5 ways Project 2025 would hurt Michigan’s public schools

Project 2025 features detailed plans for how Donald Trump could overhaul the federal government. And in Michigan, it could slash education funding, censor teachers, promote the privatization of public schools, and leave kids in a crisis.

MICHIGAN—Project 2025 is a detailed conservative blueprint for a second Donald Trump presidency that has been championed by far-right groups and, if enacted, would lead to sweeping changes for the nation’s public education system. Michigan is no exception.

From eliminating the US Department of Education to sharply restricting what teachers can do and say in the classroom, this 900-page agenda for a new, ultra-conservative overhaul of the federal government aims to transform public schools across the country. 

And as Michiganders cast their ballots in this year’s election, it’s critical to understand the specifics of this plan—and the consequences it would create for public schools statewide.

Here are five threats Project 2025 poses to Michigan’s public schools:

1. Elimination of the Department of Education

One of the most talked-about proposals in Project 2025 is the total elimination of the US Department of Education. (It’s right there, in plain English, on Page 351 of the plan.)

This federal agency is responsible for overseeing key programs like Title I, which last year provided more than $530 million to Michigan schools with high percentages of low-income students, and helped to close the tax revenue gap between affluent and disadvantaged districts. 

Cutting those federal funds would threaten an estimated 180,000 teaching positions that serve about 2.8 million students nationwide. A report from the Center for American Progress shows that about 5,400 of those teachers are educating about 89,000 students across Michigan.

The report also shows that Project 2025’s proposal to eliminate Title I could create staffing shortages, which would lead to higher teacher-to-student ratios in classrooms statewide. Schools in cities like Detroit, where a big share of funding comes from federal sources, as well as districts in Michigan’s rural communities, would reportedly be hit the hardest under the plan.

On the campaign trail, Trump has also personally called for shutting down the agency if he returns to the White House next year—including last month, at a rally in Wisconsin, where he again told his supporters he “will ultimately eliminate the federal Department of Education.”

2. Creation of a Federal Voucher Law

Project 2025 also advocates for a federal voucher system, which would essentially enable taxpayer dollars to flow away from public schools and into private and religious institutions. 

This policy, which has also been championed by right-wing Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos and her family, has been a long-standing conservative goal nationwide, and it could sharply reduce public school funding in school districts that are already struggling to make ends meet.

In Michigan, where DeVos’ previous efforts to expand school choice in 2018 and 2019 have failed to clear Congress, this proposal would only deepen the divide between wealthy and low-income schools, according to a recent report from the National Education Association. 

On Page 354, Project 2025 aims to create new federal education savings accounts — a form of private school vouchers —  that are modeled after those in Arizona, which allow funds to be transferred directly to families. The state’s program has mostly benefited private school families while siphoning funding from the state’s public schools, and has since led to hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts to critical state programs.

Project 2025 also details a plan to create new federal tax credits to “encourage voluntary contributions” to those savings accounts, which would instead be managed by nonprofit groups.

The most recent (failed) efforts to expand voucher programs in Michigan would’ve reportedly drained the state’s public schools of $500 million every year—which also would’ve led to fewer resources and larger class sizes. Voucher programs have also been shown to disproportionately benefit wealthier families, often leaving low-income kids to attend underfunded public schools. 

3. Censorship of Classroom Content

Project 2025 details a clear plan to restrict what teachers can discuss with students in the classroom—particularly on topics related to race, gender, and sexual orientation. And educators fear that would ultimately prevent them from providing a comprehensive, inclusive education, as well as create a chilling effect on honest classroom conversations around difficult subjects.

More specifically, in the foreword to Project 2025, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts claims “woke diversicrats” have “injected racist, anti-American, ahistorical propaganda” into classrooms, and argues “the noxious tenets of critical race theory and gender ideology should be excised from curricula in every public school in the country” under the Trump administration.

Conservative groups have long pushed to ban discussions of racism and other so-called “controversial” subjects, arguing that these topics don’t belong in the classroom​. And in Michigan, some of those efforts to censor classroom discussions have already gained traction.

On the first page of Project 2025, Roberts also writes that that “children suffer from the toxic normalization of transgenderism with drag queens and pornography invading their school libraries,” and goes on to liken anything that mentions transgenderism to “pornography.”

Those same arguments have already been used to justify banning books and censoring classroom lessons at the local and state level. And educators are also concerned the language in Project 2025 would only serve as a greenlight for broader federal restrictions—particularly with its promise to cut federal funding for schools with curricula that touch on those subjects.

4. Codifying Discrimination Against LGBTQ Students

On Page 334, Project 2025 aims to scrap federal Title IX discrimination protections that prohibit schools from forcing transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that do not align with their gender identity, as well as require staff to refer to students by the pronouns they use.

“The next Administration should abandon this change redefining ‘sex’ to mean ‘sexual orientation and gender identity’ in Title IX immediately across all departments,” the plan states.

By narrowing the scope and authority of the Office of Civil Rights, Project 2025 would also effectively force an end to hundreds of ongoing investigations dealing with alleged Title IX civil rights violations—including more than 20 potential violations at Michigan State University. 

“Not only would students not have a place to go to assert their civil rights with the federal government, but under Project 2025, they would have fewer rights altogether,” Shiwali Patel, senior director of Safe and Inclusive Schools, wrote for the National Women’s Law Center. 

In addition to equating anything to do with the LGBTQ community as “pornography”, Project 2025 also calls for teachers and librarians who disseminate books and other materials that address transgender identities to be registered as sex offenders. (That’s on Page 37.)

A recent analysis from the Center for American Progress also shows that the right-wing policies outlined in Project 2025 could increase the risk of LGBTQ students experiencing harm while in school—and that could ultimately turn public schools into a less inclusive space for all students.

5.) Elimination of the Head Start Program

Project 2025 would also pose a clear risk to students before they begin their K-12 education—namely by eliminating the federal Head Start program, which provides access to no-cost child care, among other services, for about 28,000 low-income children in Michigan.

According to the Center for American Progress, eliminating the program would wipe out a critical supply of child care in rural and other underserved communities that are already facing a child care shortage. Estimates show that more than 1 in 3 child care slots that are currently available in rural Michigan communities would be eliminated by cutting the Head Start program.

Michigan is already facing a child care shortage. Reports show there were about four children under 12 competing for each available child care spot statewide last year. And experts warn that the shortage will only get worse if the federal Head Start program were to be eliminated.

Many union workers are also employed in Head Start programs—including as teachers’ aides, school bus drivers, cafeteria workers, and maintenance and janitorial staff. Officials at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees have blasted the plan, saying care workers need more resources—not to “have their professions denigrated and dismantled.”

“The right-wing proposals in Project 2025 would hurt our country’s public school students, harm children and families who rely on Head Start, and wreck our economy by skewing it toward the wealthy and corporations at the expense of working families,” AFSCME said in a statement.

READ MORE: Report: Project 2025 would ‘devastate’ Michigan’s rural communities

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