Donald Trump’s targets are many in his effort to transform the United States into a country of single thought and action where there are no nuances, no grays, and no empathy.
All transactional, all relational, one media, two genders, no judiciary, no immigrants, no Washington and no facts.
It’s the negative educational impacts that will do severe damage. As Trump swings his cudgel at the Department of Education, eliminating the educational research it does, the additional funding for those with disabilities, the scoring of what’s being done well and what needs attention, America will no longer be providing the ingredients for a successful education for all.
It will slip toward joining the too-long list of countries that only provide an education for those who have family members who have resources and access to support.
Public schools, funded by local taxes, need both state and federal funding. What that funding makes possible is in the state’s interest, and in the country’s. Of course there are efficiencies to be achieved, in all sectors, but this is not the way to go about it.
It’s on college campuses that free speech is critical, where ideas can be shaped and tested, praised, faulted and adjusted. No “crying fire,” but close to it.
Mahmoud Khalil, in custody, without evidence for his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University, is a legal U.S. resident, with no criminal record, living in New York, on a college campus. Other students and faculty are also being targeted with only general accusations.
The many millions of dollars that the White House is denying Columbia and threatening to withhold from other colleges, is illogical. A hefty portion of Columbia’s federal money is to continue to play a role in making the U.S. the leader that it is in medical research and drug invention and treatment.
With numerous colleges on a warning list, there is every indication that the president intends to continue to punish without any concern for all that are hurt.
Where are the Republicans who can bring a halt to this destruction of America?
