Since its establishment, the U.S. Department of Education has led efforts to improve elementary and secondary education in the United States. When Congress passed the Department of Education Organization Act in 1979, it defined one of its core functions as “to strengthen the Federal commitment to ensuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual.”
However, Project 2025 proposes dismantling this role of the federal government, particularly impacting communities with lower property values since much of K-12 funding is derived from local property taxes. The plan includes abolishing the U.S. Department of Education, which is mandated to ensure equal opportunity and accountability in education.
Project 2025's policy proposals include redirecting taxpayer dollars intended for public education to private and religious schools, rolling back Title IX protections against sex discrimination, eradicating Head Start programs, blocking student debt cancellation initiatives, censoring anti-racist curricula, and eliminating school nutrition programs for food-insecure children during summer months.
Additionally, Project 2025 aims to disinvest in programs supporting vulnerable students under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and low-income students at Title I-eligible schools.
Title I funding supports low-income students across nearly two-thirds of public schools. Established under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 in response to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title I provides supplemental federal funding to ensure equitable education regardless of income status. In the 2021-22 school year alone, 63 percent of traditional public schools and 62 percent of charter schools were identified as Title I-eligible.
Title I also plays a crucial role in hiring and retaining teachers in high-poverty schools where turnover rates are significantly higher compared to more affluent institutions. Recent research indicates that turnover rates are about 29 percent at high-poverty schools versus 19 percent at lower-poverty schools.
Project 2025’s proposal would eliminate approximately 180,000 teacher positions nationwide—about 5.64 percent of the national teacher workforce—affecting academic outcomes for an estimated 2.8 million vulnerable students. Some states could lose up to nearly 10 percent or more teaching positions; Louisiana faces a potential loss exceeding 12 percent.
The elimination of Title I funding reverses efforts aimed at retaining teachers through legislation designed to increase teacher pay—a significant factor given that average teacher salaries remain below living wages in many states and have decreased by five percent over the past decade when adjusted for inflation.
Title I funds directly benefit teachers and students across suburban, rural, and urban districts by providing essential support services and helping hire qualified educators. The proposed elimination would result in higher student-to-teacher ratios and fewer school-based programs—adversely affecting local communities.
Teaching prepares workers across all industries; thus adequate support for teachers is vital for future generations' social development and informed citizenship necessary for a functioning democracy.
Methodology
The analysis used fiscal year 2023 spending data from the U.S. Department of Education to illustrate state-by-state funding implications if federal "Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies" were eliminated over ten years as proposed by Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership report.
To estimate job losses among teachers due to this proposal, authors divided each state's most recent average teacher salary by total compensation costs associated with employing public K-12 teachers using U.S. Department of Labor data before dividing total Title I funds received per state by this sum. This yielded an equivalent number representing potentially lost teaching jobs due solely to funding cuts indicated by Table 1.
Finally—to estimate affected student numbers—the analysis multiplied state-specific pupil-to-teacher ratios from NCES data against projected lost teaching positions resulting from these budgetary reductions.
