Donald Trump moves to cut funds for schools enforcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates

Schools, colleges, and states that require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 may lose federal funding under an executive order signed by President Donald Trump.

The directive instructs the Education Department and Health and Human Services to create a plan to end vaccine mandates and identify discretionary federal grants that could be revoked for noncompliance.

Limited national impact

The order is expected to have minimal impact nationwide, as most schools and colleges have already dropped COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Additionally, several states have enacted legislation prohibiting such mandates.

Rationale for the Order

Citing the “incredibly low risk” of serious illness from COVID-19 for children and young adults, the White House stated that denying education due to vaccine requirements is an “intolerable infringement on personal freedom.” The order aligns with Trump’s campaign promise that he would not allocate “one penny” to schools enforcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Scope of the policy

The executive order applies solely to COVID-19 vaccines and does not impact existing state-mandated immunizations for diseases such as measles, mumps, polio, tetanus, and chickenpox. States continue to allow medical and religious exemptions for required vaccinations.

Existing COVID-19 vaccine policies

While many colleges initially required students to be immunized against COVID-19 during the pandemic, most have since dropped these mandates. A few institutions, including Swarthmore and Oberlin, still require vaccinations for students living on campus, but they provide exemptions for medical and religious reasons. At the state level, mandates were rare—California considered adding COVID-19 to its list of required vaccines for K-12 students but ultimately abandoned the plan. Illinois briefly required college students to be vaccinated before lifting the rule.

Democratic opposition

The order has been met with criticism from Democrats, including Sen. Patty Murray, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Murray denounced the move as “unconscionable and unethical,” arguing that schools should not be forced to choose between student safety and federal funding. She emphasised that vaccine requirements have long been established in schools, often in consultation with public health officials.