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What They Said. What They Did.
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership proposed eliminating the Department of Education entirely, ending federal student loans, defunding Title I for low-income schools, and banning gender identity protections in schools. The administration has not formally eliminated the department. It has done most of the rest.
4,000 → 2,000 employees. $900 million in research contracts terminated. 40% of civil rights attorneys gone. $10 billion in annual voucher spending across 18 states. The department still exists. Its capacity to do its job does not.
The Department of Education was cut from 4,000 to roughly 2,000 employees. DOGE terminated 64 research contracts worth $900 million. The Office for Civil Rights lost 40% of its attorneys. The proposal to eliminate the department failed in Congress, but the staffing cuts achieved a similar outcome through attrition.
The Voucher Expansion
Project 2025 called for a federal voucher program redirecting public money to private and religious schools. Eighteen states now spend over $10 billion per year on voucher programs. Arizona’s program overshot its budget by 1,346%. Oklahoma, which ranks 50th in K-12 quality, spends $248.5 million on vouchers where 72% of recipients earn $75,000 or more.
The Educational Choice for Children Act would create a $5 billion federal voucher program with no accountability requirements.
The Gender Identity Ban
Executive Order 14201 directed federal agencies to enforce biological sex definitions in schools. The NCAA reversed its transgender athlete policy within 24 hours. 27 states now ban transgender youth from school sports. The department stopped investigating complaints from transgender students.
What You Can Do
- Write your representative about defending public education →
- Read the Project 2025 scorecard for the full implementation tracker.
- Read the Education hub.