In a video posted across social media platforms, President-elect Donald Trump announced reparations to White Americans, labeling them as “victims” of racial discrimination in correlation to education polices.
In video, posted days after Trump was elected the 47th President of the United States, claimed he will pursue federal civil rights cases against schools that “continue to engage in racial discrimination” and persist in “unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity.”
Trump also threatened the budgets of colleges and universities, saying he will tax their endowments and issue fines.
“A portion of the seized funds will then be used as restitution for victims of these illegal and unjust policies, policies that hurt our country so badly,” Trump said. “Colleges have gotten hundreds of billions of dollars from hardworking taxpayers, and now we are going to get this anti-American insanity out of our institutions once and for all. We are going to have real education in America.”
Social media users reacted to Trump’s rhetoric. “The second season of this reality show just scares me minute by minute,” @onestpress said.
“Biden’s investments in HBCUs will be gone. Pell grants, gone, grants to schools to fund special need services, gone,” @msgrumpybunny wrote. “And white people are stupid if they think they’ll get reparations – money will be going into Trump’s pockets.”
@HarkemJ11 blamed the Black voters who elected Trump.
The video correlates to Trump’s idea of eliminating the Department of Education, which he discussed heavily on the campaign trail. According to the Washington Post, the President-elect continuously promised to “return” the education responsibility to the states. State and local governments have been responsible for providing nearly 90% of school funding.
Also, the DOE does not identify curriculum or have a hand in most school policies. It administers federal grant programs such as the $18.4 billion Title I program that gives funding to high-poverty K-12 schools and the $15.5 billion program that assists with the cost of education for students with disabilities. The $1.6 trillion federal student loan program is also supported by the department and sets rules for what colleges must do to participate.
However, to close the department, which was established in 1979, Trump would need congressional approval, which is unlikely.
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