I鈥檝e been making annual education predictions for well over a decade now, and nobody would be rich if they bet on their accuracy.
However, just as my basketball-playing motto (to the chagrin of my teammates) is 鈥淚 only remember the baskets that I make,鈥� I continue to make these predictions because I only really remember the ones that are accurate.
Here鈥檚 what my crystal ball tells me for 2025 (and it鈥檚 not a pretty picture). Let me know what you think and make your own predictions, too, by responding to me on Twitter (now X) , on BlueSky , or via email at lferlazzo@educationweek.org.
1. The state of Texas will on challenging the mandating that undocumented children have the right to a free public school education. It will be challenged in court and delayed, but sometime in the next year or two, it will be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court. And with the high court鈥檚 conservative leanings, all bets are off.
2. Future President Donald Trump will announce he鈥檚 the federal Department of Education, but like his infamous it will definitely not happen in 2025, and I wouldn鈥檛 bet on it happening ever. Plan on hearing his announcement every year.
3. In a similar vein, watch for a handful of well-publicized ICE raids on undocumented residents who will then be deported (and they and their families鈥� lives uprooted). But Trump鈥檚 big deportation effort will run into logistical and legal obstacles that will delay its implementation until at least 2026 and probably beyond. What won鈥檛 be delayed, however, is the to millions of students鈥� mental health and their academic achievement as they worry about family members鈥攐r themselves鈥攂eing picked up and sent back to their country of origin.
4. Despite voters throughout the United States time and again school vouchers, a massive publicly funded school choice program.
5. The MAGA assault on kids won鈥檛 stop with trying to overturn Plyler, or closing down the DOE, or siphoning money from public schools through vouchers. The Trump administration will also try to overturn the community eligibility provision that allows schools to serve universal free meals. 2025 is sure going to be a fun time to be a kid or to be someone who cares about them.
6. Next year sure isn鈥檛 going to get any easier and their families. The post-election climate is a ripe one for additional government restrictions and school bullying.
7. One of the scariest predictions I鈥檓 making is echoing a comment by University of Illinois education professor Paul Bruno, who is worried that the Trump administration is going to be doing so much bad stuff in so many areas that their destructive attacks on education will get drowned out and ignored. Gulp!
8. On the positive side to all this, I think you鈥檒l see at least hundreds of school districts around the country act in preparing to defend their immigrant students from the Trump administrations attacks. These districts and educators want to be on the right side of history. And their preparations will pay off, since I expect that there will be at least one or two in blue states, probably around the times parents are either dropping-off or picking-up their kids.
9. I borrow this last one from educator Bill Ivey every year. He predicts that 鈥渆ach and every school day will bring tens of thousands of reasons to celebrate in schools across the country.鈥�
