The MAGA Assault on Public Education

Top Democrat Accuses House GOP of ‘Full-Scale Attempt To Eliminate Public Education’ Jake Johnson June 26, 2024 Common Dreams     Rep. Rosa DeLauro said Republicans' newly proposed funding cuts threaten "the future of an entire generation." , Freepik   The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday accused her Republican colleagues of working to completely decimate U.S. public education by proposing steep cuts to key programs in a newly released funding bill. Republicans on the appropriations panel, chaired by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), weren't shy about the expansive spending cuts they're pursuing: In a statement, the committee's GOP majority noted that its fiscal year 2025 funding legislation for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and other related agencies would fully eliminate 57 programs, slash 48 more, and reduce spending on K-12 education grants. An appropriations subcommittee is scheduled to mark up the bill on Thursday morning. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, said in response to the majority's legislation that "Republicans are in the midst of a full-scale attempt to eliminate public education that makes the American Dream possible," noting that the proposal gashes "support for children in K-12 elementary schools, threatening the future of an entire generation." According to a fact sheet released by Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, the proposed GOP funding levels would cut the Department of Education by $11 billion, or 14% below 2024 levels. Specifically, the measure would slash Title I Grants to local educational agencies by roughly $5 billion, reducing assistance for school districts with a large number of students from low-income families.

Local Congressman Kevin Kiley ( R-California) supports this anti education agenda.

See below.

Project 2025. 

 

Last weekend, Kevin Roberts, the president of The Heritage Foundation, which is behind the Project 2025 plan, went on MSNBC to not just defend the policy proposal but to gloat about it and celebrate it.¹

During his interview, he said that the goal of Project 2025 was to "institutionalize Trumpism" as the guiding principles for our government.² Terrifying.

The vast majority of voters do not agree with plans laid out in Project 2025, and when they hear about it, they abandon Trump and the Republicans in droves. The problem is, not enough voters know that it exists. Which is why MoveOn is dedicating our resources to get the truth out to voters.

There are so many awful, bigoted, and authoritarian elements of Project 2025, but let's focus on one that Roberts discussed at length during his interview and that Trump has parroted on the campaign trail: abolishing the Department of Education.³

On MSNBC, Roberts affirmed that Project 2025 calls for firing "more than 50,000" career civil servants and that thousands of those would come from the Education Department when it is shut down.⁴

What he refused to discuss, however, were the actual consequences of eliminating the department. In short, they would be catastrophic.

The DOE has wide-ranging responsibilities overseeing education in our nation, but its three largest areas of work are providing student loans, managing the Title I program, and implementing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).⁵

So what would happen to these programs if the department suddenly disappeared?

Student Loans
Each year, the federal government provides more than $111 billion in federal student aid to nearly 7 million students.^6,7 If Project 2025 is implemented, funding for these loans will be cut by at least half and could be eliminated altogether.⁸

That means 7 million students who are currently able to access higher education because of federal financial aid will be at risk of losing those opportunities. The impacts will be felt entirely by students from poor, working, and middle-class families and will disproportionately affect students of color.

This would radically reshape the future of our country, which is precisely the goal of Project 2025. 

Title I
Each year, the Title I program provides nearly $18 billion in supplemental funding to schools and school districts in poor and underserved communities across the country.⁹ It is one of the most important pieces of education legislation in U.S. history, and it helps to provide equal access to education for all children in America, no matter where they live or how much money they have.¹⁰

Cutting funding would mean even less money for teachers, mental health staff, and interventions at Title I schools. It would mean even less money to pay essential educators. It would mean leaving tens of millions of students behind.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
IDEA ensures that more than 6.5 million infants, toddlers, children, and young adults with disabilities have free access to special education and other resources from birth to age 21.¹¹ It was originally passed in 1975 and since then has helped to provide both funding and legal protection against discrimination for hundreds of millions of people with disabilities.¹²

Without funding for IDEA, there will be no way to hold schools accountable for not providing adequate services to students, programs that millions of people with disabilities rely on will be cut, and millions of families will be left in the lurch. 

Let's get one thing straight: It is not an accident that so many of Project 2025's policies harm poor and marginalized communities and people of color.

This program is a surgical attack on those communities, with the goal of making America a white Christian nationalist nation that is run by and serves only the wealthy.

Duane, the policies laid out in Project 2025 are so extreme, so cartoonishly villainous, that voters have a difficult time believing it is even real.

But it is very real.

1. "Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts: Project 2025 framework will carry on for the next 10 years," Media Matters for America, June 24, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/194204?t=7&akid=395211%2E22927824%2EO_CySw

2. Ibid.

3. "Project 2025: The Trump presidency wish list, explained," BBC, June 11, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/194205?t=9&akid=395211%2E22927824%2EO_CySw

4. "Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts: Project 2025 framework will carry on for the next 10 years," Media Matters for America, June 24, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/194204?t=11&akid=395211%2E22927824%2EO_CySw