Author: IBL News

IBL News | New York

President Donald Trump signed seven executive orders on April 23 impacting elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education, addressing AI, school discipline, workforce development, apprenticeships, HBCUs, and accreditation, among other issues.

Leaders from labor, commerce, and education departments, including Secretary Linda McMahon, joined the president in the Oval Office. She released a statement about the orders.

Trump’s executive order on AI stated that it will ensure that “schoolchildren, young Americans, are adequately trained in AI tools so that they can be competitive in the economy years from now into the future as AI becomes a bigger and bigger deal.”

The order broadly seeks to improve K-12 education through AI and enhance teacher training on AI:

• Establishes the White House Task Force on AI Education;
• Establishes a Presidential AI Challenge, which will encourage and highlight student and educator achievements in AI, promote wide geographic adoption of technological advancement, and foster collaboration between government, academia, philanthropy, and industry to address national challenges with AI solutions.
• Seek to increase participation in AI-related Registered Apprenticeships;
• Establishes public-private partnerships to provide resources for K-12 AI education; and
• Prioritizes the use of AI in discretionary grant programs for teacher training and prioritizes research on the use of AI in education.

Another executive order, “Preparing Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future,” focused on modernizing American workforce programs. It seeks “to align with our country’s reindustrialization needs and equip American workers to fill the growing demand for skilled trades and other occupations.”

“My Administration will further protect and strengthen Registered Apprenticeships and build on their successes to seize new opportunities and unlock the limitless potential of the American worker.”

The order plans to reach and surpass 1 million new active apprentices.

In her statement, McMahon said, “Not every student needs to attend a four-year university to enter a family-sustaining career. The Trump Administration will support communities across the country offering career-aligned programs like apprenticeships and dual enrollment to meet the needs of their workforce best.” 

Trump signed an executive order titled “White House Initiative to Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs),” accompanied by this additional information.

The order stated that the administration’s policy is to support HBCUs. It established the White House Initiative on HBCUs and the President’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs.

Trump signed an executive order titled “Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education,” which was accompanied by this additional information.

“Many third-party accreditors have relied on a sort of woke ideology to accredit universities instead of accrediting based on merit and performance,” said a Trump administration representative.

“The Department of Education will create a competitive marketplace of higher education accreditors, which will give colleges and universities incentives and support to focus on lowering college costs, fostering innovation, and delivering a high-quality postsecondary education,” said Linda McMahon.