President-elect Trump has big changes coming for the education world in his second administration.

While Trump’s education plans have not been fully laid out, the issues he wants to tackle would fundamentally change how schools operate, from potentially abolishing the Department of Education to advancing a federal school choice program.

Here are the top five education policies Trump could enact:

Abolishing the Department of Education

The most talked about issue Trump has pushed in the education field is abolishing the federal Department of Education.

The move is championed by supporters who see the department as a waste of taxpayer money and argue other agencies can take on its essential tasks.

While Trump has not said how he would eliminate Education, Project 2025, a conservative blueprint designed for him, lays out a plan striking what it sees as unnecessary programs and moving others such as the Office of Civil Rights to the Justice Department.

Killing the department would require buy-in from Congress, which will be under complete Republican control next year.

“I think, making education truly local, and by truly local, I mean parents” is needed, said Vicki Murray, director of the Center for Education at Washington Policy Center and part of Trump’s transition team back in 2016.

“Because there’s nothing more local than an empowered parent. So, I think that is the underlying theme of President Elect Trump’s education policy areas,” Murray added.

Federal school choice

Federal school choice legislation is a major possibility in the next four years, with Trump citing it as one of his Education secretary nominee’s top priorities.

Linda McMahon will “fight tirelessly to expand ‘Choice’ to every State in America,” Trump said in his nomination announcement.

The Educational Choice for Children Act, previously introduced in Congress but never signed into law, aims to incentivize donations to nonprofit organizations that provide K-12 scholarships that parents can use to send their children to private schools or other educational pathways besides public schools.

The legislation was previously signed on to by Trump’s running mate, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance.

Jeanne Allen, founder and CEO of the Center for Education reform, sees the possibility of Trump “creating a federal program or creating more appetite and ease of funding for school choice programs.”

Opponents of school choice fear the federal government will try to impose a mandate on states that don’t support the movement.

“We are definitely worried about how the incoming administration may push privatization at the federal level. Whether there will be any compelling states to have voucher programs is also something that we are monitoring,” said Qubilah Huddleston, the manager of Ed Trust’s policy positions on equitable school funding.

Student loans

Trump has made no specific promises on how he will handle student loan debt, but he has been openly critical of President Biden’s efforts on the issue, signaling an end to relief.

Biden forgave the most student debt in presidential history, at more than $170 billion.

The president also created a new income-drive repayment plan called SAVE that has so far held up in the courts.

The Department of Education is also currently going through the negotiated rulemaking process to forgive even more student loans for people in certain situations such as financial hardship.

Trump could pull out of both of these initiatives, a likely scenario considering Republican lawsuits against them.

In his first term, Trump wanted to phase out the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and limit borrower defense, but did not have support from Congress.

“I think student loans […] should come under a lot more scrutiny, and I think that’s a welcome area of inquiry and a long overdue debate. But the idea of free student loans, student loan forgiveness for some, but not for all, is not the correct policy path at all,” Murray said.

Title IX and transgender students

Trump has made it clear he will be making changes to Title IX and how transgender students are treated in schools.

The president-elect wants to change Biden’s Title IX revisions that gave discrimination protections based on a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. He called the change a “day one” priority.

“The left-wing gender insanity being pushed at our children is an act of child abuse. Very simple. Here’s my plan to stop the chemical, physical and emotional mutilation of our youth,” Trump said in a video back in January.

He has also been open about his desire to ban transgender Americans from the sports teams and locker rooms they choose to use.

He has “been very vocal about withholding federal funds for colleges that have DEI policies and programs where biological males are allowed to compete in women’s sports and be in women’s locker rooms,” Murray said.

Curriculum and DEI

Trump has repeatedly said he is willing to withhold federal funding over curriculum or diversity, equity and inclusions (DEI) measures in K-12 or higher education institutions.

“Rather than indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual and political material, which is what we’re doing now, our schools must be totally refocused to prepare our children to succeed in the world,” Trump said in a September video.

For K-12 schools, Trump has said teaching of critical race theory would result in funds taken away, although only a small fraction of funding for schools comes through the federal government.

“There’s been a lot of controversy about politicization in the curriculum and in children’s classrooms, whether that’s Critical Race Theory, diversity equity, inclusion policies, failing to inform parents about their children’s health decisions,” Murray said. “We have to be very careful of that.”

Federal money can have more sway at the college level, and Trump has threatened that cash over DEI programs, which some Republican-controlled states such as Florida have outlawed for state universities.

The president-elect said he would “tax endowments, impose budget reconciliation, and fine institutions ‘up to the entire amount of their endowment’ if they are perceived as having promoted ‘wokeism,’ [which] risks eroding academic freedom, institutional autonomy and the democratic purposes of higher education,” said Lynn Pasquerella, president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities.