1/31/2025

My Dear Friends & POTUS, DJT,

                  I am off to do some math with 4th graders to see if talking to a partner about their solution strategies is helpful to them. I wasn’t going to write you at all, but the story on NPR this AM about NSF got my attention. Scientists with grants are wondering if their funding is secure & whether they are going to have to “pause” their experiments. That would be a huge waste of $$, let alone intellectual progress.

Within the education sphere, Congress has mandated NSF to fund projects that will help the nation, like getting more kids interested in STEM. If Elon (ERM) wants folks to work at his factories, he needs better STEM education & to get that we need to invest $$. Our recent NAEP data shows that we need to do more to improve math teaching. NSF has been distributing grant funding since 1950 & I know that they are scrupulous about preventing waste, fraud & abuse. Please stop interfering with their operations. It makes you look like  Mao Zedong, & I know you don’t want to appear to be a ruthless dictator.

Today marks the start of the 5th year of the resistance in Burma. That conflict shows that young folks don’t like being told what to do by an old guy who thinks he knows everything. Tell the Steves (Bannon & Miller) to study that situation so you don’t repeat it.

Got to go.

BYBS,