Opinion: It’s time to talk about what Project 2025 would do to our schools

Senator Dayna Polehanki, Chair of the Michigan Senate Majority Caucus and Senate Education Committee breaks down the impact Trump’s Project 2025 would have on education in Michigan. 

As a public school teacher for nearly 20 years, I know that for many educators who work so hard to keep politics out of their classrooms, the last thing they want to do is make noise about an election. But I’m speaking out because former president Trump’s Project 2025 agenda will have a direct impact on educators and kids in Michigan, and it’s time for all of us—teachers, students, and parents—to pay attention. 

I never thought I’d leave my career in teaching. I loved teaching high school English, and I loved my students. But when Trump was elected and I saw how he devalued and threatened public education here in Michigan, it pushed me off the sidelines and led me to run for an open seat in Michigan’s State Senate.

In the Senate, I had a front row seat to what Trump did, and tried to do, to our education system when he was in office. 

Trump appointed one of his billionaire donors, Betsy DeVos, to lead the Department of Education—despite the fact that she had zero experience in public education and has pushed for years to funnel your taxpayer money into private and religious schools. Together, Trump and DeVos worked year after year to slash billions in education funding, gut the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, freeze Pell Grants, and undercut the ability of teachers’ unions to represent their members. We are still rebuilding from the damage Trump and DeVos caused.

Now, as the sitting chair of the Michigan state Senate Education Committee, I’ve read every page of the education section of Trump’s 920-page Project 2025 agenda—and unfortunately, I can tell you that it’s worse than anything we saw from Trump during his first term. 

Project 2025—written by Trump’s closest advisors and at least 140 former staffers—would make educational inequality throughout Michigan even worse and undo the progress we’ve worked so hard to make. I don’t have to tell my fellow educators why Project 2025’s aim to abolish the Department of Education entirely is a bad idea. Or why universal school vouchers—-which Michiganders have twice overwhelmingly rejected at the ballot box—would be a disaster for our state. 

Trump’s extreme agenda would end Head Start—which 34% of rural counties rely on in Michigan for childcare and preschool; cut more than $20 billion in federal support for the nation’s most vulnerable students; and terminate the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program completely. Let me be clear: Trump would take a wrecking ball to our public education system and make it harder for students to get the support they need to succeed. The stakes for our kids could not be higher.

Fortunately, in this election, Michiganders who care about public education have another choice: Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Vice President Harris has spent her career fighting to make higher education more affordable, ensuring parents can afford high-quality child care and preschool for their children, and ending the unreasonable burden of student loan debt. As Vice President, she has helped deliver the single largest investment in public education in American history, has provided nearly $170 billion in student loan debt relief for nearly 5 million borrowers, made record investments in HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions, and increased the maximum Pell Grant award by $900 – the largest increase in more than a decade.

And as a former high school social studies teacher and football coach for over 15 years—we can trust Governor Walz will put education front and center as Vice President. As Governor of Minnesota, he signed bills to guarantee free breakfast and lunch to every student and bring down the cost of state colleges and universities. 

Teachers, the choice in this election is clear. When you’re getting ready to cast or mail your absentee ballot, or vote in person between October 26th and Election Day on November 5th, remember that the future of our next generation of students in Michigan is on the ballot.

Related: 2024 Guide To Voting In Michigan