With the House, Senate and Presidency secured by the Republican party in the November election, the public has wondered about the extent to which the party intends to implement a controversial policy plan: Project 2025.
Despite his denial of affiliation with the plan, President Donald Trump has been scrutinized over his affiliation with the Heritage Foundation, the conservative 501(c)(3) policy research group responsible for drafting the plan.
After the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016, the Heritage Foundation proposed a list of replacement justices for President Trump to nominate. Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch from this list, furthering suspicions of his affiliation with the group.
“He worked with them before, so what’s to stop him from working with them on Project 2025?” Government and Politics teacher Jay Peterson said. “It’s easy to see through the denial, and his affiliation is concerning.”
However, Trump’s comments about Project 2025 have led some students to believe he is not affiliated with the plan, such as senior Westlee Weston.
“He [Trump] has said publicly that there’s parts of Project 2025 he likes and parts he doesn’t,” Weston said. “If he wrote it or was responsible for it, he would agree with most if not all of it.”
Overall, students and staff remain uncertain about the intent and effectiveness of specific main policy proposals in Project 2025, and similarly, they are uncertain about President Trump’s intention with the plan.
Among these concerns include student privacy, education reform, abortion rights and border control.
Specific concerns have been raised among students over issues related to education and student privacy.
Under Section 11 of Project 2025, the author, Lindsey M. Burke, proposes that “the Department of Education should make student data available by family structure to the public, including as part of its Data Explorer tool.”
If implemented, the family structure of a student, such as the marital status of parents and custody information, will be made available to the public. This would allow colleges, trade school programs, military branches and other institutions to view the family structure of high school students and tailor their marketing to students with family structures that may suggest interest in the institution or program.
Peterson views this proposal as particularly unsettling and potentially harmful.
“Making personal data such as family structure available to the public is a major violation of student privacy,” Peterson said. “On top of this, it allows for unfair assumptions to be made about students based on their family structure. A student with high potential may be profiled because they come from a foster home, for example, and may be influenced to take a lower-skill job when they are able to do much more.”
Another concern students have over the plan is the proposed handling of border security and immigration.
Under Section 5 of the project, written by Ken Cuccinelli, the plan states that “prioritizing border security and immigration enforcement, including detention and deportation is critical if we are to regain control of the border.” President Trump has also signed an executive order, titled “PROTECTING THE MEANING AND VALUE OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP,” allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enter schools to search for undocumented immigrants. Along with this, a ban on birthright citizenship.
Some students believe that increasing the number of deportations as a means to mitigate the immigration crisis would be ineffective.
“The problem with immigration is that the people who come here don’t have the resources that they need to live a good life, so it gives them a bad reputation,” sophomore Cash Wolverton said. “Deporting a bunch of people isn’t a way to fix that because there are a bunch of people who help make the world run by being here, whether it’s legal or not.”
Alternatively, some students view an immigration crackdown as necessary, despite problems with blanket deportation.
“There are issues with families being separated at the border, but people who come in illegally should not be able to stay,” Weston said. “It violates one of the fundamental principles of the country, that no person is above the law, so people who entered illegally should have to leave. If they want to come back, they should have to do it legally.”
Along with concerns over immigration, some students are growing uneasy over Project 2025’s dismissal of gender-affirming care as valid healthcare.
Under Section 14 of the project, written by Roger Severino, it is suggested that “HRSA [Health Resources and Service Administration] should withdraw all guidance encouraging Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program service providers to provide controversial ‘gender transition’ procedures or ‘gender-affirming care,’ which cause irreversible physical and mental harm to those who receive them.”
President Trump has signed an executive order into law titled “DEFENDING WOMEN FROM GENDER IDEOLOGY EXTREMISM AND RESTORING BIOLOGICAL TRUTH TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT,” which states that “Federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology.”
Views of students range on this specific issue. On one side of the spectrum, this suggestion is viewed as harmful to the transgender community.
“I think that it’s very diminishing to our youth because now in 2024, the world has supposedly become more accepting of the LGBTQ community, especially the trans community,” junior Paul Evans continued, “but now that we have a new president who’s going into office that’s going to take those away, I think it’s important for youth and adults to band together, stand up, and fight against this.”
However, some students hold different views on the topic, viewing too many accommodations for transgender students as harmful to both cisgender and transgender students, particularly in the area of gender-separated sports.
“It’s unfair to both sides if transgender athletes are allowed to compete in sports with other athletes that are the same gender as the one they transitioned to,” said Weston. “On one hand, if a transgender male is made to compete in male sports, they are more likely to get hurt because of biological differences. Same thing on the reverse, transgender females allowed to compete in female sports will unfairly dominate the field.”
Another healthcare issue students are concerned about is the issue of abortion access. Under Section 14, the plan clearly states their philosophy that “Abortion and euthanasia are not health care.” This conflicts with the views of students such as those of senior Sofia Bogard, who views abortion access specifically as an important healthcare right.
“The right to an abortion is no longer protected federally, and more and more states are getting rid of their protections,” said senior Sofia Bogard. “If we put in a president who supports Project 2025, it’s just going to limit the rights of women even more.”
After the 2024 election, students and staff’s concerns over Project 2025 have become especially prevalent. With ties between President-elect Trump and the foundation that wrote the project, many are left unsettled and concerned over the future of the country’s education and human rights policy. In contrast, others doubt his intentions to implement it.
“We will know pretty quickly after Trump is inaugurated what his intentions are,” said Peterson. “I hope, for the sake of students, autonomy and privacy remain as intact as possible.”
