Following President Trump’s election and his contentious nomination of Betsy DeVos as Education Secretary this past February, an ever-increasing number of disgruntled Democrats have opted to ghost the education world, fearing that Trump presents a no-win scenario for left-leaning reformers. Work with him, and be painted a “collaborator,” they say. Work against him, and you’ll likely have to oppose reforms you truly believe in.
Thus many have taken up other endeavors to fill their time and wallets. Shavar Jeffries, the president of Democrats for Education Reform, is pursuing his dream of becoming a banker. The entire staff at the Center for American Progress was granted a sabbatical to open a D.C.-wide chain food trucks featuring a variety of veganic sprouted grains and meat substitutes. And New America’s Conor Williams recently announced his plan to leave D.C. entirely and open a polar bear sanctuary in Finland.
Yet education reformers across the aisle aren’t celebrating. AEI’s Rick Hess recently lamented, “This is such squishy nonsense! During Obama’s eight years of running roughshod over the constitution, did you see me quit education to pursue my lifelong hope of creating a line of all-purpose flip-flops? No!” And Fordham’s own Checker Finn called his defecting colleagues a bunch of “mollycoddled babies.”
Unfortunately, despite such pushback, we should expect to see more liberals defect from the education space. Lefty Twitter has virtually deified Jeffries, Williams, and the CAP staff. Yes, America’s kids will be the real losers, but at least we’ll have more GMO-free grains, faux-chicken, baby polar bear cubs, and an honest banker to show for it.
