To the Editor:
A public education serves to give all citizens an equitable starting place with open minds and free expression of thought. Support for children with disabilities, and those coming from low-income families have been supported by a robust public education system. Project 2025, the playbook for the next conservative administration, with Donald Trump and his administration mentioned over 300 times, has the following plans that would erode this system.
The goals of the Project 2025 education plan include a gradual defunding of the Department of Education. The DOE’s current mission is to “promote student achievement and prepare students for global competitiveness fostering excellence and equality in education.” It also develops policy while administering policies and coordinates federal assistance to education, while implementing laws passed by Congress.
Title 1 is a program of federal assistance for schools with students from low-income families. The author of the chapter on education reform in Project 2025 recommends that the financial support of these students revert to state responsibility through block grants. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act currently supports 40% of states’ special education costs. These costs would also be returned to the states, with coverage determined (or not) by individual states.
The DOE’s department of civil rights would be eliminated. The National Education Association is an organization made up of 3 million current and future educators who with their allies have a mission dedicated to “champion justice and excellence in public education.” The recommendation in Project 2025 is that this body be decertified.
Head Start is a federal program run by the Department of Health and Human Services to provide preschool, health care and nutritional services to income-eligible children and currently serves about 833,000 students annually. Study after study shows the short-term benefit of these programs, and many point to long-term effectiveness, even into high school and young adulthood. Despite these positive results, the playbook for the next conservative administration recommends defunding the Head Start Program.
Multiple states currently have enacted book bans in line with a Christian nationalistic agenda, a religiously motivated, authoritarian group comparable to the Taliban in Iran. Books and teachings that do not echo their rhetoric will be removed and librarians would be at risk of sanctions and criminal penalties. Teaching American history would be severely curtailed by naming much of it “Critical Race Theory.” Project 2025 also rolls back protections for LGBTQ students.
Currently, national standards hold that children of low-income homes and those with disabilities are promised an equitable level of support. Local control is through the community and school boards. Can we improve on this system? Of course, and we should continue to do so. But if a conservative administration is voted in, this playbook will become the rulebook and our freedom to teach, and our children’s freedom to learn and become critical thinkers, will be severely curtailed.
Please read further and become informed. Reach out to me if you would like to discuss this further. Please vote for our democracy.