Military academies could increasingly show what President Trump wants to see from public schools and colleges.
While K-12 districts and universities are fighting back against book removals; transgender athlete bans; and the termination of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, the administration has a far freer hand at military institutions.
Military schools fall under an entirely different set of laws and regulations from public ones and are under the direct control of Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, though a recent protest at a military middle school in Germany shows students are not entirely on board with their reforms.
“Historically speaking, the military has always been one step ahead politically of where society is because of the controlled environment,” said Bobby Jones, president of Veterans for Responsible Leadership.
“In some respects, the military can be used as a social experimentation area because of the controlled environment, and everybody has to roger up to the orders,” Jones continued, adding “it would not surprise” him if what is happening at service academies was indicative of what the Trump administration wants at other universities.
The president has signed multiple executive orders affecting military schools, including bans on DEI and on transgender girls and women competing on sports teams that match their gender identity. Unlike with some of his other education orders, the results have been swift.
The U.S. Naval Academy has already removed around 400 books from its library that it says promoted DEI. The removals from the Nimitz Library collection, the academy said, were done “in order to ensure compliance with all directives outlined in Executive Orders issued by the President.”
West Point and the Air Force Academy are also reviewing their curriculum and will look at the content of their libraries if directed to do so, according to The Associated Press.
And despite a judge ruling in December that the affirmative action policies at the Naval Academy were legal, the academy announced it would no longer consider race or ethnicity as a factor in admission last month.
On Friday, the federal government said in a court filing that the Air Force Academy has also ended race-conscious admissions.
Jonathan Butcher, the Will Skillman senior research fellow in education policy at the Heritage Foundation, said that Trump's orders are "actually doubling down on how we understand civil rights law should be applied."
"That's the best way that I feel like we should describe many of these executive orders dealing with diversity, equity, inclusion ... as opposed to creating something new when it comes to a military academy,” Butcher said.
The 160 K-12 schools under control of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA), which serve some 66,000 students, have also seen books and certain lesson plans pulled from classrooms, as well as guidance saying programs and facilities for girls can “only be accessed by biological females.”
The changes at these schools have not happened quietly.
On Thursday, hundreds of students at schools under DoDEA control protested book bans and anti-DEI measures that were implemented in their classrooms,
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