by Hannah Landesberg
On April 1st, 2024, I received notification that a project for which I was a research assistant had been completely defunded. I was fired, and the future of the project remained uncertain. Our funding came from the Center for Connecticut Education Research Collaboration (CCERC) which was established from federal COVID relief funds to address pressing issues in Connecticut’s public schools and provide jobs to Connecticut researchers. Usually, I’d console myself and try to find hope for the future, but it was hard to feel that there was a future for researchers like me, who think people deserve better. Despite this hopelessness, I joined the DSA Education Justice working group: a coalition of educators, librarians, students, parents, and more that seeks to improve public education from a socialist lens. There is power and strength in the unity this working group provides. I found consolation with others who reassured me that they still see the value in research.
Yet according to our far-right federal government, research has no value. Elon Musk’s involvement in the federal government was unclear, but it was clear that everything that had value to real people had no value to billionaire thieves. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was tasked with ridding the federal government of “waste, fraud, and abuse,” which, apparently, consists of Alzheimer’s research, cancer research, social research, federal workers’ salaries, and government agencies like the Institute of Museum and Library Services (the primary source of federal funding for public libraries) and Department of Education that provide access to knowledge. DOGE claims these categories of government work have no value, thus resulting in their characterization as waste. Many of us know someone who has benefitted or would benefit from continued research because the fact is that cancer research improves health outcomes. Public health educators know that we need to expand cancer research for long-term public health.
The project I worked on sought to research AI policies, use, and literacy in public schools. Emerging technologies affect students and teachers immensely, and research helps ensure it mostly affects them positively. Public schools/libraries teach information literacy to make sure individuals can “recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information.” (American Library Association. Presidential Committee on Information Literacy. https://www.ala.org/acrl/publications/whitepapers/presidential) Teachers and librarians encourage students in these courses how to evaluate sources of sources and think critically about how to make use of information effectively. For example, teachers and librarians discourage the use of social media posts as a source but encourage the use of peer reviewed articles or primary sources. Information literacy encompasses media and digital literacy which expand on the concept to include internet use, social media, and news media that may have an agenda for spreading misinformation.
Some may assume AI to be an unbiased all-knowing source of information, but that could not be further from the truth. AI is programmed by humans, learns human tendencies, and therefore absorbs all of our social constructions and biases. Although he denies interference, Elon Musk recently attempted to program his AI, Grok, to discuss white genocide in South Africa unprompted to further a white supremacist agenda. An AI literate individual would be able to understand that the technology has been programmed for the purposes of propaganda.
The money from projects like mine goes directly to tax cuts for billionaires. Many of these are the likes of Peter Thiel, owner of Palantir, a tech company using AI, and Elon Musk, the owner of an AI company. DOGE has also gutted public government agencies, stripping federal workers of their jobs and voicing intentions to replace them with AI which would result in huge government contracts. The goal here is clear: when we give citizens the tools to critically think about AI and its impact, tech billionaires, and their political agendas, suffer. They must frame this research as utterly worthless to get away with actively harming working people by gutting the institutions that ensure they have access to information to strip them of their knowledge. Stripping people of literacy is purposeful, capitalism does not want working people obtaining power through knowledge. Cutting research facilitates conditions that facilitate oligarchy.
The framing of research as worthless because it does not line billionaire’s pockets or contribute to oligarchic power prevails. If titles are complex and hyper-specialized, they are devalued and made fun of. As I’m writing this, just yesterday (June 3rd, 2025) the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) tweeted a thread on social media of federal funding that is thought of as waste. One Tweet states that “$67,000 for testing insect powder nutrition on children in Madagascar” is waste. The tweet also contains a very obvious AI generated photo of a bowl full of powder surrounded by fake insects. Information/AI literacy would help us realize that $67,000 is not a lot of money in the federal government and nutritional powder to help starving children is worth the cost. Another tweet states “$4 million for ‘legumes systems research’” is waste. Yet this research is clearly intended on improving agriculture and bean crop systems. Other statements in this series of posts prove to be incorrect, exaggerated, or mischaracterized for the purposes of propaganda. The World Health Organization is dubbed “wasteful, corrupt, and anti-American” and gender equality and green transportation are referred to as “DEI/Green New Deal” with negative connotations.
Connecticut students and teachers will undoubtedly suffer from the defunding of research on education and devaluing of all intellectual work. Other CCERC research includes the effects of remote learning, course taking patterns, equity in recovering from pandemic learning, meeting behavioral health needs, reading curriculum evaluation, socio-emotional support for students and teachers, social media and digital literacy, and more. This research can shape local legislation and budget allocations to benefit students and teachers. Yet, all of it has been indefinitely paused with the remaining funds soaring directly into the pockets of the very billionaires who benefit from our suffering.
Ironically on April Fool’s Day I was notified of this pause via email. Lately all news makes me want to scream and cry, and this was no different. I decided I want to dedicate my life to research that benefits people’s lives. Now, I feel like I’m watching that possibility crumble. This isn’t just about me, it’s about all researchers who are losing their jobs, students who are losing their education, teachers whose jobs are becoming increasingly difficult, parents who want their children’s education to improve, and entire communities who gain strength from knowledge.
There’s a broader principle here that deprives working class people of a better quality of life for the purposes of profit and deliberate intentions of making working peoples’ lives harder. Acquiring research funding is painstaking enough. You essentially have to beg for a project to be worthy of funding. Now, nothing is worth money unless it fuels the oligarchy. Funding is now viewed as an entitlement, rather than something needed to improve the world we live in. As a result, unemployment increases, literacy decreases, and working-class people suffer. While it seems bleak at the moment, a better future is possible. As socialists, we believe that people deserve things that make their lives better. We would never refer to something like cancer research or education funding as “waste.” In fact, they are incredibly valuable to use for the simple fact that they make peoples’ lives better. Nothing that benefits working people is waste – it is always worth every dime to provide people with quality healthcare, food assistance, education, public space, and more.
