Author: Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig
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Donald Trump didn’t need to understand pedagogy, curriculum theory, or student development to begin reshaping American education. He only needed to understand one thing: most educational leaders lack courage and savvy. That’s the real hack. Trump recognized that superintendents, college presidents, school boards, and state commissioners—many of whom were trained and hired in an era…
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On April 23, 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed a new Executive Order titled the White House Initiative to Promote Excellence and Innovation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. On paper, it may appear to be a continuation—perhaps even an expansion—of past White House commitments across political administrations to HBCUs. It name-checks prosperity. It invokes innovation.…
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Donald Trump’s relationship with the media has always been a spectacle—loud, antagonistic, and unapologetically aggressive. But beneath the chaos lies a deeper, more calculated strategy. What appears as spontaneous outrage or off-the-cuff belligerence is often carefully designed to serve a broader purpose: manipulating public discourse to normalize extremist policies. This tactic isn’t new to authoritarian…
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Once upon a time, America assassinated its changemakers with bullets. They killed Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr.—leaders who dared to call the nation to a higher moral ground. But physical violence has a cost. It leaves martyrs and monuments. So today’s power structure has evolved. In the age of media saturation and…
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If you missed it live, I joined education advocate and host Leonie Haimson on WBAI’s “Talk Out of School” to sound the alarm on a growing threat to American education. This wasn’t your average policy chat—it was a serious conversation about how Donald Trump and his political allies are dragging education into a new Dark Age, dismantling the very pillars…
Cloaking Inequity 