This week has been a big one for education as many await what could be a massive overhaul now that Donald Trump has completed his astonishing comeback. DC wonks, educators, and teachers no doubt wait on tenterhooks to learn if Trump will fulfill his promise of dismantling the Department of Education.
But even if Trump v.2 significantly loosens federal control of America’s schools, the question of foreign influence and intrigue, both in the K-12 and university systems, will remain (there’s been, after all, a significant amount of money changing hands, a chunk of it unreported). The debate over how to fix it is likely to become a little more local.
Some questions about how the Trump administration views this problem were answered with the announcement Tuesday of Linda McMahon as Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education. And it is a problem McMahon will face, one feeding everything from anti-American sentiment to outright antisemitism, and one that enriches universities even as researchers are manipulated into becoming foreign agents all while schools are paid handsomely to serve as conduits to power.
McMahon, who’s been the board chair of the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) – an organization teeming with Trump loyalists whose C4 arm had a hand in helping Trump win – served as the administrator of the Small Business Administration........