Rick Hess’ Project 2025 Gaslight (Opinion)

To the Editor:

As a former special education paraprofessional during COVID-19 and a current school board member responsible for voting on budgets, I was disappointed by “education policy maven” Rick Hess’ flippant account of Project 2025’s impact on schools in his opinion essay “The Great Project 2025 Freakout” (July 19, 2024).

Instead of dedicating nearly 25 percent of an essay to a walk down the conservative movement’s memory lane (with references to Hess’ childhood ), I encourage Hess to defend policy agendas by explaining policy, not reactions. In discussing block grants, for example, providing context for how little federal money goes to school districts might be useful.

Doing so would require research, and Hess repeatedly displaces actual analysis of Project 2025 policies with “hot takes” on Trump’s awareness of Project 2025, Miguel Cardona’s legacy, a JD Vance-like figure as a new education secretary, congressional majorities, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The essay’s subtitle says, “There’s nothing especially scary in the Heritage Foundation’s education agenda.” Without an account of the policies, how would he know?

Thankfully, the Education Week article “Project 2025 Would Dramatically Cut Federal Funds for Schools. Then What?” (July 22, 2024) provides the data that Hess omits, and I encourage readers to review it.

Anne Demo
School Board Member
State College, Pa.

Anne Demo serves on the State College Area school district board of directors. This letter to the editor is her own and not a statement by the board.