The public school system in North Carolina is crumbling in every sense: physically, organizationally and economically. A poorly educated population is one that is immensely easier to control. The Trump administration knows this, and they’re pouncing on the opportunity to accelerate the deterioration of education in our state.
In January 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Expanding Educational Freedom and Opportunity for Families.” This document set out to promote school choice programs, which place a focus on private school vouchers and charter school funding.
Since the order was issued, the Trump administration has continued to make convoluted, misleading and straight-up harmful decisions in the education system of our state.
The North Carolina State Board of Education sets the policy and general procedures for public schools across the state. The power to decide what children learn in school, how schools are run and other important educational factors remains in the hands of the state, for now.
However, the Trump administration is slowly funneling that capacity away from state board members.
This March, the federal government presented the North Carolina Association for Public Charter Schools with a $52.9 million grant for funding charter schools — the largest grant ever given to these educational institutions.
On the surface, this move seems positive, as a significant amount of money is being poured into education in North Carolina. Nevertheless, charter schools aren’t required to follow the same regulations as public ones.
Essentially, charter schools are publicly funded and privately run institutions. So, by exclusively funding charter schools, the Trump administration is effectively stealing strength and influence from the state. While this isn’t directly giving Trump more power, any governmental capacity taken from a state is ammo in the executive branch’s stockpile.
In one fell swoop, the Trump administration’s actions are robbing hundreds of thousands of North Carolinian students enrolled in public schools of a well-funded education — and North Carolina board members of influence — all under the disguise of aid and support.
Charter school grants aren’t the only way Trump is overriding the cry for public school funding.
Private school vouchers allow students to use public funding to pay for schooling at a private institution, taking already insufficient supplies from public schools and hollowing them out.
Worse, there are no safeguards to ensure the vouchers are improving a student’s education, and the money often ends up subsidizing students from already wealthy families.
Also in March, United States Secretary of Education Linda McMahon visited North Carolina in an attempt to push Gov. Josh Stein to opt in to the Education Freedom Tax Credit, which gives families a $1,700 tax credit for contributions made to organizations that award scholarships to K-12 students. The program is yet another push to promote school choice.
Stein previously vetoed this federal program, which was passed by the state legislature, and stated that the government should instead focus on funding public schools, further noting the connection between promotion of school choice programs and neglect of public education.
The Trump administration’s actions aren’t about educational freedom. They’re about bringing public school funds behind the veil of secrecy that is charter and private schools, where institutions have no accountability to be responsible with public funding and no regulation regarding students’ education.
Trump doesn’t care about education in North Carolina. He doesn’t care about the students who walk the hallways of public schools or sit at desks with absent teachers. He cares about power and reputation. His true desire is to maintain the facade that he is deeply devoted to educational development, simultaneously siphoning power and laying waste to our public schools — all the while cultivating a society even less equipped to resist his abuse of authority.