By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-08-24 22:10:24 | Updated at 2026-09-03 13:09:01
1 week ago
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump kicked off the new school year with a celebration in the White House’s Rose Garden, hosting top-performing students and educators from across the nation on Aug. 24.
“From the very beginning of our country, Americans have understood that there is no job more important than teaching our children to become happy, healthy, proud, productive, and flourishing citizens,” Trump said during the event.
He highlighted bans his administration enacted outlawing critical race theory and transgender ideologies in schools that receive federal funding.
“We’re ending all of these radical left betrayals and putting the parents back in charge,” Trump said. “They are the ones that love our children and the ones that should be in charge.”
Institutions that continue to promote transgender theories to students could face legal consequences, according to the president.
“Every public school is now on notice: If they tell a child they’re trapped in the wrong body, they are committing child abuse,” Trump said.
“As we remove our left extremism from the classroom, we are ensuring every child in America has access to a first-class education.”
Allowing families to choose where their children go to school is a priority of the administration.
“We want every parent to have the power to send their child to a high-quality school that shares their values,” Trump said. “It’s so important.”
The president criticized the amount of money spent on education in past years relative to the academic achievements of students, with approximately 30 percent of students nationwide proficient in reading and math.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon spoke of the administration’s steps to improve the nation’s education system, including limiting school districts’ power over parents, returning control to the states, cutting billions of dollars in diversity, equity, and inclusion funding, and expanding education freedom tax credits, among other objectives.
“Never before have parental rights been enforced at this scale and parents are back in the driver’s seats where they rightfully belong,” McMahon said.
“We are breaking the grip of the education monopoly in D.C. and putting the future of our children back into the hands of those that know them, love them, and are best positioned to help them reach their God-given potential.”
Pastor Caleb Griffith spoke of the challenges his family faced finding quality education for their five children and said those difficulties were alleviated by the school choice scholarship programs launched by the current administration.
“The educational freedom tax credits will give my children access to the services that they need to be successful in the most formational years of their lives,” Griffith said during the ceremony.
“We only get one chance to educate our children, and our children are the future of America.”
Another participant, a father of five from Jacksonville, Florida, whose family homeschools their children, thanked the president for the education credits for homeschool families that benefit nearly four million students who study at home.
A participant named Hubert, who only provided his last name, said, “There is not any president who was supporting us. Being able to have the extra resources to provide them with their needs, and the option to support our children in the way that we see fit, means the world.”
Trump ended the event by taking the crowd on a tour of the South Lawn to see the new helipad and ballroom construction.
