The Poynter Institute Menu Donate State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin Issues * All Issues * Online hoaxes * Coronavirus * Health Care * Immigration * Extremism * Taxes * Marijuana * Environment * Crime * Guns * Foreign Policy * LGBTQ+ People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis Media * PunditFact * Tucker Carlson * Sean Hannity * Rachel Maddow * Bloggers * PolitiFact Videos Campaigns * 2024 Elections Truth-o-Meter * True * Mostly True * Half True * Mostly False * False * Pants on Fire Promises * Biden Promise Tracker * Trump-O-Meter * Obameter * Latest Promises About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Suggest a Fact-check * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters Donate #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up English Español ### Stand up for the facts! Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help. More Info ### I would like to contribute One Time Monthly Yearly Join Now ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on August 28, 2024 in an ad: Project 2025 would defund K-12 schools. ![\\"true\\"](\\" half-true/6479cbc723379f0ee49c269b0b9790b7.jpg.\\") ![\\"half- true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") * National * Children * Education * Elections * Kamala Harris ![\\"\(Shutterstock\)\\"](\\" (Shutterstock) ![\\"Samantha](\\" By Samantha Putterman September 6, 2024 # Project 2025 would phase out some funds for public K-12 schools #### If Your Time is short * Project 2025, the 900-page conservative presidential transition document sponsored by the Heritage Foundation think tank, calls for eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, which would phase out some, if not all, federal aid to public K-12 schools. The project proposes transitioning some programs to the states over 10 years and cancels others it deems ineffective. Former President Donald Trump also supports abolishing the department. * The federal government provided about 14% of public K-12 funding in fiscal year 2022, with most of the money going to programs to support disadvantaged, low-income students and students with disabilities. * Although the majority of public schools receive most of their funds from state and local sources, education policy experts said that some states and districts that receive a greater share of federal aid would experience steep losses from the proposal. See the sources for this fact-check Vice President Kamala Harris’ new campaign attack ad shuffles through the pages of Project 2025, calling it the \"922-page blueprint to make Donald Trump the most powerful president ever.\" Former President Trump and his campaign have distanced themselves from the conservative presidential transition plan but Democrats continue to link him to it, highlighting Trump’s past ties to many of its contributors. The narrator in Harris’ ad \"Control\" repeats some claims about the document that we have covered before, such as \"requiring the government to monitor women’s pregnancies\" (it requires states to report abortions and miscarriages) and imposing \"severe cuts to Medicare and Social Security.\" (Project 2025 calls for changes to Medicare, but does not support Social Security cuts.) The narrator says the manual calls for \"eliminating the Department of Education and defunding K-12 schools.\" We have covered how Project 2025 dismantles the U.S. Department of Education as part of a push to have more \"limited\" federal involvement in school policy. Trump supports that move. For this fact-check, we wanted to know how Project 2025 would affect federal funding for public schools. Losing federal dollars wouldn’t zero out budgets for most districts. Public schools, with some exceptions, receive the majority of their funding from local and state governments. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government provided around 8% to 10% of K-12 school funding. COVID-19 relief funding pushed the share to about 14% in 2022, but it has expired. But the federal contribution still translates into billions of dollars, and states and school districts that receive a higher share of those dollars would feel a disproportionate hit. The Harris campaign pointed PolitiFact to Department of Education K-12 spending data. In fiscal year 2023, the agency received $79.6 billion for K-12 funding; the money was earmarked primarily for programs to support special education and education for disadvantaged, low-income students, among other initiatives. The department’s 2023 budget — $274 billion — includes a large chunk for student loans and college aid, which includes income-based aid such as Pell Grants. In an emailed statement, Project 2025 told PolitiFact the fact that school budgets rely on federal money for only a small share of their funding means cutting the department \"hardly defunds schools.\" The project proposes transitioning some programs to the states over 10 years and cancels others it deems ineffective. In a video about his education policy, Trump promised to shutter the department and \"to send all education work and needs back to the states.\" He did not say how federal dollars would be redirected. His Republican National Convention platform also calls to cut federal funding \"for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content.\" Trump’s campaign didn’t say how he would redirect lost federal dollars. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said his administration will improve \"academic excellence for all students from all educational backgrounds\" by \"increasing access to school choice, empowering parents to have a voice in their child\'s education and supporting good schools and teachers.\" Effects of eliminating the Department of Education Project 2025 calls for dismantling the Department of Education and transferring its Title I program, which helps fund schools with large populations of K-12 students from low-income families, to the Department of Health and Human Services. The plan aims to provide the funding in a block grant, giving states more flexibility on how to spend the money by being less prescriptive. The proposal phases out Title I over 10 years, shifting the funding responsibility to the states. The plan recommends a similar move for the department’s Individuals with Disabilities Education Act funding, converting the special education money that now goes to schools into HHS-run block grants for states to distribute to parents. What would happen next is hard to say, because state education spending varies widely. \"Some states might fund their own programs to help students in ways that are similar to what the federal programs do today,\" Holly Kurtz, director at EdWeek Research Center, and Sterling Lloyd, the center’s assistant director, told PolitiFact in a joint email. \"Other states could choose to go in a different direction with their spending.\" Presidents could not do this on their own. Abolishing the department would require an act of Congress and bipartisan support, which has proved a long shot. #### Featured Fact-check ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/322c808c00e73c217d17772ddd5a0eb5.jpg\\") ![](\\" Instagram_logo_2016.svg/8b142c91ebe468a84a192e6df2b7b994.jpg\\") Instagram posts stated on August 13, 2024 in an Instagram post Videos of media talking about Tim Walz as a \"happy warrior\" are proof of government propaganda legalized by Barack Obama. ![\\"true\\"](\\" false/33efdb6633e5e2fdc2d4e2f63383a1e0.jpg.\\") ![\\"false\\"](\\" false.jpg\\") By Jeff Cercone • August 15, 2024 \"Congress is one that decides the federal education budget, and the funding that’s in there is pretty popular on both sides of the aisle,\" said Marguerite Roza, director of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab. \"States can always say no thank you to federal funds and rules, and so far none have. Not one.\" Trump made a similar campaign pledge to reduce the Education Department in 2016, but curtailed his plans once in office. His first budget for the 2018 fiscal year proposed cutting the department\'s budget by 13%, rather than calling for its elimination. Trump proposed similar spending cuts in his next two budgets; none were approved. The Department of Education’s role in K-12 schools The majority of K-12 public school funding money comes from state and local governments through a mix of state income taxes, state sales taxes and local property taxes. The amount of federal money flowing to schools varies across states and school districts. For example, Arkansas\' federal share is 20%, South Dakota\'s is 21% and Mississippi’s is 23%. New York\'s is 7% and Massachusetts’ is 9%. Districts that serve more students from low-income families and students with disabilities would feel the brunt of federal funding cuts more severely than districts that serve fewer of those students. The hit could be substantial in large school districts such as Detroit, which has a 48% federal share, and Oklahoma City, where the share is 34%. Beyond providing some funding to schools, the Education Department also houses the National Center for Education Statistics, the nationwide data source on schools, and its Office for Civil Rights, which investigates thousands of allegations of discrimination and harassment in schools annually. Project 2025 would direct other agencies to absorb those responsibilities. It would move the school assessments and other research functions to the U.S. Census Bureau and have the Justice Department’s Office for Civil Rights absorb the Education Department’s office. Critics say these groups are already significantly underfunded. The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights gets \"thousands of civil rights complaints each year that deal with allegations of race, sex and disability-based discrimination in schools across the country,\" said Robert Kim, executive director at the Education Law Center, a legal advocacy organization for public education. \"The office has been really underfunded for decades now and the work has exponentially increased.\" \"Defund\" is open to interpretation Does cutting the federal share amount of \"defunding\" schools, as Harris’ ad says? The word can mean anything from cutting funds for schools to gutting it completely. Merriam-Webster’s definition of the word — \"to withdraw funding from\" — fits for Project 2025’s proposal. \"If the viewer of the advertisement interprets ‘defund’ to mean that schools would receive no more money, period, under Project 2025, then that is false,\" Kurtz and Sterling said. \"However, if the viewer interprets ‘defund’ to mean a reduction in funding to K12 schools, then the advertisement is true because Project 2025 does include initiatives that would reduce funding for K12 schools.\" Sean Corcoran, a Vanderbilt University public policy and education professor, said shuttering the department \"would go far to defund a lot of schools.\" Frederick Hess, senior fellow and education policy studies director at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said Project 2025 would \"absolutely not\" defund schools. \"Just for starters, 90% of K-12 educational funding is state and local,\" Hess said. \"Would Trump or Project 2025 marginally trim the rate of increase in public school spending? Possibly. (Project 2025) would block grant Title I (about 2% of school spending) and then theoretically keep reducing it over a decade.\" Our ruling A Harris campaign ad said Project 2025 would defund K-12 schools. Eliminating the Department of Education would phase out some, if not all, federal funding for public K-12 schools and return that responsibility to the states. The federal government provided about 14% of K-12 funding in fiscal year 2022 with added COVID-19 funding that has expired. Most money goes to programs to support disadvantaged, low-income students and students with disabilities. The majority of schools receive most of their funds from state and local sources, education policy experts noted that some states and districts receive a greater share of federal aid and could face greater losses from the proposal. The ad’s statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half True. **RELATED:** How accurate are warnings by Democrats, Kamala Harris about Donald Trump’s ‘Project 2025 agenda?’ #### Read About Our Process The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter ### Our Sources YouTube, Control | Harris-Walz 2024, Aug. 28, 2024 The Heritage Foundation, Project 2025 YouTubes, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Lindsey Burke: Project 2025 & the Future of Education in America, June 21, 2023 Education Data Initiative, U.S. Public Education Spending Statistics, July 15, 2024 Chalkbeat, Ending the U.S. Department of Education: What it would mean and why Trump and Project 2025 want it, Aug. 23, 2024 Center for American Progress, Project 2025’s Elimination of Title I Funding Would Hurt Students and Decimate Teaching Positions in Local Schools, July 25, 2024 PolitiFact, How accurate are warnings by Democrats, Kamala Harris about Donald Trump’s ‘Project 2025 agenda?’, Aug. 20, 2024 Merriam-Webster, defund, Accessed Sept. 3, 2024 Education Data Initiative, U.S. Public Education Spending Statistics, Updated July 14, 2024 K12 Dive, These 4 charts explain federal fiscal 2023 K-12 spending, Jan. 13, 2023 USASpending.gov, Department of Education (ED), Accessed Sept. 3, 2024 U.S. Census, 2022 Public Elementary-Secondary Education Finance Data, Accessed Sept. 4, 2024 Email interview, Sean Corcoran, professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University, Sept. 1, 2024 Phone interview, Marguerite Roza, director of Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab, Sept. 3, 2024 Email interview, Holly Kurtz director at Education Week Research Center; Sterling Lloyd, assistant director at Education Week Research Center, Sept. 3, 2024 Phone interview, Robert Kim executive director at the Education Law Center; Danielle Farrie, research director at the Education Law Center, Sept. 3, 2024 Email interview, Frederick Hess, senior fellow and director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, Sept. 5, 2024 Email interview, Sarafina Chitika and James Singer, Kamala Harris campaign spokespersons, Sept. 2-3, 2024 Email interview, Ellen Keenan, spokesperson for Project 2025, Sept. 5, 2024 Email interview, Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, Sept. 5, 2024 ## Browse the Truth-O-Meter ### More by Samantha Putterman ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on August 28, 2024 in an ad: Project 2025 would defund K-12 schools. ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • September 6, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Elizabeth Warren stated on August 25, 2024 in an interview: “JD Vance actually sent a letter last year to the Department of Justice saying, ‘enforce the Comstock Act.’” ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Samantha Putterman • August 30, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ron DeSantis stated on August 28, 2024 in a press conference: The proposal to put golf courses, hotels in Florida state parks “was something that was leaked. … a lot of that stuff was half-baked and was not ready for prime time.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • August 29, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Rick Scott stated on August 28, 2024 in a post on X: “This month alone, more than 16,000 non-citizens have been removed from the voter rolls in 3 states.” ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • August 29, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Debbie Mucarsel-Powell stated on August 7, 2024 in un anuncio de radio de campaña: El senador Rick Scott no apoya las excepciones al aborto. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Marta Campabadal Graus • August 16, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Debbie Mucarsel-Powell stated on August 7, 2024 in an ad: Sen. Rick Scott does not support abortion exceptions. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Marta Campabadal Graus • August 14, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on August 8, 2024 in a press conference: Says his Jan. 6, 2021, speech on the White House Ellipse drew the “same number of people,” as the 1963 March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Louis Jacobson • August 9, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Ron DeSantis stated on August 6, 2024 in an X post: “In 2021, Minnesotans were roughly five times more likely to move to Florida than vice versa” because they were “fleeing” the state under Democratic Gov. Tim Walz. ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"half-true\\"](\\" true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • August 8, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on July 31, 2024 in an NABJ conference appearance: Kamala Harris was “Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she went, she became a Black person.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • July 31, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" JD Vance stated on July 28, 2024 in an interview: Vice President Kamala Harris is “calling for an end to the child tax credit.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • July 30, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 18, 2024 in a campaign event: Project 2025 calls for restricting “access to IVF and contraception.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • July 24, 2024 ![](\\" black/4590875651af69b2c789ceab409664dd.jpg\\") ![](\\" black/72988380e8c8bd188dc360d11552e4a0.jpg\\") X posts stated on July 13, 2024 in una publicación en X: Donald Trump escenificó el tiroteo en su mitin en Butler, Pensilvania. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Marta Campabadal Graus • July 15, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Social Media stated on July 13, 2024 in social media posts: Donald Trump staged the shooting at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Samantha Putterman • July 14, 2024 ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 6, 2024 in a moderated conversation: Black women in the U.S. are “three to four times more likely to die in connection with childbirth than other women.\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" ![\\"true\\"](\\" By Samantha Putterman • July 11, 2024 ![](\\" logo-black-01/b6cedac93f6e57c68ecc025e5ec29d57.jpg\\") ![](\\" logo-black-01/438dbf066033f99de07598cbcc77ddcb.jpg\\") Threads posts stated on July 27, 2024 in a Threads post: C-sections are coded as abortions in hospitals. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Samantha Putterman • July 5, 2024 ### Project 2025 would phase out some funds for public K-12 schools * ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on September 10, 2024 in a debate: “As of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone, in any war zone around the world, for the first time this century.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Sara Swann • September 11, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" X posts stated on September 9, 2024 in an X post: \"Dallas County Texas (tells) election workers to (illegally) lie on registration & use a church address to register homeless people to vote!” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Jeff Cercone • September 11, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Instagram posts stated on September 7, 2024 in a post: CNN reported that the Apalachee High School shooting suspect was motivated by a “lack of trans acceptance.” ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Sara Swann • September 11, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Viral image stated on September 2, 2024 in an Instagram post: Image shows “Michelle Obama’s necklace from DNC speech” said “Mike.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Ciara O\'Rourke • September 11, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Donald Trump stated on September 10, 2024 in at a Sept. 10 presidential debate: \"In Springfield (Ohio), they\'re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they\'re eating the cats. They\'re eating, they\'re eating the pets of the people that live there.” ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"pants-fire\\"](\\" pants-fire.jpg\\") By Jeff Cercone • September 11, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Social Media stated on September 6, 2024 in in social media posts: Haitian immigrants are eating pets and wildlife in Springfield, Ohio. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Jeff Cercone • September 9, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Social Media stated on September 2, 2024 in social media posts: The Hells Angels Motorcycle Club is on the way to Aurora, Colorado, to confront a Venezuelan gang. ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Loreben Tuquero • September 9, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Kamala Harris stated on July 20, 2024 in remarks at a fundraiser in Provincetown, Mass.: Donald Trump “took away protections against discrimination for LGBTQ patients under the Affordable Care Act.” ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"mostly-true\\"](\\" mostly-true.jpg\\") By Grace Abels • September 9, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" One Nation stated on August 23, 2024 in an ad: “Sen. Jacky Rosen voted to increase taxes on families making less than $75,000 a year.” ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" th.jpg\\") ![\\"barely-true\\"](\\" barely-true.jpg\\") By Seth A. Richardson • September 9, 2024 * ![](\\" ![](\\" Facebook posts stated on September 3, 2024 in una publicación en Facebook: \"La nueva ley de condonación elimina $15,000 de la deuda de tarjetas de crédito para todos los estadounidenses\". ![\\"false\\"](\\" ![\\"false\\"](\\" By Maria Briceño • September 9, 2024 Load more ### Support independent fact-checking. Become a member! In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts. Sign me up #### Offices District of Columbia 1800 I Street NW Washington, DC 20006 Florida 801 3rd St. S St. Petersburg, FL 33701 727-821-9494 #### People * Joe Biden * Kamala Harris * Donald Trump * Mitch McConnell * Hakeem Jeffries * Ron DeSantis #### State Editions * California * Florida * Iowa * Michigan * New Hampshire * New York * North Carolina * Pennsylvania * Texas * West Virginia * Wisconsin #### About Us * Our Process * Our Staff * En Español * Who pays for PolitiFact? * Advertise with Us * Corrections and Updates * Newsletters #### RSS Feeds * Recent Articles and Fact-checks * Recent Fact-checks Suggest a Fact-check #### Follow us The Facts Newsletter Sign up Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Copyright ©All Rights Reserved Poynter Institute 2020, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization ![\\"\\"](\\" ✕ * * *
Project 2025 would defund K12 schools