Former President Donald Trump committed to cutting federal funding for schools pushing Critical Race Theory and gender ideology if elected president while speaking at the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors Summit Friday evening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
“On day one, I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children,” Trump pledged before advocating for moving the “education system back to the states.”
He added:
Under my leadership, the 1619 project, you remember that beauty, climate change extremists that are destroying our country… the ridiculous 87 different genders the left says there are out there, think of it, and…we’re going to cut it out. We’re going to get it out. We are going to be pressing three basic things plus reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Trump stated that the “Marxism, fascism, communism, and the radical left socialism” he says is being thrust on students in classrooms across the country is not only hostile to religion, but “it now resembles established religion of its own, adding:
The Marxist left, and other lunatics preaching radical ideology, have become a cult with their own creeds, and their own mantras, and their own rituals. Instead of taking children to church, they believe in taking children to drag shows. You see what’s happening?’… Instead of teaching them to say their prayers, they teach them to recite their pronouns.
Trump said that he would direct his Department of Justice to legally pursue schools that engage in “these militant and country-destroying practices” under the “Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of our Constitution.”
Moreover, he reiterated his plan to “implement massive funding preferences for all states and school districts” that commit to the following actions:
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“Abolishing teacher tenure for grades K-12 so we can remove bad teachers.”
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“Adopting merit pay so we can reward the great teachers.”
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“Implementing complete curriculum transparency so that parents have the right to see 100 percent of the material their children are being taught in school.”
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“And very importantly, adopting a program of universal school choice.”
Furthermore, Trump advocated for local elections for school principal positions.
“If you have a bad principal who’s not getting the job done, the parents will, under the Trump administration, be allowed to vote to fire that principal to select someone that will do a great job… This will be the ultimate form of local control and parental rights,” he said.
The 45th president, whose Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 allowed parents to use part of 529 education savings accounts to pay for K-12 education, noted the work conservatives and Moms for Liberty have done in recent years in local school districts.
“In school board races, PTA meetings, and town halls across the nation, you have taught the radical left Marxists and communists a lesson they will never forget. Don’t mess with America’s moms,” he said.
He later called on them “to continue the noble fight that you are waging to take back school boards all across this country.”
