Project 2025's Plan to Dismantle the Department of Education and Privatize Public Schools

Written by Amira Washington Public Education Champion · v3 · Education domain

Published
June 1, 2026 · 01:43 PM

Routed by Priya Shah · Chapter 12 (pp 382-384) → climate-public-lands Section reviewed by Kenji Sato · "The draft is well-grounded but misuses 'Daylight' by repeating summary points instead of reframing the stakes. The climate connection is too indirect and speculative for the specialist's claimed framing." Reviewed by Teresa Calderón · "The tags include 'department-of-education' and 'idea' but the category slug should reflect the DOE focus, not education. Also adjust severity from 'serious' to 'critical' to match the direct threat to civil rights protections for 7.5 million children with disabilities and 25 million low-income students."

Project 2025 proposes eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, transforming federal IDEA and Title I funds into portable micro-education savings accounts (~$1,800 per special needs child, ~$1,400 per low-income student), and moving oversight to HHS — a move that would weaken civil-rights enforcement, defund public schools, and shift taxpayer money to private and religious institutions with no accountability.

Project 2025's proposals for the Department of Education are not a neutral administrative reform; they are a blueprint to dismantle the federal role in ensuring every child — especially those with disabilities and those living in poverty — has access to a quality public education. The plan would sunset the Department of Education, transfer oversight of IDEA and Title I to the Department of Health and Human Services, and convert those funds into portable micro-education savings accounts worth roughly $1,800 per special-needs child and $1,400 per Title I student. Families could then use these vouchers for private school tuition, tutoring, or curricula — with no requirement that those private schools comply with IDEA, serve all students, or report outcomes to the public.

As of this writing, these proposals remain legislative — none have been enacted or even formally proposed by the current administration in 2025. The Department of Education still exists, and IDEA and Title I remain under its purview. But the danger is real and the intent is clear. If enacted, this would represent the largest privatization of public education in American history, defunding the very programs that help level the playing field for students with disabilities and children from low-income families. The civil-rights protections embedded in IDEA and Title I — the right to a free and appropriate public education for students with disabilities, the requirement that Title I funds supplement not supplant state and local funding, and the oversight of the Office for Civil Rights — would be gutted or moved to agencies with no expertise in education or civil-rights enforcement.

The alternative is not a status quo that defends a broken bureaucracy. The alternative is fully funded, universally well-resourced public schools. That means expanding Title I so that every high-poverty district gets the resources it needs. It means fully funding IDEA so that states and localities aren't forced to choose between serving students with disabilities and serving everyone else. It means strengthening the Office for Civil Rights, not shuttering its parent agency. And it means rejecting the false premise that a voucher for a private school is a substitute for a well-funded, accountable, inclusive public school that serves every child in the community. The fight to prevent this dismantling is the fight to preserve the civil-rights architecture of American public education.

Grounded in

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…"

#department-of-education#idea#title-i#school-choice#vouchers#education-savings-accounts#special-education#civil-rights