Project 2025 Author Gets Key Policy Post at Education Dept.
Scores of layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education followed by a court order to reinstate workers have made for a tumultuous staffing situation at the federal agency. Now, the Trump administration has found a job there for a force behind the Project 2025 policy blueprint.
Lindsey Burke was named deputy chief of staff for policy and programs. She arrives after 17 years at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that published Project 2025.
Burke wrote a 44-page chapter on what a conservative president should do with the department. Her appointment comes as President Donald Trump, who had previously denounced the conservative document, has begun to embrace Project 2025 plans.
Some have already shown up in his fiscal 2026 budget proposal: converting funding for students with disabilities and students from low-income communities, to 鈥渘o-strings-attached鈥� block grants to states that could even flow directly to parents to spend outside of public schools; moving the department鈥檚 various services to other federal agencies; and using federal funds to expand school choice.
Project 2025 also proposes eliminating Title I grants aimed at disadvantaged students to states.
Burke argues that Project 2025 would 鈥渞ecalibrate accountability so that it is directed horizontally to parents and taxpayers rather than vertically to Washington.鈥� And she maintains that abolishing the department wouldn鈥檛 mean getting rid of key civil rights protections for students but 鈥渢he removal of myriad ineffective programs and inflationary spending.鈥�
Many of those that had been fired from the department, however, worked for its office for civil rights, whose mission has shifted more toward investigating antisemitism less so of racism and issues affecting students with disabilities.
Burke鈥攚ho previously worked as a fellow at school choice advocacy group EdChoice鈥攈as penned numerous education policy reports.
Among her proposals is overturning the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that protects undocumented families鈥� right to a free public education.
Other Burke proposals have also begun to filter into education policy under Trump. For instance, he rescinded a long-standing memo that largely prevented immigration agents from carrying out arrests and raids at schools and bus stops and rolled back protections for transgender students.
While Teenagers Are Confident They Can Succeed in STEM Classes, Teachers Disagree
Ask students if they think they can succeed in core academic subjects, and many will say they are confident they can. But their teachers? Not nearly as sure.
What鈥檚 more, a majority of secondary students also said in a recent EdWeek Research Center survey that they are motivated to do their best in those classes. Again, teachers paint a far less rosy picture.
Fifty-three percent of students said they were 鈥渧ery confident鈥� they could learn and succeed in their STEM-related classes, and 60 % said the same about English/language arts. In contrast, only about 1 in 5 secondary school teachers rated their students this year as 鈥渧ery confident鈥� in their ability to tackle those subjects.
Previous research has largely found that for students in science, technology, engineering, and math classes, confidence in their abilities tends to decrease as they get older, said Katherine Muenks, an associate professor of educational psychology at the University of Texas, Austin.
Muenks said she was surprised to see how many students said they were confident in STEM-related classes in the survey.
鈥淎 lot of the data that we use in some of these nationally representative data sets are a little bit older. So, I do think the cultural conversation is shifting around who鈥檚 good at math, who鈥檚 good at science,鈥� Muenks said.
Students and teachers also have different opinions about students鈥� motivation. Fifty-nine percent of students said they were very motivated to do their best in their STEM and English/language arts classes, while 10% of STEM teachers and 7% of ELA teachers described their students like that.
Students and 糖心动漫vlog do seem to be on the same page about teachers鈥� level of motivation.
Fifty-eight percent of students said their STEM teachers were very motivated to do their best in teaching them, compared with 52% of STEM teachers who rated themselves that way.
For English/language arts classes, 56 % of students said their teachers were very motivated, while 45% of ELA teachers said they were 鈥渧ery motivated鈥� to teach.
Okla. Wants Families to Return Millions They Didn鈥檛 Spend on Private Schools. Most Haven鈥檛
Oklahoma taxpayers appear to be footing the bill for sending students to private schools they didn鈥檛 attend.
Under the Parental Choice Tax Credit program, families can receive checks for up to $7,500 per student. As of the end of May, only $200,000, or 8%, of the millions families owe the state for not following through on enrolling their children had been recouped, according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
Taxpayers in arrears face additional penalties and the possibility of a formal notice of the government鈥檚 intent to collect unpaid taxes.
鈥淭axpayers who have not yet paid the assessed balance in full will go through our regular collection process, which includes a billing cycle, payment plan options, the possible issuance of a tax warrant, etc.,鈥� said Emily Haxton, a spokeswoman for the tax commission.
Oklahoma House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, a Republican, has said that 鈥渢weaks鈥� to the large state program will be required over the course of the program鈥檚 initial years.
State Rep. Melissa Provenzano said more accountability measures need to be put in place for the fledgling program to safeguard taxpayer dollars.
Earlier this year, the Democrat authored a bill to try to increase protection for parents by prohibiting private schools from requiring their participation in the tax-credit program, as well as to prevent schools from jacking their tuition rates as a result of the availability of tax credits.
But it didn鈥檛 receive a Senate hearing.
The tax commission鈥檚 website currently lists 211 private schools participating in the program.
The nonprofit news organization Oklahoma Watch had found that the introduction of the new tax credits had prompted many private schools in the state to immediately hike their tuition.
A separate bill sponsored by Provenzano would have required an annual report to the tax commission detailing how each allocated tax credit was spent by the parent or private school, in much the same fashion that public schools have to account to the state for even routine expenses like a pack of pencils.
That bill never received a committee hearing.
