After he won the Nevada Republican caucuses in 2016, the current President crowned his victory. “We won with young. We won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.” Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA) reflected on this comment as he asked Republicans to join Democrats in preserving the Department of Education. The 47th President loves the poorly educated because he knows how to manipulate them, and because the less you know the more you can be persuaded by false rhetoric.
The cuts in education, including cuts in educational services for the differently abled, both physically and intellectually, will likely have a long-term deleterious effect on the condition of education in our country. The President’s reason for cutting the Department of Education is poor test scores, but the first phase of cuts, separating at least 1300 workers from their jobs, will also likely reduce the amount of educational data that is available. So, we may not learn, from the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (SDR), which academic areas we need to boost. We are not able to follow graduates over time to analyze career trends. Fewer employees collecting data may impact data accuracy. To continue reading, visit www.nnpa.org/nnpa_newswire. Dr. Julianne Malveaux is a DC-based economist and author. Juliannemalveaux.com
