Donald Trump has now directed the federal government to cut funding to libraries across the country, and has signed an illegal executive order deliberately overstepping the powers of the president to begin the dismantling of the Department of Education. On March 15th the American Library Association released a statement in response to what they describe as, the “White House assault on the Institute of Museum and Library Services.” In the statement these librarians who serve all of our communities describe how Trump is trying to eliminate the entire Institute, which helps fund both libraries and museums around the country.
They write:
“By eliminating the only federal agency dedicated to funding library services, the Trump administration’s executive order is cutting off at the knees the most beloved and trusted of American institutions and the staff and services they offer:
- Early literacy development and grade-level reading programs
- Summer reading programs for kids
- High-speed internet access
- Employment assistance for job seekers
- Braille and talking books for people with visual impairments
- Homework and research resources for students and faculty..”
And more. All of this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what libraries provide, they are one of the most important and under-appreciated public goods in this country. The very idea of a library is radical and beautiful in today’s world. They’re places where we can exist, for free, where we can learn, for free, and where we can access countless resources and workshops and tools, for free. None of this should be controversial, in fact all of it should inform and be incorporated into how we structure society—but conservatives and fascists have a very different vision.
This far-right vision is made even clearer by the Trump order to dismantle the Department of Education. Trump has directed the Secretary of Education to take “all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the States.” The part about returning authority to the states is code for both axing crucial federal funding, and allowing states to further privatize education. The results will be detrimental any way you look at it. A few private charter networks and their wealthy owners will benefit, and everyone else will suffer – particularly the children of anyone who isn’t rich.
There is one other, often overlooked effect of this gut punch to our public education system. Public schools are, in addition to everything else, often community hubs. They hold town halls, people can use and rent their spaces, they bring communities together for athletic events, and more. Private schools rarely serve these functions; they tend to have a more far-flung student body and aren’t rooted in the physical communities they occupy the way public schools are. So as Trump and his accomplices hurt working class kids and families everywhere by defunding education, they’re also working to take communal centers away from us by attacking libraries and schools.
Rural communities will be hit especially hard, both by the attack on libraries and the gutting of public schools. In Oklahoma, DOGE’s funding will also result in fewer dollars for 16 Indigenous tribes, and for the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums. This too, is no coincidence. Cultural Heritage Centers, technological advancements, preservation initiatives, educational outreach and capacity building efforts that empower tribal institutions to serve their communities will all be affected, according to Kent Bush, public information director of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
Attacking cultural preservation, archiving, and history is an attack on Indigenous peoples as a whole. It is an attempt to erase whole nations, an attempt to purge the native people from this land to further to white supremacist project that is so central to the far-right. Deliberating funding and protecting museums and preservation initiatives is part of the fight against fascism. Maintaining and upholding histories is part of the fight against fascism and erasure.
The programs and resources at risk in the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and across the country are the exact programs and resources that help empower Indigenous folks across the country, programs developed by tribes over decades. The fascist regime wants tribal communities disempowered just like they want folks to have more trouble gathering and building in cities and rural areas and at work and in all of our communities. We, of course, must resist – everywhere.