Berani dalam Benar: How close is our leadership in education with that championed by Trump?

Education has never been seen as black-and-white as Trump made it to be since he took over the presidency early in the year. At least, three aspects stood out clearly, namely the abolition of the Education Department, the elimination of DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), and the selective cut back of finances on educational development! Each is by itself is toxic enough; together they can be deadly.

Foremost, President Donald Trump has been quoted to mull over the closing of the Education Department through an executive order. Its workforce has been cut in half, including a layoff of 1,300 people. What is most worrying is what happen to the lofty ambition of promoting "equal access for students in an American education system that is fundamentally unequal [contrary to the beliefs of many]." In other words, who and how will it "ensure equal access to education for every child." Chances are it will fall further behind in uplifting underclass students who are struggling hard to survive. It led to the equity goal initiated in 1980, and motivated in parts, by the anti-poverty and civil rights issues of the 1960s and 1970s. Now it is said to be hanging by a very thin thread vis-a-vis the role of the Education Department to "strengthen the Federal commitment to ensuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual." According to Trump, the agency acted as "federal bureaucratic hold on education" and must be "returned to the states." He even called it a "big con job" and vowed to "drain the education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America's youth." The last observation is interesting as it mirrors closely to our local situation, especially of late where the use of words like "abuse" and "indoctrinate" is occurring more frequently. Let alone the "bureaucratic hold." As such the present toxic crisis heightened a concern, when sources link them point to some "illegal" and "unconstitutional" maneuvering condoned by the power that be for their own convenience. Of late, the presence of a "cartel" has been suspected.

The above is related to yet another Trump's executive order involving federal funding for schools based on the financial needs. In particular, those that "teach radical gender ideology and critical race theory" in the classroom. Also racism and sexism. Allegedly, tens of thousands of school districts across the country are claimed to be targeted. Thus, Trump wants to return all control of schools to states, with fewer restrictions, although some are worried that without federal oversights, the money will be used to advance priorities "in ways that potentially entrench inequality." It is against the equity policy mentioned above. At the same time, it promotes a crackdown on DEI! A move where government abdicates responsibility to address long standing educational inequalities and to widen educational opportunities for the relevant group of wanting students.

Indeed, universities too are not left untouched. For example, among the worst hit includes the Ivy League as Trump halts hundred of million in funding. He criticised some of them over the handling of pro-Palestinian student protests last year. The overwhelming protest then aimed at "cutting-ties with Israel" amid the genocide in Gaza. And crackdown on DEI was mandated towards federal agencies to eliminate the programme affecting even the DEI employees. Others, allegedly "altered" their DEI statements to suit Trump executive wishes. For instance, on Columbia University DEI web pages, namely its "transgender inclusion policy" is realigned to conform with Trump's order banning transgender athletes from participating in sports. There are cases where DEI pages are reportedly no longer accessible, or show error 404 message indicating that they cannot be found. Whereas, it used to be - a per the archived version (2023) - at its core, "a mission for social justice and just societies." A good case is the School of International and Public Affair, regarded as the world's leading school of global public policy where "the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion are essential to our mission." Including anti-racism. Meaning, DEI has long been accepted as part of internationalisation where international experiences being recognised as one of the vital components to learning as global citizens of the future.

Here, Malaysian Higher Education is way behind, very much to the delight of the US President. In fact, the current disquiet is about an unproportional presence of foreign students from a particular country regardless of quality and merits! It is more about revenue and income generation reflecting the fact that educational funding is wanting in trying to leverage education as the ultimate leveller of Society. Instead, there are also attempts to re-interpret DEI as being discriminative to the local "white" students in the US, when the reverse is even more true going back to1980! However, Trump has no qualms to endorse such bizarre arguments in advancing his political mileage. This is not unlike those who been practicing the same in our education sectors by manipulating educational issues for political self-interest.

In all, in trying to "Make America Great Again" Trump does not seem to rely highly on education as a key game-changer. That, however, it cannot be Malaysia's position despite the many apparent (dubious) similarities in terms of education leadership as discussed earlier. On the contrary, Malaysia must stand firm and stand apart not to emulate Trump! Come what may, before the toxicity becomes fatal.