, the Oklahoman reported.
Walters said that there was “a vendor who had major problems” and was held accountable. But he added that, in his view, he’s been unduly subjected to criticism because he has “taken on the status quo.”
“When you take on the teachers’ unions aggressively and directly, they come after you,” he said.
‘My mom fought for me’
Two other potential state superintendents could be in the mix: South Carolina’s Ellen Weaver, an elected Republican, and Florida’s Manny Díaz Jr.
Both support expanding school choice and have opposed what they perceive as “woke ideology” in schools, including rejecting the College Board’s AP African American studies course.
One potential pitfall for Díaz: He was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who ran against Trump for the GOP nomination.
Another Floridian’s name has also surfaced as a possible Trump education secretary: U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a rumored Trump vice-presidential pick. (The nod ultimately went to Ohio Sen. JD Vance.)
Donalds’ wife, Erika Donalds, is a former school board member and charter school founder.
Donalds used his speech at the Republican National Convention to stump for school choice, recounting how his single mother sacrificed financially to send him to private schools because the public schools didn’t challenge him academically.
“Democrat politicians wanted to trap me in a failing school, but my mom fought for me,” Donalds said.
Betsy DeVos doesn’t expect to serve again
One name doesn’t come up as a possibility in conversations with GOP education sources in Washington: Betsy DeVos, who served as Trump’s education secretary during his first term.
DeVos resigned from Trump’s cabinet in a letter dated Jan. 7, 2021, the day after violent insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory.
“There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me,” she wrote at the time.
Still, DeVos told the Detroit News in August she was willing to serve in a second Trump administration, though she didn’t think the former president would ask her again. The New York Times recently reported on a fundraiser for Trump at his home in Trump Tower where DeVos and her husband were among the guests.
