GOP platform calls for “patriotic” campuses

The Republican Party’s platform for 2024 calls for the creation of “drastically more affordable” higher education alternatives, accreditation reform, the restoration of “classic Liberal arts education” and a reversal of the Biden administration’s Title IX regulations, among other policies.

A committee finalized the platform Monday behind closed doors. The platform, which largely reflects the Trump campaign’s priorities, will be voted on at next week’s Republican National Convention.

“Only President Trump can restore our economy, restore our Southern Border [sic], and restore America’s standing in the world,” said RNC chairman Michael Whatley and RNC co-chair Lara Trump in a joint statement. “His 2024 Republican Party Platform is a bold roadmap that will undo the devastating damage that Joe Biden’s far-left policies have done to this country, power President Trump to a historic victory in November, and Make America Great Again.”

The agenda outlines 20 promises, which the campaign says will be accomplished “very quickly when we win the White House and Republican majorities in the House and Senate.” Only a few relate specifically to higher education, including “keep men out of women’s sports” and “deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.”

The 16-page document expands on those promises and other commitments but provides little detail about how the policies and promises would work in practice. Several of Trump’s campaign promises, such as firing “Radical Left accreditors,” are included in the document. The platform also condemns antisemitism and promises to pursue civil rights cases against schools and colleges that discriminate. The party also plans to protect free speech, defend religious liberty and end “left-wing gender insanity,” a reference to the Biden administration’s efforts to protect transgender students.

The Trump campaign and Republican Party also want to get rid of the Education Department, preferring to “let the states run our educational system as it should be run,” according to the platform.