Department of Education Budget Cuts Underscore Troubling Agenda

Slashing Special Education bolsters the Project 2025 agenda to phase out support for students with disabilities or who require supplementary resources.

• Project 2025's education blueprint explicitly calls for abolishing the Department of Education, defunding Title I, and dismantling federal civil rights protections for students with disabilities.

• In October 2025, the Trump administration announced sweeping cuts to the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, which manages special education funds and ensures that states follow the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

• While devastating to students and families, the cuts reflect Project 2025's plan to direct government resources away from people with disabilities or illnesses and toward investment in a healthy, white Christian nationalist population.

Last September, after re-reading Project 2025, I emailed every prominent and independent journalist I could find with a blazing-hot alert:

“Project 2025 is a slow-burning eugenics plan. Over its 900+ pages, The Heritage Foundation outlines short- and long-term strategies to diminish certain groups and elevate others. Every American needs to understand the implications.”

Project 2025 is deliberately dense. Its chapters are written for policymakers and political operatives, not for everyday Americans, most of whom read at about a sixth-grade level and rarely look beyond a headline. But the framework is simple; it’s a eugenics-influenced plan to try again at the Great American Experiment because its authors believe our country has become too diverse.

Their goal is a country led by white, conservative, biblically aligned families, where future

An exhibit from the United States Holocaust Museum references a textbook graphic that depicts healthy citizens carrying the "burden" of hereditarily ill people.

generations are born to parents who are strong, fit, and free of disabilities or chronic conditions. Anyone requiring public investment is seen as a burden.

A “pure,” “healthy” population also increases workforce productivity and corporate profits.

Education as the Battleground

Public schools have been the battleground for this political and racial struggle since at least 1954, when Brown v. Board of Education ended legal segregation.

White Christian Nationalists responded with immediate resistance, launching private academies, undermining funding, and pushing for selective control of schools through voucher programs. They see classrooms as the setting to shape future voters.

Today, cuts to the U.S. Department of Education, especially in Special Education, reveal just how far this agenda has progressed, and how this administration perceives specific young learners.

In October 2025, amid the prolonged federal shutdown, the administration initiated sweeping reduction-in-force actions across federal agencies. The Department of Education was hit hard, just as planned in Project 2025.

According to internal reports, nearly all staff in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) have been terminated, leaving only a few senior officials and administrative personnel. This small group is now tasked with managing roughly $15 billion in special education funds and ensuring that states follow the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The National Association of State Directors of Special Education warned that only two senior staffers remain to enforce IDEA nationwide. Without oversight, states may fail to fulfill their legal responsibilities, leaving families with nowhere to turn for enforcement.

The federal education office doesn’t just manage grants; it enforces civil rights. Removing that oversight also strips away the legal protections that make sure vulnerable students aren’t left behind.

Linda McMahon is an enforcer, but her only charge is to loyally enforce the Project 2025 plan

Linda McMahon, with fellow Trump administration nominees. (Education Week)

to bring this plan to fruition. Her donor dollars were qualifications enough to lead this process. 

Trump, McMahon, and Project 2025 promote school choice as the preferred American education model. However, this is problematic for students served by IDEA.

Among the many criticisms of voucher programs that lure students to private religious schools or charters is that they compromise compliance with special education laws or fail to protect a child's civil rights. These schools typically lack the resources and expertise to fulfill students' needs.

This is why the law currently protects public funding for public schools. Conservatives continually attempted to challenge this with the Supreme Court. The next best solution is to dismantle the Department from within.

Trump's Hostile Environment for Special Education and People With Disabilities

Families and advocates are sounding the alarm about cuts, hoping that D.C. leaders or the White House will realize their devastating impact. Trump, The Heritage Foundation, and their peers not only know how cruel and harmful this is, but they've planned it that way to support their efforts to rebuild America.

"Eugenics" may sound hyperbolic, but the sentiments are sadly familiar. A Massachusetts Medical Society article reminds us that "In Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote that 'the national state . . . must see to it that only the healthy beget children using modern medical means.'"

Narratives by Trump and his allies are laying the groundwork to shape public sentiment in favor of these setbacks.

Earlier this year, NPR and other outlets profiled the resurgence of bullying and insults

NBC News reports The 'R word,' used by Joe Rogan and Elon Musk inches back into the mainstream. Source: NBC News

toward people with disabilities, "The R word is back. But why?"

Special Olympics adds, "On an April episode of 'The Joe Rogan Experience,' the host used a slur within the first 45 seconds of the show. The word ‘retarded’ is back, and it’s one of the great culture victories,” Rogan said with a laugh in the April 10 episode of his über-popular podcast. “Probably spurred on by podcasts.”

Before that, Trump's mocking of a disabled reporter in 2015 was the insult seen around the world.

We're observing increasing attention on autism's causes and cures from RFK Jr., which promotes "othering" and the notion that children with autism are problematic. He has also suggested that people with autism, depression, or anxiety be sent away to wellness farms.

In 2022, right-wing Moms for Liberty members spoke out about keeping students with disabilities in separate classrooms, along with LGBTQ students.

The first of many cuts to the Department of Education highlights how Trump plans to nurture "preferred" portions of the population and set others aside.

CDC Cuts Show What Happens When People Push Back

Last week, the administration attempted a similar strategy with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). About 1,300 employees received layoff notices, including members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service.

The backlash was rapid. Scientific unions, public health groups, and former officials raised concerns. Under public and political pressure, the administration reversed its decision for hundreds of workers, claiming that some RIFs had been made in error.

Now is the time for affected families, educators, unions, and medical experts to speak out.

Where do we go from here?

• Call it like it is. We are nearly a year into this presidency and Project 2025, but calling this entire plan what it is - a eugenics program with deadly consequences - still feels taboo. 

• Talk big picture. Each day that Americans approach this administration, book by book, ban by ban, arrest by arrest, or cut by cut, Project 2025’s authors are watching the big screen. Frame concerns in the larger context of rolling into the eugenics plan to harm everyone but "fit" white Christian nationalists.

• Call, email, and write every person possible. When cuts were announced at the CDC, every medical organization and association spoke out, and some employees were brought back. Humanize your story and needs. Write op eds. Post on social media. Contact the news station. Tell your elected representatives.

The current fixation on “costly” special education programs, autism, and strong and fit citizens echoes some of history's most dangerous ideas. These cuts reflect an un-American ideology that sees disability and difference as weaknesses to be downplayed, not accommodated.

Editor's note:

I started The Burb Report to bring honest, human context to deeply troubling actions by the Trump administration and Project 2025. Dark money organizations and politicians called Project 2025 and its implications a hoax after data showed it was unpopular. These same groups used memes, fallacies, and weaponized social media content to sway voters and dismantle our democratic republic. I appreciate your support.