Project 2025, also known as the Presidential Transition Project, is known to be a collection of over 900 pages of policy proposals meant to reshape the executive branch of the United States (U.S.) Federal Government. This policy would be utilized in the event of a Republican victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
The collection of policies was published by The Heritage Foundation and is referred to as a comprehensive policy guide titled Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. Project 2025 involves former Trump administration officials and other allies of the former president. However, as more attention is brought to these proposals throughout news and social media platforms, many fears and concerns arise towards what the policy hopes to achieve.
A closer examination at the key notes of Project 2025 forces the critical need to recognize the negative effects Project 2025 would bring into the U.S. education system. A major concern pertains to how Project 2025 discusses budgeting towards the education system and the U.S. Department of Education. The official Project 2025 organization’s online website states,“Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated.”
It is understood that Project 2025 advocates for rolling back on Biden’s administration’s more recent student debt relief efforts. The Biden administration has continuously approved billions of money in student loan debt relief which are rooted in the power that the Higher Education Act of 1965 grants to the U.S. Department of Education to “compromise, waive or release loans.”
The 2025 policy agenda claims that the administration is “acting outside of statutory authority.” All students would face the devastating impacts of what the Project 2025 advocates, especially, student loan debt on marginalized communities. According to Capital B, a online news publications article titled “Project 2025’ and the Movement That Could Erode Black Equality”, the Biden Administration has “announced new plans that would target the ‘disproportionate debt burden’ faced by Black borrowers, who also would bear the brunt of any large-scale debt regulation reversal [like Project 2025]”.
A very significant and concerning action the policy of Project 2025 seeks out is the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education. The elimination of the U.S. Department of education has been a notion since 1979 as stated by Education Next, an informational organization. The organization explains that it is unclear what Project 2025 desires to do with loans and money given to education. Moreover, noting the possibility of congress voting to “abolish” the Department and “move all its programs, funds and personnel to other departments or agencies.”
Further acknowledging the damages Project 2025 would bring upon education in the U.S., as implied in Title one of Project 2025 the eighteen billion dollars federal fund that supports low-income students, would disappear in a decade. These ideas are further explained by Education Week, an educational site on daily news and information who states “Project 2025’s education agenda revolves around shrinking the federal government’s footprint on public education.”
As Project 2025 continues to develop and gain attention it is vital to note the effects the policies would bring upon the U.S.. More specifically it is essential to recognize the negative effect Project 2025 could bring upon the U.S.’s system of education. There is a demanding need for action against proposals that would harm the U.S. educational structure.
