‘Time To Reclaim Colleges From Radical Left’: Donald Trump On Educational Overhaul

US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said it is time to reclaim America’s educational institutions from the radical Left, adding that the accreditation system will be used to achieve this end.

He said that on assuming the Presidential post on January 20 next year, Mr Trump will fire “radical Left” accreditors that have allowed colleges to be dominated by “Marxists, maniacs and lunatics”. In an over two-minute-long statement, also shared by SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk, Mr Trump accused academics of being obsessed with indoctrinating America’s youth, while tuition fees continue to skyrocket.

The Republican said his administration will appoint new accreditors, who will impose real standards including “defending the American tradition in Western civilization, protecting free speech, eliminating wasteful administrative positions that drive up costs, incredibly, removing all Marxist diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucrats, offering options for accelerated and low cost degrees, providing meaningful job placement and career services, and implementing college entrance and exit exams to prove that students are actually learning”.

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— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 11, 2024

He went on to reiterate his resolve to get the “anti-American insanity” out of institutions run on hundreds of billions of dollars from hard-working taxpayers.

Mr Trump also said he will direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that continue to engage in racial discrimination. Further, to penalise schools engaging in unlawful discrimination “under the guise of equity”, he said he will bring in a law that will fine institutions up to the entire amount of their endowment.

Mr Trump’s Agenda47 mentions closing the Department of Education, while also proposing cutting funding for any school teaching critical race theory or “transgender insanity” and credentialing teachers who “embrace patriotic values and support the American Way of Life”.

His statements came months after fierce pro-Palestine protests rocked campuses across the US, including Harvard, New York University, Yale, Emerson College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.