Editor’s note: On August 15, CHN hosted a webinar, Project 2025’s Threats to Human Needs Programs. This is the first of a three-part series that examines the issues that were raised during the discussion.  

Nutrition assistance, Head Start, federal funds for education, and even safe baby formula would all be on the chopping block if the architects of the highly controversial Project 2025 have their way. 

Project 2025, drafted in part by the arch-conservative Heritage Foundation with the help of many former aides to ex- President Donald Trump, is a 900-plus page document that lays out guidelines as to what a new administration might look like, although the Trump campaign has disavowed any connection. 

The document is both policy and personnel; policy in that it contains governing principles, and personnel in that Heritage and several political action committees reportedly are circulating lists of thousands of would-be Trump staffers who would be ready, willing, and able to serve – and have been vetted for that purpose. 

At a recent webinar hosted by CHN, a group of policy experts joined us to discuss a range of human needs issues potentially influenced by Project 2025. Among this panel was Lily Klam, Director of Education Policy for First Focus on Children. 

Speaking broadly, Klam discussed what Project 2025 has to say about education policy. 

“They propose taking away students’ access to summer meals and preschool lunches,” she said. “They propose deregulating baby formula, eliminating Head Start entirely, getting rid of the Department of Education, privatizing public school funds, and defunding Title I over a 10-year period, which is the largest source of federal education funding. These authors claim that these policies protect our children when they really would increase child hunger, decrease educational opportunity, and decrease early learning for our families.” 

Specifically, Klam points to seven areas of concern. 

First, Klam says Project 2025 would eliminate Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) school breakfast and lunch programs. Under CEP, if 40 percent of students in a school or school district are eligible for federal meals, all students in that school or school district can receive free meals. Nearly 20 million students attend schools that participate in CEP and eliminating the program would put their access to healthy, nutritious food at risk. 

Explaining the benefits of CEP, Klam explained, “This means no household applications are needed, which improves participation in school meals. And this means more students get to eat and don’t have to worry about school lunch or how they are going to pay for their meals. All kids should be able to focus on school without worrying about how they’re going to be able to afford lunch.” 

Second, Klam says Project 2025 outlines a plan to take summer meals away from students. It argues that summer meals should be taken away from all students who are not taking summer school classes.  

“It can be more difficult for kids to eat when summer rolls around,” Klam says. “So summer meals programs like Summer EBT help narrow the summer food gap that many families who rely on free- or reduced school meals experience annually…These policies are about making sure students have food in the environment where they spend a huge amount of time. Data show that free breakfast and lunch programs are hugely successful in reducing food insecurity and that should be our top priority, regardless of political party.” 

Third, Klam says Project 2025 would eliminate Head Start entirely. Head Start, which has served nearly 40 million children, provides early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and families. 

“Access to Head Start is especially necessary in areas across the country that are considered child care deserts, which are especially prevalent in rural areas,” Klam notes. 

Fourth, Klam says, Project 2025 outlines efforts to eliminate the Department of Education entirely. 

“First of all, abolishing the Department of Education would be getting rid of the only department that is exclusively committed to children,” Klam notes. “The Department of Education also plays an indispensable role in the educational achievement and experience of our nation’s children. The department identifies major problems in our education system and informs Congress about new trends and research. It provides vital grants and funding for underserved student groups and enforces essential federal statutes.” 

Fifth, Project 2025 states that “every parent should have the option to direct his or her child’s share of education funding through an education savings account (ESA) funded overwhelmingly by state and local taxpayers…” 

But Klam noted that schools already are facing a cutoff of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding this September due to a lapse in pandemic-era funding – and that is on top of inflation, which drives everything up, from salaries to school supplies. Plus, she adds, there has been a concerted movement towards privatization. 

“Allowing parents to directly choose the use of this allocation of public school funding toward private schools would drain our public schools of funding, and this is a huge equity concern,” she says. 

Sixth, Klam says Project 2025 would defund Title I over a 10-year period. Title I is used to improve equity in education by targeting low-income communities and low-income communities of color with additional funding. 

“It is the largest source of federal funding for education, and it has been called the heart of discretionary aid to schools,” Klam explains. She went on to point out that while Title I has “…never been funded at the level initially promised by the federal government,” its FY24 funding level of $18 billion is vital to low-income school districts.

Seventh and finally, Klam says Project 2025 is even going after baby formula – she says it outlines a plan to re-evaluate “excessive regulations” for baby formula in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), citing Project 2025’s recommendation that “labeling regulations and regulations that unreasonably delay the manufacture and sale of baby formula should be re-evaluated.” 

But, Klam explains, improperly handled baby formula can harm or even kill babies.  

“A Michigan-based formula manufacturer that failed to meet the Food and Drug Administration (guidelines) was linked to two infant deaths and multiple hospitalizations,” she said. “I’m sure many of us remember this happening and how horrific it was.” 

Across the nation, school systems in poor communities have not had the resources to provide a first-class education for their children.  The federal government has tried, if imperfectly, to make up some of the resource gap.  Affluent families can more easily afford the enrichment of pre-school; they don’t have trouble affording nutritious food for their children.  Affluent communities can hire more teachers and maintain modern, well-stocked schools.  Project 2025 would dramatically widen the gap in education between affluent and low-income communities, leaving millions of children behind.