Education Stories to Watch in 2026
Will school privatization efforts reach a tipping point in the new year?
2025 has seen the advancement of tremendous threats to public education - led by the efforts of Privatizer-in-Chief Donald Trump.
His federal school vouchers scheme threatens to sow further disruption and undercut state and local education systems.
In addition to vouchers, Trump is also aggressively dismantling the Department of Education.
Here’s more from 2025 that signals what public education defenders should be watching in 2026:
An alarming effort by a newly-formed Tennessee nonprofit with strong ties to the state’s top GOP leaders would effectively end public education in the Volunteer State in the next five years:
Speaking of alarming developments, the rapid expansion of AI as a classroom teacher should raise concerns. A small but growing private/charter school network is pushing the prospect of replacing educators with AI and employing adults only to “facilitate” the process. No need for teachers with degrees and certifications - just let kids spend hours with a Chatbot in a world already saturated with minimal human interaction.
And if you think learning history will help us prevent future Trumps, you might be interested in learning about what Trump wants to do to history:
The Trump administration’s US Dept. of Education (US ED) announced a new MAGA-driven “patriotic education” curriculum initiative that it plans to force into classrooms across America. This is being pushed by a civics education coalition of more than 40 partner groups, all of which are closely aligned with the president’s MAGA, extremist movement — including PragerU, Moms for Liberty, the Heritage Foundation, Turning Point USA, ALEC, the Goldwater Institute, and Stephen Miller’s American First Legal. Now, US ED says it will provide discretionary grants to schools that promote ‘patriotic’ education.”
In Tennessee, the state overhauled its school funding formula a few years ago - and now, we’re dead last in the Southeast in investment in public schools - that’s unlikely to change in 2026.
Speaking of school funding, school vouchers are taking a toll in states across the country - will “new” voucher states like TN and TX also see big, negative budget impacts due to vouchers?
And, this is a fun one - in looking at Tennessee’s anti-DEI law, I came across a state law that encouraged school boards to hire educators from diverse backgrounds. That law wasn’t advanced by some crowd of woke leftists in the era before GOP supermajorities in Tennessee. Instead, it was led by Republicans - former House member Bill Dunn of Knoxville, Sen. Jack Johnson of Williamson County, and signed by Gov. Bill Lee. Yes, the same crowd that now rails against the very “big government DEI” that they imposed.
Finally, will Gov. Bill Lee make the decision to accept federal funds to provide food assistance for kids in summer 2026?
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