Letter to the Editor: Submitted by Ann Fields

To the Editor:

“Throwing the baby out with the bath water.”

That is what Trump and Musk are doing. They are throwing out good programs instead of just wasteful parts. Think about the Department of Education (DOE) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Department of Education programs include updating standards that Iowa uses, federal aid for students pursuing postsecondary education (PELL grants), community college funding, special education and rehabilitation services, and activities for drug prevention. For PELL grants in Iowa, over 60,000 students each received an average of almost $5,000/year, awarded by financial need. Discontinuing these programs will negatively impact Iowa students.

With less than 1% of the U.S. budget, USAID is stopping diseases in countries from spreading to the U.S., supplying food and medical services to the poorest people on earth, helping Ukraine’s refugees as they flee from war, and providing clean water and sanitary systems throughout the world. In other words, USAID is fulfilling the Biblical mandate to “feed the hungry, and help those in trouble” (Isaiah 58:10-14).

Are you willing to discontinue all these programs?  How are our students going to afford postsecondary education?

I agree that there is waste and we need oversight of government programs. However, Musk, the richest man in the world, unelected, should not be the “decider” of what is wasteful, unimportant spending. In addition, by firing the nonpartisan Inspectors General, who is going to determine where there is waste and which are good programs?

Instead, Trump and Musk are throwing the baby out with the bathwater. And Grassley, Ernst, and Hinson are cheering, while knowing the pain this will cause Iowa students and those who are starving.

Ann Fields
Lansing