One thing you can say about Project 2025 and everyone who was involved in its creation is that they are angry about the ever-growing diversity of race, gender, and religion in America, all of which drives the abominable “woke” agenda that is so detrimental to American children.
Their plan to re-instate Caucasian dominance is multi-pronged and grooming the next generations through the American education system is one way to ensure that dominance remains intact for future generations.
The expectation for parents when it comes to the education of their children should be that it gives them a broad base of knowledge, so as adults they will be able function better in society, make more intelligent choices in their lives and, possibly, further their education after high school to get better paying jobs.
Project 2025 prefers to focus not on improving curriculums and supplying better tools to teachers, but weeding out perceived cultural and religious issues in our school system all while having the federal government pay for it.
Although Project 2025 contains graphs showing trends in test scores for various subjects, they are curiously placed in sections with no real references to them. There is no discussion on projected trends or what overall improvement in education will look like under their plan.
The gameplan appears to be show random “look at how bad things are” data and imply that taking a wrecking ball to the department to eliminate the rampant “woke” agenda in our school systems will magically make those scores rise.
This article addresses just some of the plans for the Department of Education under a new conservative regime.
The Department of Education
The Project 2025 overall mission for the Department of Education seems to be parental self-interest. The opening statement for education states “Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.”
The call is for empowerment to be placed at the student and family level and give them the right to decide what is best for everyone, not just their own child. To support their argument, Project 2025 references economist Milton Freeman who said education should be publicly funded, but government should not be allowed to make decisions about education.
This is a very bad idea.
The Department of Education, like other federal agencies, provides needed guidelines to standardize academic programs and protect the interests of every student. Ultra-conservative parents, who fight culture wars daily, would now have the power to impose their bias and hatred on every child to keep them ignorant, as well. Placing the responsibility in the hands of parents could potentially lead to oppression of minorities in some communities, which prevents them from realizing their full potential later in life.
Dismantling the Department of Education
The Department of Education has been restructured many times between its inception in 1867 and the creation of its current state in 1979. Their mission is “… to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering education excellence and ensuring equal access.”
To achieve these goals the department establishes policies for federal financial aid, which includes the distribution and monitoring of funds and prohibits discrimination to ensure equal access to education. Basically, the Department of Education wants students, regardless of race, religion, or gender identity to be educated on a level playing field while making sure adequate funding is available and properly used by all schools to serve the needs of students.
The Project 2025 plan calls for cutting programs within the department or moving them to other federal departments, such as Labor, Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice. They also propose changes to how state schools are funded or the elimination of some offices completely.
Some of these programs provide regulations for funding poor areas and protection from discrimination of minorities. The ensuing chaos from the implementation of Project 2025 will put the future of millions of children in jeopardy.
The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) is just one of the targets in Project 2025. It calls for cutting programs or re-allocating them to other federal agencies. One key point is to “Transfer Title I, Part A, which provides federal funding for lower income school districts, to the Department of Health and Human Services, specifically the Administration for Children and Families. It should be administered as a no-strings-attached formula block grant.”
Moving school funding to a department that is not designed to handle the uniqueness of educational needs is detrimental to our school systems, especially those in low-income areas. Block grants have far less oversight than the current federal funding system and can lead to abuse and corruption in local school boards.
The use of block grants is a favored term throughout the education section as well as other departments.
Funding Education
Project 2025 calls for “Advancing Education Freedom.” This means parents should be given options to “improve outcomes.” This is a self-serving approach to education that allows “improvements” for only select students, not all, helps suppress American minorities and leads to the widening of the wealth gap in America.
Educational freedom is for those who have the desire, but not necessarily the money. Project 2025 has the perfect solution to allow parents to choose the “best” schools for their children. The federal government will deposit taxpayer money into Education Savings Accounts (ESA) so parents can exercise this new found freedom. Parents who can easily cover the cost of sending their children to private school would now be able to use taxpayer money instead for any private school, including those that are not state accredited.
And parents who want more of a religious indoctrination instead of the teaching of useful skills will be able to use federal money, too.
Bigoted parents also benefit from the ESA. Don’t like your child going to school with minorities? Or they shouldn’t learn slavery was a brutal practice or be exposed to children of same sex couples? Here is some money so you can shelter them from the realities of the world.
Education Freedom: the New School Segregation
When it comes to postsecondary education costs, which are prohibitive for millions of students, Project 2025 states “Taxpayers should expect their investments in higher education to generate economic productivity. When the federal government lends money to individuals for a postsecondary education, taxpayers should expect those borrowers to repay.”
It’s hard to generate economic productivity when the exorbitant interest on student debt makes it, in some cases, virtually impossible to pay off before retirement or puts the burden on parents and grandparents who should be looking out for their own financial security in retirement. This is just another example of expanding the wealth gap.
Even if minority students get a quality education in a poor community and have the test scores to enter college, Project 2025 wants you to know getting a student loan to pay for it means you lose your right to the pursuit of happiness when you graduate. You can’t be happy and in deep debt.
Making Gender Identity Disappear
Project 2025 makes it clear there is no place in America for anyone who identifies as LGBTQ+, especially in our schools. Conservatives cannot grasp the concept that in today’s world the sex of a child can no longer be based solely on physical attributes and they must be wiped from existence.
If only on paper.
The forward to the Project 2025 plan states “The noxious tenets of “critical race theory” and “gender ideology” should be excised from curricula in every public school in the country. These theories poison our children…” The hatred of those they want to marginalize in society is further expressed as the claim that sex reassignment of a minor child is child abuse that has to end.
Project 2025 takes issue particularly with Title IX from the Office of Civil Rights. The claim is “…there is no scientific or legal basis for redefining “sex” to “sexual orientation and gender identity” in this law. Conservatives want all these references stripped from this law.
Conclusions
Thomas Jefferson was a strong proponent of education stating “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
Project 2025 does not provide a plan for America that Jefferson or any of our founding fathers would approve. Their plan shreds the idea that every American has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Their plans to tear down our public education system will result in a continued cycle of poverty for every in poor communities, not just minorities.
The goal of the Heritage Foundation, Donald Trump and his all-in Republican party is for ignorance to run rampant across America as the uneducated do not have the skills to realize they are their victims too.
Very good article, Susan. As a retired high school teacher, the roots of project 2025 are embedded as far aback as the onset of "No Child Left Behind." That was where federal funding of schools first became dependent on the ability of schools to produce a required number of graduates within the four-year period from 9th to 12th grades. Among other things, that requirement encouraged teachers to stretch grades, or whatever it might take, for that to happen.