The White House has targeted students and cut off funding from major American research universities. Some critics are wary it could lead China to beat the U.S. to more scientific discoveries.
WASHINGTON – In 1957, a U.S. senator from Texas named Lyndon B. Johnson anxiously watched from his ranch as the Soviet Union became the first country to launch a satellite into orbit around the Earth.
The angst from those days and the Eisenhower administration’s early setback in the space race helped push Johnson to sign the Higher Education Act of 1965 after he became president. The landmark law flooded the higher education system with federal money (and, eventually, lots of student loan debt) with the goal of training generations of new engineers.
Seven decades later, some politicians and college leaders are becoming increasingly anxious that another president might cause a different world power to bypass the United States.
They fear President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign to restrict funding to American universities, while trying to influence their programming and campus cultures, could cause the country to fall behind in key areas of research, from rocket science to biomedicine, as China pulls ahead. Despite Trump’s public antagonizing of colleges, they’re hoping their concerns might resonate with a president who cares deeply about maintaining America’s competitive edge.
“China is already trying to seize the moment and recruit some of the brightest talent,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said at a recent congressional hearing. “The United States is the world m in medical research, but creating that was not an accident and maintaining it is not inevitable”
Since Trump regained the White House, his administration has revoked the visas of hundreds of international students. Federal agencies have refused to cover the costs of federally supported research projects. At prestigious universities like Harvard, research funding has been repeatedly frozen over concerns about antisemitism and diversity, equity and inclusion programs.