Episode 107: Project 2025: A Seismic Shift in American Education?

In this episode of the 3E Podcast, Dr. Almitra Berry discusses Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint that aims to dramatically overhaul the US education system. Berry highlights 12 key impacts of the proposed changes, including the elimination of the Department of Education, restructuring of special education funding, and reducing federal civil rights enforcement in schools. She warns that the implementation of Project 2025 could have catastrophic consequences for marginalized learners and exacerbate existing educational inequities. Berry urges listeners to stay informed, engaged, and to make their voices heard on this critical issue that will shape the future of American education.

Additional Resources: https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/project-2025-and-the-gop-platform-what-each-says-about-k-12-in-a-2nd-trump-term/2024/07

 https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/project-2025-what-it-is-and-what-it-means-for-k-12-if-trump-wins/2024/07

https://www.project2025.org/policy

Transcript

Unknown: 0:03

If you're a parent, teacher or school leader and you're sick and tired of the frustration, anger and unfair treatment of children at high risk in our public schools, then perhaps it's time for all of us to do something about it. In this podcast, Dr amitra Berry brings you tips, tools, strategies and tactics to build successful solutions while touching, moving and inspiring all of us to transform our schools so that every child thrives. Here's your host. Dr Berry,

Dr Almitra Berry: 0:41

welcome back equity wars. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of The 3e podcast. Shout out first to new members on our Patreon channel. Thanks for joining us there. That is where you want to be if you want to get the full expanded content from upcoming interviews, pieces that won't be aired, perhaps where you're listening to this now. So check out the Patreon channel, and make sure today, before you leave, you smash that subscribe button share this episode. It is only your subscriptions that help to grow this channel, and if you know someone who has a hearing deficit who might appreciate this content, just remember, there's a transcript down below for the episode, just check the notes in your player. I want to talk today about something I have avoided talking about, and that is project 2025, now maybe you're starting to hear a little bit more about it. It is a comprehensive conservative policy blueprint. It was created by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, along with another 100 allied organizations allied with that mindset. The document itself is over 900 pages, and no, I have not read the entire thing, but I have read the content that addresses our educational system and it scares me. The project aims to reduce federal involvement in public education. That's what the statement is. The idea what they'll attempt to do is to transfer more control to states and local governments. And while I do not believe that our federal our education system, our K 12 education system is perfect, no system is perfect, the dramatic changes that they are proposing that impact funding and regulation and protection, the way that it occurs right now in the United States, scares me, and it should scare shock and motivate you, the strongest emphasis that you'll find as You hear more, read more, understand more about the proposed changes in Project 2025. Is the emphasis on promoting conservative values, and as they put it, increasing parental rights. But if you've been listening to me for some time, you know I have talked about parental rights before, and it's not an issue of whether or not parents have rights. It's which parents are you allowing to have rights and which parents are controlling the rights that parents have. So former President Trump Sure, he has said he doesn't know anything about it, but isn't that his pat answer for pretty much everything, but when you dig down into it, and many reputable news and research organizations have already done that work for us, it is his former administration officials who have had significant input and made contributions to it, if they manage to implement project 2025 it will dramatically alter the landscape of American public education. It will have implications, far reaching implications for educational equity and access to education, the scale and scope of what they are proposing should be a critical topic for anyone who is interested in the future of education In America, understanding that impact is crucial not just for those who are politically inclined. It's crucial for you as parents, grandparents, caregivers, educators, because it reprehends a plan that will change where and how you send your child to school. So it will change the options you have for school. I'm going to get into 12 things that that I think are most important in just a second. But for parents, caregivers, their implications for educators, it can transform your entire work environment, we'll get into some of those, and whether you agree or disagree with what's in there, it represents what I'm calling a seismic shift in education policy, and it is only by understanding what the proposed changes are that we can better prepare for the possible future scenarios. So as we go through this, we need to stay engaged, we need to stay informed, we need to have discussions, and we need to be active participants in shaping the future of our education system. So what's in there? Nothing short of a revolution, a complete overhaul of the system as we currently know it. I want you to imagine a world where the US Department of Education no longer exists. Imagine a world where federal funding for education is reduced and converted into block grants for states to choose to use as they see fit. I want you to picture a nationwide system of school vouchers that allow parents to use your taxpayer dollars for private schools or religious schools, leaving our public school systems dramatically underfunded, more so than they are right now, I want you to imagine a world where curriculum is shifted and only those, those subjects that this group, this conservative group of people call fundamental, are taught, reading, writing, arithmetic, science, maybe it depends history through a very white conservative lens, and anything that they consider progressive or ideological is eliminated. Imagine a world, imagine a school system where civil rights in school and protections for marginalized learners, including our LGBTQ plus students, no longer exist. Meals, teacher training, there is nothing that will be left untouched. And whether you view the changes as a much needed school reform or a concerning dismantling of our public education, one thing is very clear, if they get away with it, it will impact American generation, American education and our children for generations to come. Everything in there is a blueprint of core conservative values and principles. It reflects the belief that the federal government has overstepped its bounds in our schools. They want to shift power away from Washington, back to the States, and that, in and of itself, is not a bad thing, but there are certain things that need to be overseen, implemented, regulated at a national level, because we are a nation where people are free to move from one place to another. We are a nation where disproportionality exists based on race, based on socioeconomic status, and where children continue to be marginalized because of the color of the skin or the nation of their origin. Yes, the free market may be a good thing for some things, but a free market approach to education that encourages privatization over excellence in public education is not a good thing. So let's take a quick look a rundown of 12 key impacts that I've selected out of that document that I think we need to be very mindful of number and here's what I'm going to do, I'm going to give you the 12 today, very, very briefly, just going to give you the 12, but what I am going to do in upcoming episodes is to go through each one of these. In more depth and detail, and hopefully give you time to think about questions that you might have and text those questions to me. Remember, there's a text link down in the notes where you can get to me directly. Okay, 12 big things that we're going to come back to and look at, dig into deep dive, one episode at a time. Number one, I already alluded to the elimination of the Department of Education. The plan proposes that they completely dismantle the Department of Ed and transfer all oversight of schools entirely to the states. And if you haven't heard me talk about some of the challenges we're having in many states, this is disconcerting. All of it's disconcerting. Number one, eliminating the Department of Ed. Number two, phasing out title one funding now. Title One is an $18 billion federal fund that supports students of low financial wealth, low income students, I don't like that term students who qualify for free and reduced lunch, they're going to phase it out over a decade again, leaving the states control, leaving the states to fill the gap. And you have to ask yourself, how's that going to get filled? What's that going to look like? Number three, restructuring special education funding. Idea, those funds would be converted to block grants or education savings accounts. So how special education services are provided today will not resemble what you're going to get. Education Savings grants go to individuals. So you can already imagine that it is people who have greater access to money, that have wealth, that will be able to take their ESA funds, their block grant funds, and do more for their children who may or may not truly need special education services, where many children who do will be overlooked or neglected. Number four is the expansion of school choice. And you know me, I am not opposed to school choice when we're talking about magnet programs in public charter schools, but their plan advocates for universal school choice and allowing families to use public money for private school tuition, for religious school tuition, and that again, means that people who already have the money to send to their children to private or religious schools, will just be getting more money pulled away from public education, leaving our schools in a worse state than they're in right now. How about number five, reducing federal civil rights enforcement so the Office of Civil Rights would be moved to the Department of Justice, and that would limit its ability to investigate and enforce civil rights and education. Now keep in mind civil rights and education, that's where things like equality of access has come from. That's where we go when children are not getting what they need in schools. The Office of Civil Rights. My own experience was why bussing happened to desegregate schools, and that back in the 70s turned out, at least in my community, to be a really good thing in elevating what we know about people who don't look like us, not just desegregating, but actually integrating schools and raising racial equality and awareness. But we'll get into that in another episode. How about number six changes to curriculum? So project 2025, calls for removing what it calls correct, quote, noxious tenants, you know, things like critical race theory or gender gender ideology, taking all of that out of the curricula. We'll see what else they have in store when we dig into that in another episode number seven. They want to increase an emphasis on fundamental subjects, the fundamentals, you know, reading, writing, arithmetic, science, history, but again, history, through which lens we've talked about hard history, and if you think hard history will survive project 2025. As we like to say, You got another thing coming. It is going to oppose, or it opposes what it considers left wing propaganda in curriculum, you know, things like ethnic studies number eight, I. So number eight calls for an alteration of student discipline policies. So you know that thing called restorative practices and restorative justice that happens in schools that would go away, investigations into disproportionality or disparate impact in school discipline practices that would go away. We'll dig into that, why black and brown kids get suspended more often than white kids for the same things. We're going to get into that in another episode, increasing an emphasis on parental rights, as I mentioned, the plan proposes a federal parent's Bill of Rights, giving parents more control over educational decisions, and that ties into so many things that I've already mentioned, but again, which parents and through which lens, which brings me to number 10, because we know that this is already an issue, especially when we're Talking about parental rights, and that is changes to LGBTQ plus student protections, ending federal protections for those students, rescinding expanded Title Nine, projections, protections, Sorry, number 11, potentially privatizing a variety of aspects of public education, again, converting school funds to vouchers, promoting school choice, private school choice increased privatization. And number 12, for me, the research geek when it comes to educational data, reducing federal data collection. Now, one of my favorite places to go is the National Center for Educational Statistics, IES, the Institute for Education Sciences. With the elimination of the Department of Education, that too would probably go away federal data collection on education that tells us who's doing well, who's not, who our children are, who our teachers are what school looks like from a variety of data points, data points that can help impact policy making would go away again. Each of these is going to be explored in depth in future episodes. So why does this matter? The potential consequences of this project being implemented again, are no less than catastrophic for marginalized learners in America's K 12 schools, by dismantling federal protections, by reducing funding for low income students, and potentially weakening civil rights enforcement project 2025 will exacerbate the addition the existing educational inequities. This shift towards school choice and privatization will leave behind students whose families lack the resources to navigate an educational marketplace that will be anything but simple. Changes to special education funding and services will impact students with disabilities, and alterations to curriculum and discipline policies will disproportionately affect students of color and LGBTQ plus youth. In essence, this whole project will widen the achievement gap and further marginalize our most vulnerable students. I urge you to stay informed, stay engaged on this critical issue. Project 2025 represents a seismic shift in American education that will affect millions of students, families, educators and communities. Whether you support it or you oppose it, your voice does matter. So I've got some links down in the notes if you want to get to the full project, 2025 document, remember, it's 900 plus pages. I think it's 925 something like that. But some other resources, I want you to share this episode. Please share this episode with other parents, educators and community members. Spread awareness. Reach out to your local and state representatives. Express your views and find out where they stand. In the coming episodes, we will dive deeper. Next week, we'll get into their plan for eliminating the Department of Education and what that means to our schools, our children, our educators. To you, so make sure you subscribe to the podcast. Just subscribe. The episodes will download when they air. You listen when you have time. Just make sure you don't miss these important discussions. Remember, the future of education is shaped by those who show up and speak out, so let's make sure we're part of that conversation. And as always, don't worry about the things you can. Not change, but read this, understand this, and change the things you can no longer accept or will not accept. I'll see you next time, and that's a wrap for today's episode of the 3e podcast. Now here's how you can make a real difference. First, smash that subscribe button. It's free. It's easy, just do it. Second, share the show with anyone you know who cares about education. And third, consider becoming a supporter of the show together. We're not just talking about change, we're making it happen. Make a donation today to be part of that mission and change, and I'll catch you next time you.