On April 23, President Trump signed a number of new Executive Orders (EOs) impacting education and workforce development. These EOs covered a range of topics, and included:
- Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth
- Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy
- Reinstating Common Sense School Discipline Policies
- Preparing Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future
- White House Initiative to Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
- Reforming Accreditation to Strengthen Higher Education
- Transparency Regarding Foreign Influence at American Universities
The “Preparing Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future,” EO is the most directly relevant to CTE and intends to maximize investments in America’s reindustrialization and economic growth. This EO instructs the Secretaries of Labor, Commerce and Education to submit new plans to expand Registered Apprenticeships and ensure 1 million active apprentices a year. This plan must also include how to leverage federal investments in postsecondary student aid and Perkins to expand apprenticeships.
Secretaries for these three Departments will also need to review all Federal workforce development programs within 90 days and report back on ways to integrate, restructure and consolidate these programs through a “comprehensive workforce strategy” report. Perkins CTE programs would likely be included in such as exercise.
President Trump’s EO on AI intends to promote AI literacy and proficiency among Americans by integrating AI into education to create an AI-ready workforce and providing AI training for educators.
Secretaries from the Departments of Agriculture, Labor, Energy and Education will collaborate with other relevant departments and agencies to form an AI Education Task Force to coordinate federal efforts related to AI education. The taskforce is also directed to establish as Presidential AI Challenge to “encourage and highlight student and educators achievements in AI,” and to establish public-private partnerships to develop resources on teaching AI literacy. This EO will also direct the Secretary of Labor to promote participation in AI-related Registered Apprenticeships. Notably, the EO does not propose any new funding, but rather focuses on existing funding streams.
President Trump also introduced an EO instructing Secretary McMahon to overhaul the college accreditation system, which is a process colleges must go through in order to receive federal financial aid. The order will serve as a tool to ensure accreditors are complying with the Administration and not engaging in “ideological overreach,” essentially aligning the accreditation standards with the Administration’s values.
ACTE will share more on these orders as activities are implemented.