News that President Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order dissolving the U.S. Department of Education has riveted attention on Trump’s adherence to Project 2025, a conservative evangelical blueprint for dismantling the federal government.
The Wall Street Journal reported March 5 that a draft version of the order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the agency. The Journal added the signing could come March 6 or soon thereafter.
Linda McMahon
However, McMahon said during her recent Senate confirmation hearing the White House cannot unilaterally close the department, which was created by Congress in 1979.
“It is set up by the United States Congress and we work with Congress. It really cannot be shut down without it,” McMahon said.
But the organizers of Project 2025 no doubt welcome the moment because the Christian nationalist document — which Trump disavowed during his campaign — details the demise of federally mandated, secular education so that billions in taxpayer dollars can be diverted to pay for private religious education.
“References to ‘school choice’ and ‘educational freedom’ are actually code for segregation.”
Critics note the project’s repeated references to “school choice” and “educational freedom” are actually code for segregation, undermining colleges and universities and discrediting gender diversity, transgender protections and racial discrimination as legitimate civil rights issues.
“The Trump administration’s attempt to end the Department of Education is part of the Christian nationalist agenda set out in Project 2025 to destroy public education that benefits all communities in favor of private, religious education,” said Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
All public school districts, most colleges and universities in addition to families and communities depend on the agency’s protection of education for all children regardless of race, ethnicity, income level or religious belief.
Rachel Laser
“Among its many important functions, the Department of Education ensures that millions of American students receive financial aid for higher education and that public schools respect students’ civil rights,” Laser said.
But the resentment of public education that has culminated in Trump’s impending order has been six decades in the making and was sparked by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling that segregation in schools is unconstitutional.
Evangelicals and other conservatives, especially in the South, responded by creating church-based private schools for white students. The movement eventually evolved into a grassroots political and legal effort, with the backing of right-wing billionaires, to take over the courts and to dismantle federal oversight of public education.
And Trump has been the ultimate catalyst. In his short time in office, the president has already enacted one-third of the goals of Project 2025 and the promised order on the Education Department will take it even further.
“It is loaded with visions of states and local communities controlling education systems free of federal civil rights rules.”
The project’s chapter about the federal agency embodies the political and ideological vision of the white Christian nationalism that helped propel Trump into office. It is loaded with visions of states and local communities controlling education systems free of federal civil rights rules and financed by federal grants and tax incentives.
The deep-seated animosity white conservative Christians harbor about desegregation is also evident in the coded language used to describe the wielding of authority over educational institutions.
“When power is exercised, it should empower students and families, not government,” Project 2025 states. “In our pluralistic society, families and students should be free to choose from a diverse set of school options and learning environments that best fit their needs. Our postsecondary institutions should also reflect such diversity, with room for not only ‘traditional’ liberal arts colleges and research universities but also faith-based institutions, career schools, military academies and lifelong learning programs.”
The blueprint emphasizes principles such as calls for “education freedom” through education tax cuts and K-12 savings accounts, ending college student-loan forgiveness and closing down the education agency’s traditional civil rights functions or moving them to the U.S. Justice Department which, under Trump, is not interested in civil rights protections as traditionally understood.
The document extols protecting civil rights in education — but from a decidedly white Christian nationalist viewpoint: “Enforcement of civil rights should be based on a proper understanding of those laws, rejecting gender ideology and Critical Race Theory.”
The culture-war narrative continues with promises the term “nonbinary” as a recognized civil rights category will be eliminated and transgender athletes will be barred from competing in events outside their birth-assigned genders.
“Project 2025 even targets school lunch programs for scrutiny.”
Project 2025 even targets school lunch programs for scrutiny because they have advanced “radical ideology” by recognizing gender diversity among students: “The next administration should take particular note of how radical gender ideology is having a devastating effect on school-aged children today — especially young girls.”
The American Federation of Teachers condemned the anticipated executive order as an effort to un-level the playing field for children who otherwise face obstacles to success.
“No one likes bureaucracy, and everyone’s in favor of more efficiency, so let’s find ways to accomplish that. But don’t use a ‘war on woke’ to attack the children living in poverty and the children with disabilities, in order to pay for vouchers and tax cuts for billionaires,” the group said in a statement.
Nor was the federation buying the Project 2025 claim that power needs to shift from the federal to the local and state levels in education policy. “The directive to ‘return decision-making to the states’ fails the smell test. States and districts already govern schools through locally elected school boards, as they should. They put up most of the money and control most of the decisions — from approving curriculum to deciding who graduates.”
The National Education Association urged its members to press legislators to oppose Trump’s coming executive order: “Gutting the Department of Education will destroy programs and deny students the support they need, lead to larger class sizes and increase the burden for educators who are already overtaxed and overworked.”
Once signed, Trump’s order inevitably will be challenged in court. But that will be nothing new, as close to 100 legal challenges against the administration already are under way.
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