Those who believe that sports and politics don’t mix are now witnessing how false that notion is thanks to the horrid antics of the T**** administration with the revoking of visas, which can affect on international student-athletes such as Duke’s Khaman Maluach, and his recent attacks on Harvard, which could impact its ability to enroll international students/student-athletes.
Now his administration’s vicious decisions have hit sports again, this time impacting billionaire Clippers’ owner, Steve Ballmer.
Earlier this week, Ballmer posted a letter on X to Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, asking her to restore the cuts made to the National Center for Educational Statistics. According to reports, the agency’s staff has been reduced from 100 employees to three.
Those cuts affect his nonprofit, USAFacts, which Ballmer has contributed $10 million to since launching it in 2017.
“The stakes could not be higher for the future of education in America,” wrote Ballmer. “Maintaining the national collection and publication of comprehensive education data is central to the goal of empowering states and parents.”
USAFacts provides “unbiased” reports on U.S. government data and isn’t influenced by political affiliations.
“We don’t make predictions and we don’t speculate on causes,” said Ballmer in 2024. “We focus on providing Americans with clear, nonbiased numbers.”
But as we’ve seen, T**** and those who support him have launched coordinated attacks on education at every level, and that includes his desire to eliminate the Department of Education.
Ballmer has implored McMahon to restore staffing to this agency to help maintain access to educational statistics, but as we all know, this administration is anti-education and independent thought.
This situation isn’t about the money but rather about the mission of what Ballmer set out to do with USAFacts, but facts are what T**** avoids at any and every cost.
Hopefully, the cuts to this agency are restored as access to data, especially educational data, is crucial to helping students.
