Tag: education
Under Court Dictum, Harvard Law School Steps Back In Time

Under Court Dictum, Harvard Law School Steps Back In Time

According to figures released last month, there are a grand total of 19 Black students in the first-year class at Harvard Law School, down from 43 in last year's entering class. You have to go back to the 1960s to find so few Black students in the entering class.

In the years since 1970, the number of first years, or 1Ls, who were Black has ranged from 50 to 70. Professor David Wilkins, a brilliant Black professor at Harvard and the faculty director of the school's Center on the Legal Profession, noted that "this is the lowest number of Black entering first-year students since 1965" and that "this obviously has a lot to do with the chilling effect created by that decision" — that is, the decision last year by the United States Supreme Court, in a case where Harvard College was a defendant, barring affirmative action in university admissions.

It is a major step backward for a school that has produced some of the leading Black lawyers in America, a step backward that dramatically affects not only Black students, but the quality of education for all students at HLS. Diversity makes a huge difference in what happens in a law school classroom. And a Harvard degree opens doors to a career in law that, fairly or not, are just not the same for graduates of lower-tier law schools.

I spent three years as a student at Harvard Law, and another 10 as a member of the faculty. The Black students in my time at Harvard included everyone from future civil rights leaders like Charles Ogletree and John Payton and Christopher Edley Jr. to political leaders like Barack and Michelle Obama and Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. They made a difference — in the classroom, on the Law Review, and in American life and law.

The number of Hispanic students also dropped sharply, from 63 students, or 11 percent of the total last year, to 39 students, or 6.9 percent of the total this year. The number of white and Asian students obviously increased.

I always used to ask my criminal law students who had ever been stopped by the police. A pretty big smattering of hands, young women included, which usually reduced to a handful when I asked students who talked their way out of it or got away with a warning to put their hands down. How big a handful depending on how many Black men I had in the class. Many of my white students expressed surprise that it was so obvious. I was a better teacher when I had a diverse class. There are a total of six Black men in the entering class at Harvard Law, according to Wilkins.

Richard Sander, a professor at UCLA Law and a critic of affirmative action, dismissed the latest reports from Harvard, telling The New York Times that it might actually be beneficial: "because those students are going to go to another school where they're better matched and they're poised to succeed. ... Students prefer going to a school where they are not going to get a preference, because they think they'll be more competitive there, which I think is true."

My experience, and that of my classmates and students over the years, is that a degree from Harvard Law School opens doors for all of its students, as it did for me, to a Supreme Court clerkship, to a job on the Senate Judiciary Committee, to a professorship at Harvard, to places where it was my calling card. Those were not places where someone who was bartending her way through law school had any connections. The "network" you join in those three years turns out to include some of the most prominent leaders in politics, business and law. I have never in all my years in academia run into a student who told me they turned down Harvard for a second-tier law school to be a better match, and I would certainly never advise a college student to do that.

In a statement, Harvard spokesman Jeff Neal said that the law school continued "to believe that a student body composed of persons with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences is a vital component of legal education. ... Harvard Law School remains committed both to following the law and to fostering an on-campus community and a legal profession that reflect numerous dimensions of human experience."

It has its work cut out for it. Six black men in a class of 560 students is just not enough.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

Seeking Political Control Of Higher Education, MAGA Republicans Target Harvard

Seeking Political Control Of Higher Education, MAGA Republicans Target Harvard

A handful of Republican leaders — some nominated to assume positions in Donald Trump's Cabinet — are planning to use their newfound power in the coming months to "reshape higher education," according to a Monday Bloomberg report. And they're starting with Harvard University.

Per the report, the Harvard Crimson found in a survey that "only 13 percent of this year’s graduating seniors describe themselves as conservative or very conservative and more than three-quarters of faculty identify as liberal."

After Harvard computer science Professor Harry Lewis found out some "teachers offered condolences to students and told them classes were optional" following Trump's victory over Kamala Harris last month, the former Harvard College dean believes "the infantilization of students and politicization of the classroom" has become a real problem.

"We’ve allowed significant numbers of faculty to think the way that they are going to change the world is through some kind of social activism and that this is part of their responsibilities or opportunity as a scholar," he told Bloomberg.

The news outlet reports, "This fractious environment — in which faculty, students, administrators, activists and government officials are all at odds with one another — has made the job of university President Alan Garber, 69, particularly difficult. And for the physician and economist, installed as interim leader after [ex-President Claudine] Gay’s resignation in January, it’s about to get worse."

Right-wing leaders like Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Vice President-elect and Sen. JD Vance, and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) have all recently publicly condemned the university for different reasons, including the school's endowments — which Vance said should have "massive tax hikes" — and the "lack of severe punishment" the university received after allowing students to protest the Israel-Palestine conflict on campus.

Aside from lawmakers, far-right activist Christopher Rufo is leading the charge to ensure the Trump administration makes Harvard its priority on its massive mission to change higher education.

Rufo told Bloomberg, "If we can extract changes from Harvard, if we can push it in a better direction, other universities will look at that as a signal and adjust their policies."

Harvard classics professor Richard Thomas told the news outlet, "Anti-democratic forces would gladly dismantle higher education."

He added, "Harvard may have to decide between living without federal funding or being dependent on submission to extreme political control that could come with that funding."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Trump's 'DOGE' Billionaires Aim To Decimate VA, Student Loans, And Health Care

The two right-wing billionaires President-elect Donald Trump has tasked with spearheading a new "government efficiency" commission outlined their vision Wednesday for the mass firing of federal employees, large-scale deregulation, and major spending cuts that could impact antipoverty programs, drug research and development, and more.

For the first time since Trump announced plans to create the Department on Government Efficiency (DOGE)—which, despite its name, would be an advisory commission rather than an actual federal department—Tesla CEO Elon Musk and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy offered a detailed look at how they plan to achieve their stated objective of taking a "chainsaw" to federal operations.

"We are assisting the Trump transition team to identify and hire a lean team of small-government crusaders, including some of the sharpest technical and legal minds in America," the pair wrote in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. "The two of us will advise DOGE at every step to pursue three major kinds of reform: regulatory rescissions, administrative reductions, and cost savings. We will focus particularly on driving change through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws."

Decrying rules crafted by "unelected bureaucrats," Musk and Ramaswamy—unelected outside advisers—wrote that they intend to present to Trump "a list of regulations" they believe should be eliminated. The culling of regulations would, they argued, provide the justification for "mass headcount reductions"—corporate-speak for sweeping firings—across federal agencies, a plan the two wrote would not be deterred by civil service protections.

Watchdogs have noted that the regulatory cuts envisioned by the commission's co-leaders would likely benefit Musk's companies, at least three of which are currently under scrutiny from nine federal agencies.

"Based on Elon Musk's comments, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency is poised to make far-reaching recommendations that could have a devastating impact on Americans and enormously benefit insiders, starting with Musk himself," Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman said Wednesday.

"A second Trump term will undoubtedly see a multipronged attack on any institution that seeks to constrain big business, and DOGE will lead the charge."

Musk and Ramaswamy also laid out a plan under which Trump would evade existing federal statutes such as the Impoundment Control Act to cut spending already allocated by Congress.

"DOGE will help end federal overspending by taking aim at the $500 billion-plus in annual federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended, from $535 million a year to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $1.5 billion for grants to international organizations to nearly $300 million to progressive groups like Planned Parenthood," they wrote.

As The Washington Post's Jacob Bogage recently observed, the federal programs "without separate spending authorization" that Musk and Ramaswamy are targeting "represent more than $516 billion" and encompass key areas including veterans' healthcare, education spending, housing assistance, childcare aid, student loan programs, Head Start, opioid addiction treatment, and NASA.

Musk, a megadonor to Trump's 2024 presidential bid, claimed on the campaign trail that he would be able to identify "at least $2 trillion" in possible cuts to federal spending.

Casey Wetherbee, an Argentina-based writer, warned Wednesday that "Musk and Ramaswamy's admiration of Argentine president Javier Milei offers us a glimpse into their ideal end state."

"Ramaswamy tweeted on November 18: 'A reasonable formula to fix the U.S. government: Milei-style cuts, on steroids,'" Wetherbee wrote for Jacobin. "When Milei assumed office last year, he declared that conditions would worsen before things would get better; Musk similarly warned that DOGE’s recommendations may cause 'temporary hardship.' Meanwhile, in Argentina, Milei's austerity measures have targeted the country's social safety net, causing the poverty rate to skyrocket while only lowering taxes for the country's wealthiest citizens, a troubling outlook for a second Trump administration if DOGE's advice is ever implemented."

"A second Trump term will undoubtedly see a multipronged attack on any institution that seeks to constrain big business, and DOGE will lead the charge," Wetherbee added. "After all, in DOGE's public call for collaborators, it seeks 'super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries'; that's how they see themselves. We can only hope that, by virtue of how evidently insufferable they are, DOGE's relationship with the Trump administration flames out spectacularly."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Teachers Blast Choice Of 'Grossly Unqualified' Crony As Education Secretary

Teachers Blast Choice Of 'Grossly Unqualified' Crony As Education Secretary

President-elect Donald Trump announced late Tuesday that he intends to nominate Linda McMahon, the billionaire former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, to lead the Department of Education, a key agency that Republicans—including Trump and the authors of Project 2025—have said they want to abolish.

McMahon served as head of the Small Business Administration during Trump's first White House term and later chaired both America First Action—a pro-Trump super PAC—and the America First Policy Institute, a far-right think tank that has expressed support for cutting federal education funding and expanding school privatization.

Trump touted McMahon's work to expand school "choice"—a euphemism for taxpayer-funded private school vouchers—and said she would continue those efforts on a national scale as head of the Education Department.

"We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort," Trump said in a statement posted to his social media platform, Truth Social. (McMahon is listed as an independent director of Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social.)

The National Education Association (NEA), a union that represents millions of teachers across the U.S., said in response to the president-elect's announcement that McMahon is "grossly unqualified" to lead the Education Department, noting that she has "lied about having a degree in education," presided over an organization "with a history of shady labor practices," and "pushed for an extreme agenda that would harm students, defund public schools, and privatize public schools through voucher schemes."

"During his first term, Donald Trump appointed Betsy DeVos to undermine and ultimately privatize public schools through vouchers," NEA president Becky Pringle said in a statement. "Now, he and Linda McMahon are back at it with their extreme Project 2025 proposal to eliminate the Department of Education, steal resources for our most vulnerable students, increase class sizes, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for disabled students, and put student civil rights protections at risk."

"The Department of Education plays such a critical role in the success of each and every student in this country," Pringle continued. "The Senate must stand up for our students and reject Donald Trump's unqualified nominee, Linda McMahon. Our students and our nation deserve so much better than Betsy DeVos 2.0."

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, took a more diplomatic approach, saying in a statement that "we look forward to learning more about" McMahon and that, if she's confirmed, "we will reach out to her as we did with Betsy DeVos at the beginning of her tenure."

"While we expect that we will disagree with Linda McMahon on many issues, our devotion to kids requires us to work together on policies that can improve the lives of students, their families, their educators, and their communities," Weingarten added.

McMahon is one of several billionaires Trump has selected for major posts in his incoming administration, which is teeming with conflicts of interest. During Trump's first term, McMahon and her husband, Vince McMahon, made at least $100 million from dividends, investment interest, and stock and bond sales.

The Guardian noted Tuesday that "in October, [Linda] McMahon was named in a new lawsuit involving WWE."

"The suit alleges that she and other leaders of the company allowed the sexual abuse of young boys at the hands of a ringside announcer, former WWE ring crew chief Melvin Phillips Jr," the newspaper reported. "The complaint specifically alleges that the McMahons knew about the abuse and failed to stop it."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Shop our Store

Headlines

Editor's Blog

Corona Virus

Trending

World