Pennsylvania teachers union warns Project 2025 could cost schools $3 billion a year

Preserving quality education for Pennsylvania families is what educators said they advocated for in Allegheny County Monday in the Brentwood Borough School District.

For 27 years, Suzanne Ailes has worked as a teacher in Brentwood, and she remembers what it was like in 2011 when former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett made significant reductions to funding for education.

"Class sizes grew, and the student programs lost resources," Ailes said.

Pennsylvania State Education Association President Aaron Chapin remembers too.

"Districts that were humming along, fully staffed, adequately funded, they were almost gutted overnight," Chapin said.

Now they fear they could see greater cuts at the federal level based on Project 2025, the more than 900-page document outlining a conservative policy blueprint authored by President Trump's now budget chief, but which Mr. Trump said he had "nothing to do with" during his campaign.

"Advocates of Project 2025 are promising to eliminate all federal education funding across the country over the next decade," Chapin said.

According to the Center for Progressive Reform, as of February, the Trump administration had completed more than 50% of Project 2025's agenda.

For education in Pennsylvania, Chapin said the proposed policies under the agenda could be a loss of $3 billion every year in federal funding, including more than $250 million in Allegheny County.

"That's money that our schools rely on. It's what our students rely on," Chapin said.

It's money educators said is used to support students needing special education or who live in communities with high levels of poverty. They also said it's funding that goes towards ensuring children have access to free and low-cost school meals.

"Our local taxpayers carry the burden already," said Brentwood Superintendent Dr. Amy Burch. "We cannot reasonably expect our taxpayers to replace that loss through higher school taxes."

If these cuts were to move forward, they said districts will face difficult decisions about how to meet students' needs with fewer resources — needs which are expanding every year to include more in-depth services.

With the midterms coming up and the administration hinting generally at more budget cuts in the past week, educators here want to spread the word.

"Every dollar that Project 2025 would take away is a dollar that could help a student thrive and develop into a future leader," Ailes said.