The federal funding spigot is being turned off for any school or college that requires students to have a COVID-19 vaccine under an executive order released Friday by President Donald Trump.
The order said that despite the ebb of COVID-19, some “school districts and universities continue to coerce children and young adults into taking the COVID-19 vaccine by conditioning their education on it, and others may re-implement such mandates.”
The order noted Trump’s position that parents should decide which vaccines children receive.
🇺🇸BREAKING: TRUMP DEFUNDS COVID VACCINE-MANDATE SCHOOLS
Trump has signed an executive order cutting all federal funding to schools that require the COVID vaccine.
A major move against forced mandates, reinforcing parental choice in education. pic.twitter.com/PKwarNaNNu
— Dr. J. J. Levine (@drjjlevine) February 14, 2025
“Parents and young adults should be empowered with accurate data regarding the remote risks of serious illness associated with COVID-19 for children and young adults, as well as how those risks can be mitigated through various measures, and left free to make their own decisions accordingly,” the order said.
“Given the incredibly low risk of serious COVID-19 illness for children and young adults, threatening to shut them out of an education is an intolerable infringement on personal freedom. Such mandates usurp parental authority and burden students of many faiths,” the order said.
The order said “discretionary Federal funds” should not go to any college, school, or state education agency that requires a COVID-19 vaccine to attend classes in person.
The order gives the secretary of education and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 90 days to give Trump a report of what discretionary money flows to schools, colleges, or states that require a COVID-19 vaccine and how they plan to either block aid from those offenders in the future or rescind existing discretionary aid. The order also requires a plan to ban such mandates in the future.
HUGE WIN for health freedom in America!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Under President Trump, we will no longer force our kids to take vaccines they don’t need!
President Trump just signed an executive order to DEFUND any school that mandates the COVID-19 vaccine! pic.twitter.com/2hTODlXexn
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 14, 2025
Trump has nominated Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education, but she has not yet been confirmed.
Trump “is committed to protecting personal freedoms and ensuring that Americans’ education isn’t conditioned on unnecessary government mandates,” a White House fact sheet issued in conjunction with the order said.
The fact sheet calls a vaccine requirement “government coercion.”
“Studies consistently show that children and young adults have an incredibly low risk of developing a severe illness from COVID-19,” the fact sheet said.
The fact sheet added that Trump “is dedicated to ensuring that American students are not forced to choose between their education and their medical freedom.”
The document also noted that Trump is a “staunch advocate for parental rights, ensuring families have the primary role in shaping their children’s educational journey, free from undue bureaucratic mandates.”
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said he “would not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate or a mask mandate,” according to CBS News.
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