Studying the First Year of Trump’s Second Term - The Renewed Importance of Participatory Governance

Oct 15, 2026

Examines the policy shift in the first year of Trump’s second administration and its impact on American educational governance. The brief argues that executive-branch priorities have reshaped decision-making through executive orders, affecting antidiscrimination enforcement, funding flows to school districts, and university research contracts. It highlights the absence of a unifying educational purpose, the rise of contradictory programmatic impulses, and the reinterpretation of key constitutional and civil-rights guidance. The analysis concludes that institutional daily work has become harder as investigations, funding freezes, and an effective executive veto intensify.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time1 h 6 min

AccessFree to download

Executive Summary

Governance Shift and Institutional Alignment

Executive Actions and Policy Areas Affected

Lack of Unifying Vision and Emerging Contradictions

Implications for Antidiscrimination and Institutional Decision-Making

Studying the First Year of Trump’s Second Term: The Renewed Importance of Participatory Governance Derek Gottlieb Independent Scholar April 2026 National Education Policy Center School of Education University of Colorado Boulder [nepc.colorado.edu](nepc.colorado.edu) Acknowledgements NEPC Staff Faith Boninger Publications Manager Margaret Balch-Gonzalez Academic Editor Elaine Duggan Production Design Alex Molnar NEPC Director Kevin Welner NEPC Director Suggested Citation: Gottlieb, D. (2026). Studying the first year of Trump’s second term: The renewed importance of participatory governance. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. Retrieved [date] from [http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/policy-review](http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/policy-review) Funding: This policy brief was made possible in part by funding from the Great Lakes Center for Educational Research and Practice. GREAT LAKES CENTER For Education Research & Practice Peer Review: Studying the First Year ofTrump’s Second Term: The Renewed Importance of Participatory Governance was double-blind peer-reviewed. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives 4.0 International License. This publication is provided free of cost to NEPC’s readers, who may make non-commercial use of it as long as NEPC and its author(s) are credited as the source. For inquiries about commercial use, please [contact NEPC at](contact NEPC at nepc@colorado.edu)[ nepc@colorado.edu](contact NEPC at nepc@colorado.edu). The National Education Policy Center (NEPC), a university research center housed at the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education, sponsors research, produces policy briefs, and publishes expert third-party reviews of think tank reports. NEPC publications are written in accessible language and are intended for a broad audience that includes academic experts, policymakers, the media, and the general public. Our mission is to provide high-quality information in support of democratic deliberation about education policy. We are guided by the belief that the democratic governance of public education is strengthened when policies are based on sound evidence and support a multiracial society that is inclusive, kind, and just. Visit us at: [http://nepc.colorado.edu](http://nepc.colorado.edu) [http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/policy-review](http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/policy-review) 2 of 26 Studying the First Year of Trump’s Second Term: The Renewed Importance of Participatory Governance Derek Gottlieb Independent Scholar March 2026 I. Executive Summary The first year of the second Trump administration marked a radical break with 60 years of federal interventions in education. It inaugurated a new theory of American educational governance, and it scrapped, wholesale, the orienting ideological vision that had guided education policy since the Johnson administration—a vision focused on equal access for all children to human capital development in the interest of social equality and national competitiveness. Citing the importance of institutional alignment with “Presidential priorities,” the Trump administration has supercharged the use of executive orders and other prerogatives within the executive branch to govern educational institutions. With the compliance of a quiescent Congress and Supreme Court, the administration has demanded radical changes to policies regarding, among other areas, antidiscrimination violations, the disbursement of Congressionally approved support for school districts, and research contracts with universities. Yet, notably absent from the flurry of executive actions over the course of 2025 is any unifying vision of what American education is supposed to do, and for what purposes. The Johnsonian vision that animated education policy for decades has been replaced by a patchwork of contradictory impulses. One part of that patchwork significa

FAQs

What does the brief identify as the most significant change in education governance in Trump’s second administration’s first year?

It identifies a radical break with decades of federal education interventions, replacing a long-standing governance vision with an approach centered on presidential priorities and executive-branch power.

Which policy areas does the brief say executive actions have targeted?

It cites changes related to antidiscrimination violations, federal support to school districts, and research contracts with universities.

What does the brief conclude about the consequences for schools and universities?

It concludes that institutions face harder day-to-day conditions, including investigation risk, potential freezing or withholding of appropriated funds, and executive-branch influence that functions like a veto over institutional decisions.

Oct 15, 2026

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