In the years before, during, and after President Donald J. Trump’s first presidency, he caused many serious issues and committed several felonies, such as falsifying business records in the first degree, being charged with a hush-money case, and completely disrespecting our U.S. Marines who sacrificed themselves in WWI, calling them “losers,” and “suckers.” Now that Trump has been re-elected to serve another four years as the 47th President of the United States of America, there are heightening feelings of fear and tension.
The fact of it is, however, much of the American public disregarded these offenses and voted for Trump anyway.
Why should all this matter to us?
Donald Trump’s plan over the next four years will affect everybody. Every state, every business, every community, every citizen, every student – And that includes you.
Mandate for Leadership, also known as Project 2025, is a 922-page blueprint of plans that limit abortion medication and equipment access, initiate mass deportations that separate families, end birthright citizenship, rescind funding from schools that discuss race or gender, implement oppression by social identity group, and limit voting access.
Out of all the plans laid out in this project, the angle that immediately impacts us students the most is how Project 2025 will wreck public education.
Before the election’s results were announced, Trump’s campaign declared that they would prohibit anyone involved in Project 2025 from working in his administration. While Trump claimed that he had nothing to do with the blueprint, at least 144 of its authors previously worked for Trump’s campaign or were part of his administration. Furthermore, when the election ended, Trump nominated many of Project 2025’s authors to play important roles in his administration.
One of the many plans in Project 2025 that concern us is how it will expand Arizona’s voucher program to the rest of the country.
Vouchers, funds for families with students attending private schools, make states’ budgets insecure, yet Project 2025 promises to have them in every state.
According to ProPublica, last year, Arizona had a $1.4 billion budget shortfall because of vouchers. To compensate, the state was forced to cut tens of millions of dollars from water infrastructure, highway expansion, and community colleges, to name a few. While the purpose of vouchers is to support families who may be struggling to pay for private school costs, audits show that the families who receive vouchers (many of them with children already attending private schools) use them for various unnecessary expenses such as kayak and horseback riding lessons, home gyms, televisions, and other non-school expenses, according to neaToday.
The voucher program funnels money away from the already dismal public school funding to give to families attending private schools. This will destroy the quality of education in public schools, emptying resources and tightening budgets.
In addition, Project 2025 is planning to completely eliminate Title 1, a federal program that helps fund education in California. This program has proven extremely effective in helping students meet the challenging academic curriculums in our state. Title 1 also supplies low-income and disadvantaged students with financial assistance.
According to a report by neaToday, if the plan to get rid of Title 1 becomes a reality, it will affect over 2.8 million students by eliminating more than 180,000 teaching positions.
Moreover, Project 2025 will also eliminate Head Start services, free programs for infants to 5-year-old children available in every state and many territories of the United States. This program prepares children to succeed in school and in life by incorporating diverse lesson plans, serving healthy meals, encouraging hygiene, offering support for parents, and engaging parents in their child’s growth.
In another report by neaToday, if Project 2025 eliminates the Head Start program, 800,000 children will no longer receive free learning services.
Every citizen in the United States of America will be affected by Project 2025 – And we need to understand that now. If the Trump administration carries out Project 2025, our access to quality education that everyone can afford will be severely strained.