Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election on November 8, 2016 was widely unexpected, and education reporters spent the next day working out what it could mean for schools and colleges. The InformED Report for November 10, 2016 looked at what the result might change for families paying for college and for federal education policy, and at the protests that broke out on college campuses and in at least one large California high school the day after the vote.
In this edition
- Money advised families that the short-term effect of the election would be felt mainly in the markets and college savings, with larger changes to student loans possible later.
- Trump advisers had discussed taking the federal government out of student lending, and his calls for less regulation pointed to lighter oversight of for-profit colleges.
- The Atlantic expected more power to shift to states, a push for school choice, and a smaller federal Education Department.
- About 1,500 students, half of Berkeley High School, walked out of class, and protests spread across college campuses.
What the election could mean for college costs and federal policy
Writing the morning after the vote, Money’s Kim Clark, Greg Daugherty and Kaitlin Mulhere told families that in the short term, not much would change. Until the inauguration in January 2017, the main effect would be on financial markets and college savings. Families saving through a 529 plan in an age-based portfolio, which held about 80 percent of 529 assets, were somewhat protected, while money in individual stocks, bonds and mutual funds would rise and fall with the market. The New York Times reported that U.S. stock futures had plunged 5 percent overnight before recovering nearly all their losses once trading began.
The longer-term changes could be larger. Sam Clovis, the Trump campaign’s national co-chair and policy director, had discussed handing federal student lending to banks and other private lenders, and had suggested charging students different interest rates based on their expected earnings. Trump had proposed an income-based repayment plan capping payments at 12.5 percent of income for 15 years, said he would push colleges to cut costs, and repeated his wish to eliminate the Education Department, an idea most experts considered far-fetched. Money also noted that his stated desire to reduce regulation could mean less oversight of for-profit colleges, and that shares of several large for-profit companies rose between 4 and 10 percent on the morning after the election.
For K-12 schools, The Atlantic’s Emily DeRuy laid out what was likely. Closing the Education Department entirely seemed highly unlikely, she wrote, but its scope could be scaled back sharply, and with Republicans controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress, more decisions were likely to move to states and districts. Trump had proposed $20 billion for school choice, and a federally backed voucher program had a real chance of advancing. “You’re going to see Trump making a push for parental choice,” said Gerard Robinson of the American Enterprise Institute. DeRuy added that Trump’s pledge to “repeal” Common Core was not something a president could do, since the standards were adopted by states, and that the Obama administration’s pending rules under the Every Student Succeeds Act looked unlikely to survive.
For district leaders, the practical advice at the time was to watch rather than react. Very little of what was said in the campaign had become policy, and the education secretary had not been named. Districts with budgets built on federal grants, and states still writing their ESSA plans, had reason to follow the transition closely and to expect more of the decisions to land with them.
Students walk out after the election
Protests began on campuses as the results came in. The Washington Post’s Susan Svrluga reported that students at colleges across the country, especially on the West Coast, took to the streets that night. John Baughman, an associate professor of politics at Bates College, noted that college students belonged to the most Democratic-leaning of all age groups, after a decade of generational shift toward the party.
High school students followed the next morning. The Los Angeles Times reported that at Berkeley High School, about 1,500 students, half the student body, walked out after first period began at 8 a.m., according to Berkeley Unified School District officials. Reuters reported that students and teachers rallied in the school’s courtyard before marching toward the University of California, Berkeley, carrying signs and using the hashtags #NotMyPresident and #BHSWalkout. One student told the rally that people of color feared discrimination and that immigrant families now worried about deportation.
For principals, the walkouts raised questions every school faces after a divisive public event: how to keep students safe when they leave campus, how to respect their right to speak, and how to support those who come to school afraid. Schools that had thought through those questions in advance were better placed to answer them on the day.
Sources
- Kim Clark, Greg Daugherty and Kaitlin Mulhere, “What Trump’s Election Means for College Students and Parents,” Money, November 9, 2016.
- Landon Thomas Jr., “Stock Markets, Initially Shaken, Edge Higher After Trump Victory,” The New York Times, November 9, 2016.
- Emily DeRuy, “Donald Trump and the Future of Education,” The Atlantic, November 2016.
- Joseph Serna and Matt Hamilton, “Trump victory sparks student walkout at Berkeley High School, angry protests across California,” Los Angeles Times, November 9, 2016.
- Susan Svrluga, “Mobs of tearful, angry students protesting Trump victory swarm college campuses,” The Washington Post, November 9, 2016.
- “California high school students walk out of classes in Trump protest,” Reuters, November 9, 2016.
About the InformED Report
The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on November 10, 2016. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.
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