Trump calls for withholding federal money from schools and colleges that require COVID vaccines

WASHINGTON — Schools, colleges and states that require students to be immunized against COVID-19 may be at risk of losing federal money under a White House order signed Friday by President Donald Trump.

The order is expected to have little national impact because COVID-19 vaccine mandates have mostly been dropped at schools and colleges across the United States, and many states have passed legislation forbidding such mandates.

The order directs the Education Department and Health and Human Services to create a plan to end vaccine mandates for COVID-19. The agencies are asked to identify any discretionary federal grants or contracts going to schools that violate the order, and remove funding ''to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.''

''Given the incredibly low risk of serious COVID-19 illness for children and young adults, threatening to shut them out of an education is an intolerable infringement on personal freedom,'' the order said.

The order didn't identify specific sources of money that could be at risk. Most federal education money is ordered by Congress.

It aims to fulfill a campaign promise from Trump, who often said he would ''not give one penny to any school that has a vaccine mandate.''

The order applies only to COVID-19 vaccines. All states have laws requiring that children attending schools be vaccinated against certain diseases including measles, mumps, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and chickenpox.

All U.S. states allow exemptions for children with medical conditions that prevent them from getting certain vaccines. Most also allow exemptions for religious or other nonmedical reasons.

Some colleges started requiring students to be immunized against COVID-19 during the pandemic, but most have dropped the requirements. A few continue to require vaccines at least for students living on campus, including Swarthmore and Oberlin colleges. Most of those colleges allow medical or religious exemptions.

Statewide student vaccine mandates were rare. California planned to add COVID-19 to the list of required vaccines for K-12 students, but it wasn't enacted and was later dropped. Illinois had a requirement for college students but lifted it after about a year.

Trump's order was denounced by Democrats including Sen. Patty Murray, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, who called the action unconscionable and unethical.

''Vaccine requirements are not new, nor are the exceptions that have long existed,'' Murray said in a statement. ''Schools and states decide their vaccine policies, often after consulting public health officials, and should never be asked to sacrifice student safety for federal funding.''

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