The United States’ ongoing ‘brain drain’

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/04/2025 (361 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There is a flurry of discussion these days regarding American politics following U.S. President Donald Trump’s expressed imperialistic pursuits. And understandably so, as the senior administration of the global military behemoth continually remarks about annexing its closest allies.

While there are myriad reasons Canadians should not readily surrender its sovereignty and join the United States, perhaps above all should be the grim prospect of adopting an American-style public education model.

Public education systems, like all institutions, will always be inherently imperfect. As such, I do not exalt our Canadian school systems to be without fault as our practices and processes are inherently premised upon colonial frameworks. These imperfections must be ameliorated to ensure the humanistic flourishing and potential of all youth.

The precarious and declining state of America’s educational infrastructures, however, is a vexatious threat to the vitality of its liberal democracy. The ongoing assault on “woke” teachers and professors, coinciding with the mass defunding of American public schools and universities, is especially disconcerting.

Trump, despite publicly disavowing any associations with the Project 2025 policy framework, upheld another of its foundational tenets: dissolve the U.S. Department of Education. This initiative was supported by Linda McMahon, the former pro-wrestling executive, and has been applauded largely by Republican party leadership.

Although there are certainly various prospective benefits of decentralizing educational governance infrastructures, this development is going to further embolden states to further pursue some of its controversial agendas. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was present during the announcement and has recently indicated his interest in facilitating its own internal investigation to cut diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at state universities. Florida has made international headlines for its colloquially referred “Don’t Say Gay” legislation in schools or its mandates for teachers to instruct youth on the “vocational benefits of slavery.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, the state is also facing among the highest rates of teacher attrition and burnout, an exceptionally alarming global phenomena that is not limited to the U.S. Should the education department ultimately be formally dissolved, there will be significantly reduced federal interventions to negate such developments.

Marketed under the facade of “school choice,” public schools are to be increasingly defunded, but will be superficially compensated by giving parents financial vouchers to “choose” where their child should receive a formal education. In actuality, most families will not have financial privilege to “choose” to send their child to a private school. The long-term implication will be decreased funding for public school systems, disproportionately affecting low-income families and children with additional needs.

Increased regulation of teachers’ professional agency is further unsettling. Both the Project 2025 policy framework and Trump’s “Agenda 47” school reform plan call for the punishment of “woke” teachers. Rather, the president and his administration aims to promote “patriotic” teachers, restore Christian prayer in schools, and weaken teachers unions.

Post-secondary learning institutions are also caught within the crosshairs of the Trump administration attack on public education. The president recently announced an executive order, “Restoring truth and sanity to American history.” The Smithsonian Museum was explicitly targeted in this order for proliferating its “corrosive ideology” on anti-oppressive education.

This incident is not isolated, unfortunately, as the assault on academics and universities is ongoing. The Trump administration has announced extraordinary funding cuts to universities which uphold DEI policy governances or other positions misaligned with the White House. Threatened with lawsuits and/or defunding, many universities are lamentably yielding and uprooting such practices to appease the Republican administration.

Individual academics are beginning to be targeted, as well. International PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk was recently arrested by American ICE agents and deported, seemingly for publicly posting rhetoric that misaligned with the Trump administration. Other examples include a French scientist that was denied entrance into the United States to present at a conference for similarly vocalizing dissent against Trump.

We are witnessing the beginning stages of a “brain drain,” exemplified by the increasing exodus of American professors and scientists from elite institutions, such as Yale, Stanford and NASA, fleeing to Canadian, French and other European destinations.

We have now completed the first quarter of the 21st century and face a tumultuous and uncertain future. These concerns are not hyperbole, but rather constitute a legitimate threat to an otherwise hopeful future. Regardless of political alignment, we must continue to safeguard quality public education.

Jordan Laidlaw is a public school teacher, union activist, and PhD candidate in educational administration.