Education
Every kid deserves
a great school.
America's school funding is tied to property taxes. So kids in wealthy neighborhoods get more resources, better teachers, and better outcomes. Kids in poor neighborhoods get less. This is not an accident. And it is not acceptable.
What's Happening Now
The funding gap is a civil rights crisis.
The education crisis did not have to happen. It is the result of forty years of choices made on purpose.
Average per-student funding gap between the richest and poorest school districts. Kids in the same state learn under very different conditions.
Total student loan debt owed. 44 million borrowers. Average of $30,000+ at graduation from a four-year public university.
Unfilled teacher jobs nationwide. Low pay, book bans, and political attacks are driving teachers out of the profession faster.
Book challenges filed in a single school year. A record, driven by organized campaigns against LGBTQ+ content and accurate history.
Why This Happened
The education crisis was built on purpose, not by chance.
Since the 1980s, an organized political movement has worked to defund, weaken, and finally tear down public education. The plan is no secret. Privatize where they can. Defund where they can't yet. And cut the civics classes that teach people to see what is happening. Voucher programs drain money from public schools. State lawmakers have cut college funding for forty years straight. They shifted the cost onto students through tuition. Tuition has risen 1,200 percent since 1980. Overall inflation was 236 percent.
Project 2025 took a sledgehammer to what was left. Its blueprint called for shutting down the Department of Education. It would turn Title I and IDEA funding into block grants, a tool for cutting funds and steering them away from the students who need them most. It would expand voucher schemes that send public dollars to private and religious schools that never have to show results. More than 20 states passed "divisive concepts" laws. Teachers who teach accurate history or science now face legal risk. Book bans hit record highs. "Tip lines" were set up so people could report teachers to school boards for what they taught.
The teacher shortage is not an accident either. Average teacher pay is about $65,000. That is roughly $15,000 below other jobs that need the same degree. More than half of teachers quit within five years. Political attacks make every lesson on climate science or the Civil Rights Movement a career risk. So talented people stop becoming teachers. The students who pay the price live mostly in the places that can least afford it.
Educated citizens who think for themselves are democracy's immune system. Project 2025 understood this and acted on it. Project 2029 acts on it too, in the opposite direction.
What Project 2025 Did to Education
- ● Proposed shutting down the whole Department of Education. That would end federal civil rights enforcement in schools. It would also cut off Title I funding for 26 million low-income students.
- ● Rolled back Title IX protections for transgender students. Weakened the rules for responding to sexual assault.
- ● Killed the Gainful Employment rule. Predatory for-profit colleges can keep taking federal student aid no matter how badly their students do.
- ● Gutted the Office for Civil Rights through mass firings. That is the agency that looks into discrimination in schools. Dropped most open cases.
- ● Pushed Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs. These skip union wage standards and weaken the quality of registered apprenticeships.
- ● Blocked student loan forgiveness for borrowers who were scammed. That includes victims of ITT Tech, Corinthian Colleges, and other for-profit frauds. The law already required those debts to be wiped out.
The Plan
What Project 2029 proposes.
Based on Chapter 11 (Department of Education) of Project 2029. Specific bills. Real timelines. Constitutional authority for every proposal.
Public School Funding Equity Act
End the property tax trap. Guarantee a floor for every student.
Set a federal funding floor of at least $15,000 per student per year in every public school in America, no matter the local property values. Today the gap between the richest and poorest districts averages $9,000 per student. In the same state, children get very different educations based only on their zip code. Add extra funding for high-need students: special education (with IDEA fully funded at the federal share Congress promised but never paid), English language learners, and students in poverty. Tie Title I funding increases to whether states meet equity standards. Aim to cut the gap between the richest and poorest districts by 75% within ten years.
Civic Education Excellence Act
Restore and expand civic learning. Democracy needs informed citizens.
Invest $5 billion a year in a national Civic Education Initiative: age-appropriate civics at every grade level, mock elections and student government, service learning requirements, and hands-on civic projects. Expand the iCivics platform and the We the People constitutional competition nationwide. Write voluntary national civics standards with educators, historians, and civic groups. Those standards would cover media literacy, critical thinking, and accurate American history. Require the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to give regular civics tests and report results by state. Fund $2 billion a year for media literacy programs. Students would learn to spot misinformation, understand how algorithms pick what they see, and judge whether a source is credible.
College for All Act
Free community college for every American, and affordable public university
Make community college free for all Americans, no matter their income. That covers full tuition, fees, and books. Create a federal-state partnership to make public university free for families earning under $125,000. The federal government pays two-thirds of the cost and states pay one-third. States must keep their current funding levels to get federal dollars. Give the lowest-income students stipends for living costs, based on need. Estimated cost: $80 billion a year in federal funds. That is less than one percent of GDP, for the biggest boost to jobs and economic mobility available. Phase it in over three years. Year 1: free community college. Year 2: free university for families under $60,000. Year 3: everyone.
Student Debt Relief and IBR Reform Act
Cancel the debt. Fix the system. Close the predator schools.
Cancel up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt for all borrowers earning under $125,000. Cancel it all for Pell Grant recipients and for borrowers who went to for-profit colleges that used deceptive practices. Replace Income-Based Repayment with one simple plan: 10% of discretionary income (income above 200% of the federal poverty line). The government covers any interest the payment does not, so the balance never grows. Forgive the rest after 20 years of payments in any job, or 10 years in public service. No tax on the forgiven amount. Restore and fully enforce the Borrower Defense rule, with automatic group discharges for ITT Tech, Corinthian Colleges, and Art Institutes students, as the law already requires. Permanently bar for-profit colleges from federal student aid if their debt-to-earnings ratios are above the Gainful Employment threshold.
Teacher Investment and Academic Freedom Act
Pay teachers what they are worth. Protect them from political pressure.
Set a federal target of an $80,000 minimum teacher salary. States that raise teacher pay to $80,000 get a 50% federal match on the cost of the raise, with high-poverty schools first in line. Today, average teacher pay is about $65,000, roughly $15,000 below similar professions. Cancel student loans in full for teachers who commit 5 years to Title I schools, high-need subjects (STEM, special education, bilingual), or shortage areas. Create a $100 million Teacher Legal Defense Fund. It would pay attorneys' fees for teachers disciplined for teaching accurate history, science, or current events in line with professional standards. Withhold federal education funds from districts that ban books because of the viewpoint of the content or the identity of the author. Book banning would carry a real cost.
School Safety Transformation Act
Counselors, not cops. Restorative justice, not criminalization.
Tie federal education funding to removing School Resource Officers. Exceptions only where there is a documented security need and the community has approved it through an open process. Move SRO funding to school counselors, social workers, and restorative justice staff. Today there is 1 counselor per 500+ students. The target is 1 per 250. Fund $5 billion a year for school mental health programs. Create federal restorative justice grants for proven discipline alternatives: peer mediation, circle processes, and community conferencing. Require the Office for Civil Rights to automatically investigate any district where Black students are suspended at more than twice the rate of white students. Right now, Black students are three times more likely to be suspended. End the school-to-prison pipeline by no longer treating normal teenage behavior as a crime.
Take Action
Take action on education.
Vote for Schools
School board elections. Local levies. State legislature races. These fund your kids' schools and decide what teachers are allowed to teach.
Register to Vote →Demand Equity
Ask your federal representatives to support school funding equity bills, free community college, and student debt cancellation.
Contact Your Rep →Print & Share
Download the education one-pager from Project 2029. Leave it at your library. Share it with a first-generation college student.
Get One-Pager →Read Chapter 11
The full Department of Education reform plan. Every policy, legal citation, and step to carry it out, from civic education to student debt.
Read the Plan →Share This
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