OPINION | Project 2025 Has Already Infiltrated Seattle Public Schools

“Right-sized schools” is a concept that has spread across this country faster than COVID during the first week of kindergarten, with districts claiming small schools are too expensive, that they should be closed to save money, that school capacity should be based on building “utilization” to “optimize” resources, all in the best interests of students. We saw this here in Seattle with the “Well-Resourced Schools” debacle proposed by Superintendent Brent Jones on Sept. 11. Jones proposed closing 17–21 schools in a misguided attempt to regulate school size to 450–550 students. “Wouldn’t it be great if every student got art, music, and PE?” he told us.

Seattle Public Schools has bought into the idea of “right-sized” schools.

The reality is that “well-resourced schools” means twice the number of students in the same-sized buildings with reduced staffing, packaged in fluffy language to make us think we’re getting something good out of a very bad situation. Here’s what the district doesn’t seem to realize: This is exactly what Project 2025 wants.

Project 2025 (the conservative policy manifesto to reshape the federal government under Trump’s second term) aspires to eviscerate public education in our country by slashing the Department of Education, eliminating Title 1 funding (support for low-income students), and cutting protections for students with disabilities, all while providing funds to families for “school choice” in the way of charter schools, religious schools, and private educational institutions.

Private, religious, and charter schools have historically not accepted all students, nor have they effectively educated students with disabilities. Private schools do not have to admit families who cannot pay the cost of private school after the subsidy from the state. While the RCW in Washington says charter schools can't discriminate within their admissions process, there is some evidence that Washington charter schools are underserving students who receive special education services and multilingual learners.

This future is bleak.

This future has two sets of schools:

School Set A: Smaller private/religious/charter schools that can hand-select students who already speak English, who are without disabilities, and who come from wealthier families that match the school’s religious/ideological/educational philosophy.

School Set B: Barely publicly funded 500+ student elementaries nationwide without funding to support anything beyond keeping students safe (we hope), serving primarily Black, Brown, and low-income families and those who do not feel safe in these private, more conservative institutions.

Here in Seattle, almost all private and charter elementary schools provide a “smaller school” experience, with none over 320 students. Why are we creating yet again two sets of schools in Seattle — one for the haves and one for the have-nots?

The Seattle School Board and districts across the country must wake up and realize they have been suckered into believing in this “right-sized school” propaganda, none of which is backed by science or even by our own history. The Seattle School Board and others must fight back against the insidious nature of Project 2025. It has no place in our schools.

You can’t do better until you know better. Now you know.

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Editors' Note: This op-ed was updated on 11/25/2024 to correct language regarding private schools admission and acceptance standards.

Rebekah Binns is a parent at Graham Hill Elementary.