Overview:
What Project 2025 means for America, particularly for public schools and our kids could be detrimental.
“I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it.”
Those are the words from former president Donald Trump last month. Like so many other lies he tells, I didn’t personally believe him. For me, Donald Trump has made it clear where he stands on the notion of many things, like public schools. After all, this is the man who notoriously repeated that he “loves the poorly educated.”
I’m looking past the lying. What I care about is what Project 2025 means for America, particularly for public schools and our kids. If you haven’t been keeping up on Project 2025, here’s the quick educational portion you need to know.
What is Project 2025?
Project 2025 is an initiative spearheaded by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation. Even so, it involves an advisory board led by over 100 conservative groups, many of which have been seeking to undermine public education for years.
Project 2025 contains four main pillars, which collectively resemble a takeover of government institutions as we know them. It’s first a policy guide, then a list of loyal people for Trump’s would-be second term. It’s a training guide for those people, and finally, it’s a list of radical actions for Trump’s would-be 180 days in office.
It’s the project’s last pillar that should concern schools the most.
Here’s why.
Schooling Variety Pack
Among its many early actions, Project 2025 seeks to turn schools into what Betsy Devos once likened to “taco trucks.” Should Project 2025 have its way, public schools would be replaced coast-to-coast by so-called “educational entrepreneurs” and philanthropists from folks like Kanye West and Betsy Devos. There would be an exponential increase in pop-up schools, virtual charters, segregated private schools, and schools in basements.
The end of federal protections for LGBTQ+
Project 2025 doesn’t just want to destroy public schools. Collectively, the ultra-fundamentalist organizations that back it want to eliminate the constitutional rights of people they don’t like forever. Top of the list to target is what the Heritage Foundation and Trump call the “woke” and the “radical” protections for students who identify as LGBTQ+.
Imagine, if you will, shopping for schools popping up around you, hoping that the independent company running the school will allow your child in it in the first place. Or maybe they won’t allow you as a parent there. Or maybe they will decide to remove any suggestion that LGBTQ+ people exist in the first place in all of their curriculum. They’ll be able to do all of that under Project 2025 and more.
Reduction in loan subsidies to help pay college tuition
The folks backing Project 2025 do not believe that inequality exists in schools. Kamala Harris is a “DEI hire,” and all kids in America have the same shot at getting into college. Sometimes, you have to work a little harder, kids.
Under Project 2025, the loan subsidies that students like me need to make their way through college will be significantly reduced. And perhaps they’ll be eliminated as well. There won’t be any protections or government agencies in place to stop keeping poor kids on track to stay poor at that point.
The end of IDEA
IDEA, or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, was passed into law in 1975. It mandated a fair education for students with disabilities.
But under Project 2025, we can return to the good old days, when America was great and stuck my deaf mother in a corner while she was in high school in the 1960s. Do you know a kiddo or two with an IEP? Project 2025 would make their education “great” again.
The elimination of TITLE 1
One of the most sordid aspects of the Project 2025 agenda is the elimination of Title 1 funding for schools. As a teacher in a Title 1 school for over 25 years, I can tell you this funding isn’t near enough, but it’s essential for trying to close budget gaps for my students. Under the Biden Administration, schools like mine saw an influx of community school money to create programs and services that families in Title 1 schools do not have access to outside the school. These manifest themselves in things like arts, sports, and academic programs that I personally run. They also add essential personnel to our school to assist all students and address academic needs.
But when schools are taco trucks, Title 1 money, like equity, isn’t something we’ll be concerned about apparently.
Elimination of the Department of Education
To me, the most sinister target of Project 2025 is its intense focus on eliminating the Department of Education. Despite Trump’s lies, he has repeatedly stated that he wants to close the Department of Education. And when you look at the other things Project 2025 wants to do, it’s easy to see why. The Department of Education has been a watchdog for discrimination, protecting student rights since 1979. Without its established protections, students across our country will be at the mercy of whichever school will take them.
The inherent goals of Project 2025 should scare you as much as they do me. After the civil rights movement, after the fight for tolerance and acceptance that has led to IDEA, Title 1, and Title 9 protections, it shouldn’t matter whether or not a child is straight or gay, male or female, rich or poor, hearing or deaf.
But if Trump is elected in 2025, it sure as hell will.