(The Hill) — Education news in 2025 was dominated by President Trump’s crusade against higher education, affecting everything from school funding to student loans to the legal status of a slew of international students.
Trump’s immigration crackdown left its mark on K-12 school districts as well, but those institutions also had their own issues to grapple with, including ongoing struggles with test scores and the growing popularity of classroom cell phone bans.
Here are the biggest education stories from the past year:
Pulled funding and controversial deals
One of the Trump administration’s signature moves against higher education this year was pulling federal funding from colleges’ research and demanding institutional changes for the money to be restored.
The administration has typically cited the institutions’ struggles with antisemitism when pulling the funding, though its demands tend to run toward conservative priorities more generally, such as eliminating diversity efforts.
The pressure first worked on Columbia University, which lost $400 million before agreeing to pay a $200 million and making changes to its disciplinary policies, hiring and academic departments.
“It was a comprehensive agreement that we were able to reach with Columbia, and it is our hope that this is going to be a template for other universities around the country,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said at the time.
Columbia was the first of several schools to cut a deal with the White House, although not all had such sweeping demands.
The University of Virginia allegedly received pressure by the Trump administration to oust its then-president but was able to strike a deal after that included no fine and only agreed to changes and federal access to some admissions data.
The Trump administration’s big goal of such an agreement with Harvard University has yet to be accomplished, despite the president and McMahon saying multiple times they were close to a deal.
Harvard has been mum on the situation, but some outlets have reported talks of a $500 million payout.
Immigration crackdown on international and undocumented students
While Trump has always had tough stances on immigration, a crackdown many students didn’t expect took place this year, with multiple international students with ties to the pro-Palestinian campus movement arrested.
Taken off the street with little warning with the intention to be deported, a number of students saw their worlds turned upside down and are still currently battling the federal government in court, although many have been released from custody.
The first and biggest case concerned Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student and leader of the pro-Palestinian encampment who was arrested and missed the birth of his first child due to his detention.
The Trump administration argued these students were a threat to the foreign policy of the United States and that the secretary of State could order their deportation, citing a law hardly ever used in immigration court before.
The administration also added new rules for foreign students, most prominently a social media check when they apply for a visa.
“I think students have pretty much assumed that anything is open for interpretation or misinterpretation, and so as a result, they’re extremely cautious when it comes to engaging with social media moving forward,” Fanta Aw, executive director and CEO of the Association of International Educators, said at the time.
The crackdown has led to a drop in international students’ interest in the U.S., and K-12 districts with high immigrant populations have seen a decline in attendance.
Student loan changes
From former President Biden’s record-setting efforts on forgiveness to a crackdown in repayment options, the student loan system is changing drastically for borrowers.
Most recently, the Trump administration announced the end of the Saving on Valuable Education, or SAVE, income-driven repayment plan, almost certainly raising student loan repayments for the 7 million borrowers who will need to switch to a new plan.
“For four years, the Biden Administration sought to unlawfully shift student loan debt onto American taxpayers, many of whom either never took out a loan to finance their postsecondary education or never even went to college themselves, simply for a political win to prop up a failing Administration,” Under Secretary of Education Nicholas Kent said.
Republicans in their “big, beautiful bill” also passed changes to the student loan system that will dwindle the number of repayment options to two by 2028.
One of the options is a standard repayment plan that gives a loan expected to be repaid in 10 to 25 years, and the other is a Repayment Assistance Plan that requires 30 years of payments before loan forgiveness, when before it was 20 to 25 years.
Even the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) plan wasn’t safe, as the Trump administration said it wants to take some previously qualified employers off the list.
Dismal reading scores
An issue that has persisted since the COVID-19 pandemic has extended to another year for educators.
At the beginning of the year, the Nation’s Report Card showed reading scores for fourth and eighth graders plummeted even further than 2022 scores.
“These results are both heartbreaking and tragic,” Alicia Levi, president and CEO of Reading is Fundamental, said at the time. “We need to take action. … We are calling on, leaders from all sectors, public and private, to join us in this fight.”
In September, 12th grade reading scores from 2024 were found to be at the lowest level since before 1992.
States have been switching how they teach reading to the science of reading, which has been credited with turnarounds in reading scores in places including Louisiana.
But the reading crisis is not only among younger students but adults as well.
A 2020 Gallup study found the reading crisis was costing the U.S. $2.2 trillion annually, with the problem likely getting worse over five years.
Cell phone bans
Partial or full cell phone bans in U.S. classrooms grew in popularity this year as more states and districts adopt stricter policies.
Almost half the states in the U.S. have imposed some school cell phone restrictions into law, but not all look the same.
Some states are more lenient and simply say schools have to implement some cell phone policies. Others have implemented classroom cell phone bans or, the furthest, all day cell phone bans.
For the all-day bans, some schools have imposed systems such as Yondr pouches that students have to put their phones into and can’t access them until the final bell.
“New York was the first state to target addictive social media feeds — and now we’re the largest state to restrict smartphones in schools throughout the entire school day,” Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said. “I know our young people succeed when they’re learning and growing, not clicking and scrolling — and that’s why New York continues to lead the nation on protecting our kids in the digital age.”
The idea has been popular for educators and school officials, although some parents and students raise safety concerns and protest their personal property being so heavily restricted.
Trump moves to dismantle Education Department
Both higher education and K-12 have been kept on their toes this year as the Trump administration has made several moves to dismantle the Education Department.
McMahon kicked off the process in March when she laid off half the employees at the federal agency.
Shortly after, Trump signed an executive order ordering McMahon to dismantle the department as far as legally possible.
“The department’s useful functions … will be preserved, fully preserved,” he said at the time, referring to Pell Grants, Title I funding and programs for students with disabilities. “They’re going to be preserved in full and redistributed to various other agencies and departments.”
“But beyond these core necessities, my administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department. We’re going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible,” he added.
Programs that have been hit the hardest due to these downsizing efforts include the Institute of Education Sciences, Federal Student Aid and the Office of Civil Rights, which recently brought back some employees due to case backlogs.
The Education Department also recently announced several interagency deals with the Department of Interior, Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human Services to move programs. The other agencies will run some of the daily operations and distribute grants, while the Education Department still has oversight of the programs.