The dozen board members of the prestigious Fulbright program have resigned over what they describe as political interference by Trump aides. The New York Times reported the entire board's resignation, which was confirmed by the board on Substack.
The program promotes international educational exchanges, and they had much to say on Substack.
"It is our sincere hope that Congress, the courts, and future Fulbright Boards will prevent the administration’s efforts to degrade, dismantle, or even eliminate one of our nation’s most respected and valuable programs," they write. "Injecting politics and ideological mandates into the Fulbright program violates the letter and spirit of the law that Congress so wisely established nearly eight decades ago."
Via the New York Times:
The members are concerned that political appointees at the State Department, which manages the program, are acting illegally by canceling the awarding of Fulbright scholarships to almost 200 American professors and researchers who are prepared to go to universities and other research institutions overseas starting this summer, said the people, including Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire.
The board approved those scholars over the winter after a yearlong selection process, and the State Department was supposed to send acceptance letters by April, the people said. But instead, the board learned that the office of public diplomacy at the agency had begun sending rejection letters to the scholars based mainly on their research topics, they said.
The members accused the administration of “unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and mandates Congress established for the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago," and said "the current administration has usurped the authority of the Board."
"This proud legacy has depended on one thing above all: the integrity of the program’s selection process based on merit, not ideology, and its insulation from political interference," the members added. "That integrity is now undermined."
The Times reports that the members are also concerned that Secretary of State Marco Rubio's budget request from Congress for the next fiscal year cuts spending for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which includes the Fulbright program, to $50 million from $691 million this fiscal year.
Is there anything good the Trump administration hasn't tried to destroy? ANYTHING?
