US Elections: what do the two candidates propose for education and science?

The United States is deeply divided. So deeply that Democrats and Republicans hardly speak the same language anymore. As to be expected, they also disagree when it comes to higher education and scientific research.

Kamala Harris (Democratic Party)
Current Vice-President Kamala Harris wants to make higher education more affordable. One of her proposals in this regard is making community colleges free. Community colleges are publicly funded higher education institutions usually offering two-year programmes.

The Democratic party also wants to tackle student debt by forgiving some people's debts and establishing an income-based repayment system. According to Democrats, many private universities in the United States are too expensive.

As a public prosecutor, Harris won a lawsuit against a private chain of educational institutions that allegedly defrauded students with poor education. The institution had to pay 1.1 billion dollars in fines and damages.

Harris also wants to increase diversity in higher education. In recent years, the American government has tried to give a helping hand to universities where a considerable number of students belong to minorities.

The vast majority of scientists and teachers seem to be rooting for her victory, according to a poll by the news website Inside Higher Education. However, the survey also revealed that they do not want to impose their opinions on students. Nevertheless, many scientists have not been afraid of taking a stand. “The world needs an American president who respects scientific evidence,” writes the scientific journal Nature, bluntly.

She seems to respect scientific evidence, indeed. For example, Harris acknowledges the existence of climate change, describing it as an existential threat. She also said that politicians could follow scientists' example. “If the culture of those in public office was more like science, we’d get a lot more done.”

Donald Trump (Republican Party)
Did you know that Trump used to have his own university? He wasn't allowed to call it a university, but the establishment existed. It offered dubious courses in real estate investments. So dubious that former students and the state of New York took him to court. Trump settled the case for 25 million dollars when he became president in 2016.

As a president, Trump wanted to make massive cuts to the scientific research budget, but his plans were blocked in Congress, where some Republicans disagreed with the idea. However, he is far from being the only one in his party who would like to curtail science.

Trump's candidate for vice president is J.D. Vance, who gave a lecture titled "Universities are the Enemy" in 2021. In his view, one should "aggressively attack" universities because they lend credibility to "ridiculous beliefs." 

Earlier this year, Republicans in Congress proposed a bill against "woke" ideology in higher education. However, they couldn't get it through the Senate, where Democrats have a majority. If this bill were to pass, universities would lose funding if they offered "controversial" courses, such as gender studies. The bill also proposes to provide more space for gatherings and protests, which means that controversial speakers should be given access to campus, regardless of security costs. This proposal is at odds with Republicans' fierce criticism of the student demonstrations against Israel's attacks against Gaza.

If the much-discussed Project 2025 becomes a reality, as many people in the US fear, things could go much further than that. Though Trump has distanced himself from the document, many of his employees have contributed to it. One of the plans described in the document is the abolishment of the Department of Education, which would allow states to take educational matters into their own hands. This would enable Republicans to push through their will in several states, as is already happening with the banning of children's books in schools.

Furthermore, Republicans are looking to reverse the current policy on student loans, offering fewer forgiveness possibilities. Income-based repayment would also have less support.

Trump often disregards facts and science. He claims that climate change is a hoax, for example. He caused a stir in the pandemic when he suggested that injecting bleach into the human body could help against the coronavirus.