Advisers on Black, Latino, and Asian Students Say Trump Admin. Ignoring Them
Three long-standing presidential commissions designed to expand educational opportunities for non-white students are set to expire Saturday and members say months of silence from the White House has them worried they’re about to be dissolved.
The presidential advisory commissions on educational excellence for black, Hispanic, and Asian American and Pacific Islander students in K-12 schools and on college campuses have not met since President Donald Trump took office in January. Although members of the groups have reached out, the White House has not responded.
“We assume that silence indicates a lack of interest,” said Patricia Gándara, a member of the Hispanic commission who is a research professor and co-director at the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The existence of the three initiatives dates to 1990, the year former President George H.W. Bush commissioned the oldest of the three, the initiative for Hispanic education.
Former advisers to both Democratic and Republican presidents, as well as a former education secretary, credit the groups with linking past administrations with experts and advocates that shaped White House education policy...