Summary of Impacts
Project 2025 suggests reducing fossil fuel production regulations, which will accelerate climate change. Reduced regulations will reduce air quality and increase negative public health outcomes. Over-reliance on fossil fuels will jeopardize future energy security and stability, and increase American dependence on foreign oil sources.
Key Quotes
"Restart the China Initiative."
(Hamilton 556)
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission “should not use environmental issues like climate change as a reason to stop LNG [Liquid Natural Gas] projects… [and] should ensure that the natural gas pipelines that are needed deliver more of the product to market.”
(McNamee 440)
“Congress should wind down so-called ‘area studies’ programs at universities.”
(Burke 388)
Impacts on the Department of Education
The “Project 2025” policies prioritize decentralization, local control, and privatization to boost efficiency and education outcomes. However, these changes will worsen inequalities, reduce protections for marginalized groups, and degrade public services. The emphasis on conservative values and deregulation poses significant risks to vulnerable populations like low-income families, racial minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and students with disabilities, leading to long-term harm to social equity and public welfare.
Critical Analysis
The document uses conservative rhetoric to frame federal intervention in education as inherently negative, emphasizing “bureaucratic bloat” and “red tape” without acknowledging the benefits of federal oversight, such as ensuring equal access to education and protecting civil rights. – The emphasis on “education freedom” and “parental rights” is a common conservative talking point, often used to justify policies that undermine public education and promote privatization. – The document frequently criticizes “woke” policies and “radical gender ideology,” using these terms to dismiss efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Detrimental Impacts
The proposed policy for the Department of Education stands to affect the following:
AFFECTED GROUPS
Rolling back Title IX protections and redefining “sex” to exclude gender identity will harm transgender students by denying them protections against discrimination.
The emphasis on school choice and education savings accounts will exacerbate educational inequality by diverting funds from public schools to private institutions, leaving low-income families with fewer resources and lower-quality education.
Converting IDEA funding into block grants and transferring oversight to the Department of Health and Human Services will reduce the quality and accessibility of special education services, harming students with disabilities.
The focus on violent crime and career criminals could lead to over-policing and disproportionate targeting of racial and ethnic minorities, exacerbating existing racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Additionally, aggressive prosecution of drug-related crimes and securing the border could result in harsher penalties and increased incarceration rates for minority communities, particularly those of Hispanic and African American descent.
General Public
Moving the Office for Civil Rights to the Department of Justice and limiting its enforcement to litigation will make it harder for students to report and address discrimination. A student experiencing racial harassment may face a lengthy and complex legal process, discouraging them from seeking justice and allowing discriminatory practices to persist.
Ending loan forgiveness programs and privatizing student lending will increase the financial burden on low-income students. A student from a low-income family may struggle to repay their loans, leading to long-term debt and financial instability.
Future Consequences
Diverting funds from public schools to private institutions through education savings accounts will reduce resources for public schools, particularly in low-income areas. This will lead to larger class sizes, fewer extracurricular activities, and outdated materials, negatively impacting the quality of education for low-income students.
Rescinding the Obama Administration’s guidance on school discipline and eliminating the disparate impact standard will likely lead to increased racial disparities in school discipline. Black and Hispanic students will face harsher punishments for the same infractions as their white peers, contributing to the school-to-prison pipeline.
Conclusion
In summary, the proposed policies in Project 2025 are likely to cause significant harm to marginalized groups, low-income families, and students with disabilities. The emphasis on school choice, reduced federal oversight, and privatization will exacerbate educational inequality and undermine civil rights protections, leading to long-term negative consequences for vulnerable populations.
Quotes from the Mandate
The author expands on the changes related to sex later, advising to “abandon this change redefining ‘sex’ to mean ‘sexual orientation and gender identity’ in Title IX immediately… with the additional insistence that ‘sex’ is properly understood as a fixed biological fact.”
The changes proposed here will hamper justice for sexual assault victims, remove protections for the LGBTQ+ community, and exempt religious institutions from Title IX requirements (even though they receive federal funds).
This policy would harm transgender students by denying them the right to express their gender identity. Their mental health will suffer, especially if they are outed to unsupportive guardians. It would also create unnecessary administrative burden for schools.
Rescinding the inclusion of a nonbinary sex category from the OCR’s data collection is harmful as it erases nonbinary identities, impedes civil rights enforcement, increases vulnerability to discrimination, ignores contemporary social and scientific understandings of gender, and conflicts with broader efforts towards inclusivity and equality.
