Editor's Note: This article was originally published by American Greatness and is cross-posted here with permission.
Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick for Education Secretary, is no doubt getting advice from all sides about education policy, even though most Trump voters want the federal education department abolished to return these issues to the states.
The National Association of Scholars (NAS) understands and agrees that education policy is primarily a matter for state and local governments, not the feds. In fact, NAS sees education as mostly a matter for families who have natural authority over their children. All that said, Trump’s education agenda needs clear principles and priorities, especially considering the 1.6 trillion dollar federal student loan program that sustains many colleges and universities and affects millions of American college graduates.
First, American educational institutions must return to the pursuit of excellence, based on individual merit, not just in academics but also in character and citizenship. Race- and sex-based identity politics, along with the other left-wing ideologies that now control America’s schools, must go. Good riddance! Whatever the name—critical race theory (CRT), social justice, affirmative action, racial preferences, diversity ideology, “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI), or gender ideology—these destructive and divisive movements pit Americans against each other. This must stop. Absolutely no federal funds can go to any school until it has certified that these ideologies are gone.
Striving for excellence used to be a given in America—the land of opportunity, to be contrasted with the Old World of Europe, where social and economic classes were more static. The New World encouraged individuals to go as far as their talents, interests, and industry would take them, not just in education but in business, athletics, music—everything. But the school setting is especially important since this is where individuals first learn of their strengths and weaknesses and begin to think of how they can contribute to society to become productive and happy citizens.
While every student deserves opportunity and encouragement, such equal access should never mean the lowering of standards to make people “feel better about themselves.” Among their other advantages, young people have a nose for this kind of BS. They know not everyone is LeBron James on the basketball court and not everyone gets an A on the math test.
Education is also about character, and a country is only as good as its citizens. Character consists mostly of respect for oneself and others, a willingness to work and to be honest, and a spirit of service to authority and community. Trump, like all presidents, is not perfect, but his administration can stand not only for patriotism but also for schools that teach students to be respectful, industrious, and truthful.
Finally, citizenship: American education is for Americans, just as Japanese education is for the Japanese. American students are heirs to the American experiment, which is ongoing and confers responsibilities as well as rights. At some point—certainly by college graduation—American students should know the basics of American citizenship: the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and especially that America is a republic with limited government, at both the state and federal levels, and that citizens have fundamental rights such as free speech, association, and religious exercise. But those rights require vigilance to remain meaningful: Just as the enemy never sleeps, power mongers continually attack these basic freedoms that every generation of Americans must defend.
American students should also know that the United States is a child of Europe and Great Britain—that is, a child of the West, formerly called the Christian West or Christendom. That religious heritage explains America’s respect for individuals over tribes as well as respect for private property, civil order, and the rule of law.
For higher education specifically, federal officials must address the student loan crisis—started, after all, by the federal program of tuition assistance. Certainly the wisdom of that program is its own topic, but the ways out of the current crisis seem limited to two: Either debt-ridden graduates continue to service loans they did not understand and which now prevent them from buying homes or starting families, or the American middle class foots the bill—aka the many Biden student loan cancellations.
This latter option is actually as much a bailout of schools—many extremely well heeled—as it is of graduates, as it allows schools to continue business as usual: charging higher tuition, producing ignorant and financially illiterate graduates, and hiring more ideological staff at exorbitant salaries to indoctrinate rather than educate—aka “administrative bloat.”
The third way?
Make schools pay—not middle-class Americans.
Federal officials should say out loud: Schools get most of the money, but graduates get all the debt.
Federal education officials should immediately audit any college or university whose graduates default on student loans. What classes are taught there? What promises got students to attend? Who are the professors? What are the salaries of administrators and faculty? American legal education is a good example of this shady business: In 2011, Senator Charles Grassley wrote the American Bar Association to complain that law schools were misrepresenting employment prospects for their graduates to seduce students to enroll, even as bar passage rates and attorney salaries were declining and faculty and administrator salaries were rising and the curriculum was becoming less serious and more politicized—e.g., “women in the law” or “racism and the law.”
The ancients would ask of any governmental action or program: Cui bono? Or: Who benefits from all this?
In short, the villains in the student loan crisis are the schools, not the students.
To be sure, schools must have “skin in the game” going forward—that is, they must co-sign loans and therefore assume equal risk with students before they get any federal cash. But they should also be tapped for current loans in default when students were misled.
Finally, accountability: Transparency is always the buzzword. But what is really needed is accountability—starting with attestations from the schools themselves: They must be required to show and state under oath that they are complying with these federal priorities before receiving any federal funds.
Schools already sign a “Program Participation Agreement” or “PPA,” assuring Congress that they do not discriminate on the basis of race or sex, legal obligations under federal law. The Trump Education Department should simply add the conditions outlined above to the already existing PPA.
Many other areas need attention, of course: politicized accreditation, sexualized class content, unchecked costs, and intellectual conformity among professors and administrators—the list goes on and on.
But the first item of business is clarifying the principles that will inform all subsequent policy decisions: yes to excellence and accountability and no to ideology and business as usual.
Photo by Luckybusiness on Adobe Stock
