Privatizing Public Education: The Project 2025 Plan to Dismantle the Department of Education and Gut Federal Protections for Vulnerable Students
Project 2025 proposes eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, transferring IDEA and Title I oversight to HHS, and converting federal funding into portable micro-savings accounts. As of mid-2025, none of these structural changes have been enacted—they remain legislative proposals—but they represent a direct threat to civil rights protections, equitable funding, and the public school system itself, disproportionately harming students with disabilities and low-income children.
Project 2025’s plan to eliminate the Department of Education and convert IDEA and Title I funding into portable micro-savings accounts is not a reform—it is an abandonment of the federal government’s constitutional and statutory duty to ensure equal access to education, especially for students with disabilities and children in poverty. Unlike the education debates of the Obama or Trump years, which focused on accountability and choice within public systems, this blueprint would end federal oversight of special education and equity funding altogether, transferring both to an agency (HHS) with no K–12 infrastructure and requiring families to navigate private markets that don’t exist in most rural and underserved communities. The proposal has been introduced as bills (H.R. 5315, H.R. 5316) but not passed, and no executive action has been taken as of mid-2025—but supporters are waiting for a legislative vehicle. The climate connection, while real (public schools serve as emergency shelters and community resilience hubs), is secondary here; the primary threat is the dismantling of civil rights protections for 7.5 million children with disabilities and 25 million low-income students who rely on Title I.
Original source — excerpted
project2025 Project 2025 ch. 12: Department of Energy (pp 382-384)"— 349 — Department of Education Washington should convert some of the lowest-performing public school systems in the country into areas defined by choices, creating rigorous learning options for all children and from all backgrounds, income levels, and ethnicities. Expand Education Choice Through Portability of Existing Federal Funds Setting education policy on the right track long term would require sunsetting the U.S. Department of Education altogether. Doing so would not result in fewer resources and less assistance for children with special needs or from low-income families. Rather, closing the federal behemoth would better target existing taxpayer resources already set aside for these students by shifting oversight responsibilities to federal and state agencies that have more expertise in helping these populations. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the federal law gov - erning taxpayer spending on K–12 students with special needs. The law stipulates that students have a right to a “free and appropriate education,” and 95 percent of children with special needs attend assigned public schools. The education is not always appropriate, however: S…"