Greg Toppo was the chief education journalist for USA Today. He is now a senior correspondent for The 74, where this story appeared.
The DOGE team visited the Institte for Education Sciencesand canceled scores of contracts for education research. It was widely assumed that the studies had some relation to diversity, equity, or inclusion, which Trump has vowed to stamp out. But Toppo says a far broader range of subjects was canceled.
Never before has any administration censored which topics could be studied. Trump’s prejudices now define what is NOT a proper object of study.
The DOGE agents who canceled the contracts did not have the time to read them, nor is any of them knowledgeable about education research. Either they looked for trigger words or they decided to cancel all education research.
Toppo wrote:
When the director of a small regional science nonprofit sat down last week to pay a few bills, she got a shock.
In the fall, the group won a National Science Foundation grant of nearly $1.5 million to teach elementary and middle-schoolers about climate-related issues in the U.S. Gulf Coast. The eagerly anticipated award came through NSF’s Racial Equity in STEM Education program.
But when she checked her NSF funding dashboard, the balance was $1.
Educators and researchers nationwide have been suffering similar shocks as the Trump administration raises a microscope — and in some cases an ax — to billions of dollars in federal research grants and contracts. On Monday, it said it had canceled dozens of Institute of Education Sciences contracts, worth an estimated $881 million and covering nearly the institute’s entire research portfolio, according to several sources.
Last week, the NSF began combing through billions of dollars in already-awarded grants in search of keywords that imply the researchers address gender ideology, diversity, equity and inclusion — all themes opposed by the administration….
Interviews with more than a dozen key stakeholders found that researchers with studies already in the field are being forced to suddenly pause their research, not knowing if or when it will resume. Nearly all spoke only on condition of anonymity, fearing that speaking out publicly could jeopardize future funding.
While the administration has said the moves are an attempt to rein in federal spending that doesn’t comport with its priorities and values, it has offered no explanation for cuts to bedrock, non-political research around topics like math, literacy, school attendance, school quality and student mental health.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Next up: A book burning.
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Wow, first Greg Toppo sold out to the so-called “reformers” as so many education reporters have — well, that’s where the big money is. But now we’re on the same side! Getting whiplash here.
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This is a nightmare. My daughter earned her masters from the Yale School of the Environment last year and was hired as a marine geophysicist at the University of Hawaii Manoa to collect samples from the reefs and inshore waters off Lahaina. Most of her team and virtually all of the foreign exchange students have withdrawn and left the country, for obvious reasons. Her Primary Investigator told her to start looking for other employment as they’ve cut funding and she will no longer be employed after March. All of this is obviously illegal, and it will take years to undo the damage these idiots are causing. Millions of people are already negatively affected and the resulting ecological rot that will occur due to the removal of government oversight of corporate polluters will be devastating.
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Chris Hayes did a segment on this last night. It’s highway robbery. The Congress appropriated this money.
https://www. cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nyc-fema-funds-seized-housing-migrants/
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https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nyc-fema-funds-seized-housing-migrants/
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Somehow I sense the nightmare is only beginning. I realize many people on this blog oppose standardized tests, but my job for 25 years has been to help build the best ones we can.
We used to teach in social studies and science that government research was among the most “reliable” or “credible” source of information. In fact, many correct answers on our current social studies standardized tests (think historical thinking skills) depend on that being the case due to rigorous peer review or expert review panels at government agencies, access to vast datasets, and other factors.
The mass redaction (aka censorship) now underway of research that was previously accepted (or the withholding of funding that Congress or a government agency previously approved) inevitably challenges that whole assumption or credibility. It’s an abyss indeed. Please wake up before we cause too much damage to the students being underserved or the planet being destroyed that this research could uncover.
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“my job for 25 years has been to help build the best ones we can.”
My condolences.
“The best ones” are still completely invalid, unethical and the way they are used, immoral. Have you read anything from Noel Wilson about the myriad invalidities involved in the standards and testing malpractice regime?
See: https://edrev.asu.edu/index.php/ER/article/view/1372
Or his opus: https://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/viewFile/577/700
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Trump’s minions will decide the right answer. The questions will be limited ultimately experiences of straight white males.
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They don’t want to pay for public education anymore, just provide minimal funding for private schools, especially if they’re Xtian. (And forget about educating kids with disabilities.) They also could not care less about ecology, since they can make money raping the earth and they don’t worry about what life will be like for their progeny since they figure they won’t be around then themselves. So they also see no value in researching any related matters. Add to that who’s in charge of HHS, and we can say goodbye to medical research, too. For them, there is nothing better than a poorly educated, unhealthy electorate who will just keep voting for libertarians who want tax cuts for the wealthy before they die off. All that matters to them is that the rich will continue to be able to pay for the best of everything –the rest of us, be damned!
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the 74 is Campbell brown…anti public education
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Exactly. And we must always consider the source.
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Yes, I know. Greg Toppo is an excellent reporter and I trust him. Campbell Brown is against public schools, teachers, and unions. I remember when she wrote an article in the NY Post about “pedophile teachers.” Crazy.
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As you know, mainstream media is my field. It’s dismaying how many MSM education reporters have gone over to the billionaire-funded so-called “reform” sector — but it’s also predictable, with MSM careers drying up and megabucks showering on anyone who goes “reformy.”
(An MSM education reporter I know was offered a job with Laurene Powell Jobs’ ridiculous reformy project, XYZ or whatever it’s called, for an eye-popping amount (and turned it down since they didn’t want a job with a ridiculous project). Another out-of-work reporter I know then took the job but couldn’t stand it for long.)
One big problem is that their career trajectory taints the ethics and credibility of the former MSM reporter’s previous work, since how do we know they weren’t crafting their coverage to kiss up to the bounteously funded “reform” field as MSM opportunities withered away?
Sorry — this was off topic. It’s a pet peeve.
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FELON47, his fascist regime and his MAD MUSK wrecking ball are waging a war to take us back to the Dark Ages and put an end to science and modern medicine. A return to the time of kings, emperors, warlords and endless wars.
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Goddamned w o r d p r e s s! Wouldn’t accept my comment which was that the ultimate end game and where these theofascists want to take us is a Christian Theofascist Amurikkka. A modern American Christian theocracy no different than Iran in its Islam theocracy. They think it’ll be an Athenian bliss.
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As you know, mainstream media is my field. It’s dismaying how many MSM education reporters have gone over to the billionaire-funded so-called “reform” sector — but it’s also predictable, with MSM careers drying up and megabucks showering on anyone who goes “reformy.”
(An MSM education reporter I know was offered a job with Laurene Powell Jobs’ ridiculous reformy project, XYZ or whatever it’s called, for an eye-popping amount (and turned it down since they didn’t want a job with a ridiculous project). Another out-of-work reporter I know then took the job but couldn’t stand it for long.)
One big problem is that their career trajectory taints the ethics and credibility of the former MSM reporter’s previous work, since how do we know they weren’t crafting their coverage to kiss up to the bounteously funded “reform” field as MSM opportunities withered away?
Sorry — this was off topic. It’s a pet peeve.
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