The Education Attack (and More)

Five for Friday, March 21, 2025

Jonah in Hoboken

I transitioned to a new job this week. It’s amazing. Continuing my long-standing tradition of never writing about my day job, that’s all I will say about it. I’m also barred from discussing my oldest guy’s big adventure plans, even though we’re very proud of him. The younger guy had a health setback last week but is back at school.

If Ian’s health is okay and he can return to college this fall, I might be an empty nester this fall. I aspire to be an empty nester, though I will be super weepy about it.

It’s Friday, so five quick posts are coming your way.

Department of Education No More

Today, the president signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. If he can’t get congressional approval to eliminate the department, he’ll fire everyone until McMahan is the last remaining employee. The wrestling lady will sit at a desk in an empty building, doing crossword puzzles.

During his speech today, Trump used NAEP figures to justify eliminating the Department of Education. He said, 70 percent of students can't read or write on grade level! All that is true. Last week, he eliminated the IES department, which administers the NAEP exam, so that’s perhaps the last time we’ll have that kind of information about student progress. Cutting the IES department was one of his stupider moves. Firing the quant guys is never a smart decision.

Was Trump able to make this bold move because he was backed by parents who were disgruntled by excessive school closures during COVID? I get it. I’m still disgruntled.

Trump repeatedly stressed funding for special education, high-poverty schools, and Pell Grants for low-income students. We’ll see. Last week, the wrestling lady didn’t know what IDEA was.

Higher Ed in the Cross Hairs

Overpriced suburban houses

I’m hopelessly addicted to the Prof G podcast. I listen to Scott Galloway when walking the two-mile loop of our suburban development of mid-century homes, which have been grotesquely expanded and reconfigured into $2 million Spanish villas and Western ranches. His schtick of enjoying his privileges, while hating other rich people, is a good fit for these strolls.

In his latest episode, he does a short rant on higher education.

Harvard announced it will offer free tuition for families earning $200,000 a year or less. Also starting this fall, undergraduate students from families making under $100,000 will receive full coverage for tuition, housing, and food…

They'll get nice accolades, a lot of nice accolades for it. And let me be clear, I think this is fucking bullshit and a total misdirect from what is the underlying corruption that plagues Harvard and every other higher education institution…

It's not about affordability. It's about access. And if these universities that have an endowment over a billion dollars don't expand their freshman class faster than population growth, regardless of the bullshit press releases they put out around financial aid, which is literally the dandruff off their fucking sleeves, it means nothing, then they should lose their tax-free status because they're no longer public servants.

They think they're fucking Birkenbags.

From The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway: What's Next for the Russia-Ukraine War — with Dr. Fiona Hill, Mar 20, 2025

With a $50 billion endowment, Harvard can pay everyone’s tuition AND triple its class size. It’s wasteful to hold classes for five students. I totally agree with Galloway: triple the size of these colleges or take away their tax-free status. No taxes on a $50 billion hedge fund with college classes? Insanity.

Remedial Math

Harvard is the Meghan Markle of higher education. Everybody knows that the news should pay more attention to real issues, like community colleges and state schools, which are where most Americans are educated. Harvard, however, gets all the hits, so newspapers keep running stories on this tiny elite college.

For the first time in Harvard’s history, it is offering a remedial math class for students who can’t pass college-level Algebra. They say it’s because students have gaps in their schools because of Covid.

Can we be honest? COVID didn’t drop student academic performance. Covid was a virus that made people sick. School closures and remote education caused a reduction in student academic performance.

Do you know what else is making our kids dumb? AI and cheating.

Death by 1,000 Cuts

Earlier in the week, I wrote that I hadn’t seen a huge impact on special education or programs for disabled adults yet.

Outside of Washington DC, folks haven’t seen a big impact yet. I mean there are little hints of problems to come. Local school boards are developing two budgets — a normal one and a worst-case scenario budget. I’m having trouble getting disability agencies to return my phone calls. Our community college lost a grant that helps students with intellectual disabilities.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve seen more small issues. Rather than massive cuts of entire programs, we’re going to see a death by a thousand cuts.

A program at Rutgers for disabled adults announced today that it is closing its doors because our governor cut off the funds. He is anticipating cuts to Medicaid, so he’s making proactive cuts.

Bergen Community College lost its grant to teach young people with IDD work skills by working on a hydroponic farm.

Nobody will answer the phone at the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation to set up Ian with a job coach so he can work at Home Depot this summer. I could have a young autistic adult in my house for four months with nothing to do. Ugh.

My boys. Jonah drove Ian back to Vermont to his college.

Deconstructing Musk

Leading the charge on education are Trump and Musk. Musk, love him or hate him, is shaping up to be a world-historical figure. Trump hasn’t booted him out the door yet. One of Musk’s kids, Lil X, seems to be the new White House mascot.

I’m fascinated by folks’ attempts to understand what makes Musk tick. Is he a genius? Is he autistic? Is he too arrogant to listen to advice? Why isn’t he like Bezos, spending his money on a big boat and a girlfriend’s fake boobs?

Jess Singal describes DOGE as “a complete, unmitigated, embarrassing disaster” for both him and the Trump administration. Singal says that the DOGE disaster stems from the fact that “All of DOGE’s troubles arguably stem from the same place: Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s inability to know what they don’t know.”

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