The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Lee Gardner
March 17, 2017
The National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities are no strangers to the political crosshairs. And it came as little surprise to many scholars that President Trump would propose to eliminate them in his first budget.
Still, the president’s plan is a stark statement of his values and, in it, campus and scholarly leaders see an attack on intellectual inquiry.
“This administration is saying we do not value the study and research in fields like history and literature,” says Rosemary G. Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association. “We do not value the arts. We do not value educational opportunities for large swaths of Americans.”
Mr. Trump’s budget functions as a signal to his base, says David A. Smith, a senior lecturer in history at Baylor University who has conducted research on the NEA. “If the president comes out swinging at the NEA, it's to score credibility points with groups that want to see it gone,” he says. Opposing an agency like the NEA appeals both to those who object to it “from a cultural standpoint, because they don't support what it does, and from a libertarian standpoint, because the government shouldn't be doing stuff like this.”
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