Project 2025 & the Overhaul of America is On Our Doorsteps: Trump Plans to Dismantle the Department of Education, Head Start & Replace Career Federal Workers with Appointees

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While campaigning for the recent election, Donald Trump vowed to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education if reelected. The dismantlement of the Department of Education, as well as other government entities, is a part of the Project 2025 agenda. The President-elect has appointed  Linda McMahon, a former wrestling executive, to lead the department instead of Dr. Miguel Cardona, the current U.S. Secretary of Education.

Several Americans, especially parents, current college students, and prospective students, wonder how this change will impact their lives. The Department of Education is a government agency that distributes federal funds to colleges and higher learning institutions and manages federal student loans. The Education Department manages approximately $1.5 trillion in student loan debt for over 40 million borrowers. It also oversees the Pell Grant, which provides aid to students below a certain income threshold, and administers the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which universities use to allocate financial aid, according to KCRG. The department is critical to education.

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If the upcoming administration closes or redesigns the department, it will reassign the work performed by the DOE to other entities. Part of Trump's agenda for restructuring the DOE is to cut off federal money from learning institutions that don't follow his agenda, such as schools that promote critical race theory, inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content, and what the President-elect calls "transgender insanity." Trump instead wants to allocate monies to schools that end teacher tenure and enact universal school choice programs.

The DOE also oversees investigations for civil rights issues for student populations- such as disabled persons, LGBTQ, international students, and minorities.

The elimination of Head Start is another change the Trump administration is expected to make under the implementation of Project 2025. Head Start is an early childhood development program that former President Lyndon B. Johnson started in 1965. "Head Start is a major provider of childcare in rural communities, and it also provides other kinds of crucial services too," said Hailey Gibbs, Associate Director of Early Childhood Policy at the Center for American Progress. The removal of the program could be disastrous for many American families.

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Head Start offers free early learning and developmental screening services to children from birth to age 5, a critical period in a child's mental and emotional development. It also provides transportation to and from Head Start facilities, which can be particularly useful in rural areas where the average distance to a childcare center for low-income families is 10 miles versus the average 3.5 miles in cities, according to the First Five Years Fund. 

President-elect Trump has sent federal workers into a panic with his rhetoric about cutting jobs of career civil servants and replacing these positions with federal appointees. The United States government currently has over 2 million civilian employees. PBS has collected statements from many government employees, such as Sheria Smith, a civil rights attorney.

Read Sheria's statement on the impending changes for government employees:

"I'm Sheria Smith, a Dallas-based civil rights attorney at the U.S. Department of Education, where I also serve as the union president for my almost 3,000 colleagues in this agency nationwide. I did read after his election some statements about eliminating the agency. And I think it's shortsighted. Certainly, for — perhaps he has not had to interact with our agency because his own children, he's been able to afford to educate them privately. But that is not the situation for most Americans."

2025 is projected to be a stressful year for Americans, especially those in lower to middle socio-economic classes. Women, minorities, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community also wrestle with fears of bodily autonomy, abortion rights, deportation, and no protection from civil rights violations.

This story will be updated.

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